Preview: ‘Infinite WheatPaste Volume 1 – Catalytic Conversions’ by L. Pidge – Multi-Layer Magnificence, A Whole New Universe Of Adventures!

Currently running as a Kickstarter, here’s a preview of the quite brilliant, so much fun, epic and personal done perfectly, L. Pidge’s Infinite Wheatpaste Volume 1 – Catalytic Conversions…

 

Yes, I’ve told you many times before how Avery Hill Publishing are small but mighty, with an incredibly high hit rate. Frankly, if it’s got the Avery Hill name name on it then I know it’s going to be worth looking at. They’ve got form in finding great new creators and putting their work out there for a bigger audience. And L. Pidge and Infinite Wheatpaste is the latest hit that I love and I want to share that love with you here.

It is, simply, one of those books that you dive into and just cannot put down, something that melds the epic and the personal, the weird and the mundane in a bit of incredible world (universe) building. Pidge has been making Infinite Wheatpaste as a webcomic since 2017 but it’s now available in good old, hold it in your hands, relax and fall into brilliance, print form via the Kickstarter that’s still running.

This is one that’s all about, as AH put it:

“Universe-spanning sci-fi adventure,’ full of relationships and gods, time travel and car repair, all about the ‘inteconnected stories set on the edges of human experience share the moments of the little bits of life that feel less than real.”

Pidge has this great art style to go along with all the incredible world-building she accomplishes here, full of invention, believable yet amazing characters, with a light, fluid art style that’s packed with colour and attitude.

Like I did with the Kickstarter announcement, the easiest way to show you just a little of what it’s all about is to give you Pidge’s character intro page…

You have Abby and Lilah, a couple drifting apart, you have semi-demi-god Jeff whose problems are many and really needs to get back into rehab before he flames out once more – literally. Then there’s Soe the perpetually late college student and goddess next door,  Otis the grief-stricken robot on a road to enlightenment, Casmir the genetic experiment with a past, and Abe is his future, maybe everyone’s future. Now that’s rich character building and a magnificently diverse cast right there.

Like I say, Infinite Wheatpaste is all about the epic and the personal, often at the same time, where complex relationships happen whilst incredible events on a cosmic scale unfold – whisper it quietly, you could even consider this a cosmic superhero meets sci-fi adventure comic if you really squinted your eyes and changed your ideas enough. This is epic world-building, genre-spanning brilliance going on, all of it handled quite magnificently by Pidge.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect we have the big preview down below, where everything opens with a simple domestic scene, although even here it’s a gorgeous one, Pidge filling the pages with colours and lovely organic shapes and all manner of richly diverse people.

 

We have a couple separating for a few weeks, meet-ups for coffee – just normal stuff that everyone goes through, right? But then we get the glimpses of the strange and the huge world that Pidge is making here – the everyday street scene gives you a glimpse of the world we’re in here in Infinite Wheatpaste, where androids are begging for WD-60 in the streets, blue horses with rich red manes are driving the bus, and that demi-god is coming down off something that means he can’t even fly himself to rehab this time and he’s more worried about his powers, whatever they are, hurting his friend/lover who comes to his rescue.

After that, well we’re off in all sorts of delicious directions, a bus journey into the desert ends with the demi-god stripping off and igniting, facing down the two worm-ship things that are holding the bus up. And then Jeff the demi-god is off to who knows where, burned up, fucked up… and that’s just the first issue of this, the first 40-something pages.

After all that, we go back to the mundane and the normal, friends, relationships, heading out for drinks, kicking back, lizard tag (yes, lizard tag – seriously, it’s a great thing), all of it done so naturalistically by Pidge. This is one of those comics where you settle into the everyday goings-on so easily and comfortably, you want to hang out with the characters, enjoy spending time with them and having the simple moments with them, listening to them talk that reminds you how good friendships can be.

So good is Pidge at drawing you in to the everyday stuff that it comes as something of a surprise when an ice spirit pops up or time goes all weird, strange things happen to the universe, or we head off into space on a ship packed full of weird and wonderful alien races.

But that’s the key to Infinite Wheatpaste, the all too easy way that the two strands of Pidge’s tale, the mundane everyday and the incredible epic universe-spanning stuff co-exist in perfect synergy with each other.

I could go on and on about Infinite Wheatpaste and how much of a great comic it is. But I reckon you have the basis idea. Damn good. Epic meets mundane in perfect harmony. Worldbuilding that goes way beyond one world. It’s a real universe of wonderful stories to enjoy and Pidge is pulling it all together so well here.

INFINITE WHEATPASTE VOLUME 1: CATALYTIC CONVERSIONS – by L. Pidge is on Kickstarter right now. The campaign ends on April 11 2024 at 9:00 PM BST. Go and pledge RIGHT NOW!

 

Now, if all that wasn’t enough to tempt you, here’s a little (well, more than little – thanks to Avery Hill for saying we could share it with you) preview of Infinite Wheatpaste…