John Allison (1) (1976–)

The Great British Bump-Off (2023) by John Allison. Why not? A send-up of the British baking shows was bound to happen, and here is the first entry. There is a tent. Ten contestants. A pair of judges and of course, an intrusive announcer. In this case, the announcer, Lonnie Butler, has a co-host. A cat who seems to speak to her. Go figure.
So we have our cast, and there is a production crew floating about the edges of the panels trying to keep everything running smoothly. The bakers are a standard array drawn directly from past episodes of the show. There is a new age baker, an older woman, a body builder, a foreigner (perhaps) and several other caricatures to fill out our palette.
One of the bakers manages to get himself poisoned. He was the totally self-centered character no one was bound to like. But does the production cease? Of course it doesn’t. Instead the “perky’ young woman baker talks the producers into letting her investigate. Never mind the police. They only appear for two panels at the end. Rather we see the inept search carried on by our plucky player while she almost fails every contest during the several days of the show.
This into be taken as a light-hearted whimsy that sneers at the conventions of these programs while still celebrating them, The panels are drawn in the fashion of the simple comic, but with a neatness and verve reminiscent of Herge. The colors are from the primary range and together they work well to deliver the emotions of the players.
Don’t read too much into this satire on the genre, just enjoy it. And as this is Volume 1, expect more like this from Dark Horse comics.… (altro)