- Laughing bars guaranteed!
- No English translation but the current and oral registry does not require a sustained level in English to appreciate writing
- The ‘n click point is the best genre available
- Did I ever tell you that the ‘n click' point was the best kind of thing?
- The ‘n click point is the best genre available
If one thinks so his account X, Joe Richardson « creates small logical worlds because the scorching, disgusting, chaotic and incomprehensible nevertheless magnificent disorder of the real world gives him a fright not possible ». It is immediately understood that the solitaire developer likes to oppose concepts and expose the limits of the language with an extended sentence, which constitutes one of the vault stones of the absurd. Moreover, his claimed incomprehension of the world attaches him all the more to this movement. Let's look at his Renaissance trilogy together, I named The Immortal John Triptych.
This triptych of point ‘n click comics consists of Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary and Death of the Reprobate, which just came out. As you can observe in the trailers and screenshots below, all the paintings are montages of true Renaissance canvases so that the artistic direction imbued with religion shook us at the first glance. Michel Ange, De Vinci, Raphaël: this is a feast of every moment for the eyes. Especially since each scene is accompanied by a musical classic. So expect to take a look at this crazy world with immemorial artists such as Monteverdi, Bach and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault to name but a few.
Four last things
In Four Last Things The player embodies a traveling sinner seeking redemption. The problem is that his present parish cannot absolve of the wrongs that have been committed in neighbouring villages. The bishops then entrust him with the trick: it is enough to repeat the seven capital sins but this time in the jurisdiction of their church to be able to be absolved of all the packages. It's on this « Legal Bible vacuum » that lies intrigue, hilarious and irreverent as possible.
The Procession to Calvary
In The Procession to CalvaryThe story of a warrior is told to us. The holy war has just ended and the young cross can no longer use the religious pretext to commit free massacres. Peace, what a horror! Only one solution for her: find John the Immortal, Saint of the saints, and negotiate with him so that he can commit a last murder for the road, or even more. A whole program.
Death of the Reprobate
In Death of the Reprobate, the fate of Malcolm the Shit is taken in hand, or Malcolm the Shit in good French, a tyrant to the penchant assumed for the torture of his subjects and who, in order to be able to claim his inheritance, must carry out seven good deeds before the sunset under penalty of having to pull a cross on the maggot ! Although more grivois than its predecessors, humor always flies as much.
« In front of the horn! Tudez, bleed, skin, slaughter, horn of Ubu! »
Joe Richardson has perfect control of the absurd register and we laugh from the beginning to the end of the adventures. Everything goes from the ineptitude of the human condition to the dark humour. The fourth wall is roughed up without it ever getting heavy, and we snuck up against these stylized antiheroes. « oil paint » who are nurturing, killing and playing tricks. The conundrums, incongruous but logical, are just complex enough to make one feel satisfaction when one comes to the end. As for the ridiculous gags and situations they chain at a frantic pace, leaving no respite to our zygomatics.
One can only be fascinated by this anachronistic mix of genres that multiplies word games and dialogues of the deaf. When credits scroll (count between 2 and 3 hours for each title), we almost feel like we know Joe Richardson so much his pythonic humour touched us in the heart. No doubt the famous English troupe, Ionesco or Beckett, would also appreciate this senseless trinity, that Death of the Reprobate comes close with brilliance.
It looks so funky!