Egg Story
J. Marc Schmidt
Slave Labor Graphics Publishing (July 2004) $3.95
Preview Pages

I have to admit that when I first heard about this book from Johanna's Review that I thought her shell must have finally cracked. A story about eggs just seemed oh so weird and strange, that I just had to give the book a look for a laugh.

Well once again she turns out to have been right, as this book was quite a surprise. Thus leaving me with, wait for it, egg on my face from all the jokes I did when she first reviewed the book.

The story follows the Feather and his sister Five-Spots, as they journey through life as eggs. They learn early that life is a harsh mistress when only minutes after being born they have their deformed brother thrown to the farmer's dog to eat.

There are some nice metaphors to life in general here, as simple things in life like shopping and dinner are given new light from being seen from the egg's perspective. The humor, like Feather becoming a ninja or the eggs screaming at finding a frozen chicken, are just light enough to keep things from becoming too morose.

Eggs are still such an odd choice to tell a story about, yet it works as the artist is able to bring them to distinctive life with only a few lines. That left me thoughtfully amused for a while after finishing it. Plus put off from eating scrambled eggs for a while.:)