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THB Circus is an oversized collection of short stories by Paul Pope set within his THB environment. Stories set on Mars where human and Martian cultures have merged to give the quirky setting of THB. THB itself is a strange substance which becomes a giant rubber man when water is added, protecting its owner H.R.Watson.

What intrigues me the most is Pope's manner and the strength of his design vision. Rather than getting straight into the comics, we have a number of full page examples of his characters and his work. To go with that is also a series of test pages - ranging from editorial, background and a THB glossary. The inclusion of this much background is always an indication of the level of thought that has gone into a work - the culture, legend, the day-to-day - all the things required for a story to work. While the editorial discusses Pope's thoughts on how best to work, how this piece fits in his body of work and notes on the evolution/origin of the individual stories. Which is all interesting reading as far as I am concerned, perhaps at some points more so than the strips.

As Pope says himself, he is disappointed by this collection and its content of "cutie-pie" stories, with their vague throw-away fashion. Given the scale of this collection it can all seem rather excessive. Though to be clear, none of these stories are bad, all being nice enough in their own right. And in establishing that, one can't help admit that the size of this book allows one to appreciate Pope's art. Pope's style is distinct and enjoyable, at times it may clash with itself in its highly structured attempts to flow like causal doodlings.

There are seven stories here, of which The Hidden Face and The Search For... are my favourite. The Hidden Face is first and is comically simple with its cunning deception of inept police officers. Following that is the bizarre little Face Rub, where the daughter gives her father an aggressive face rub. Then there is the title story THB Circus, featuring core characters THB and H.R. Watson. Set in a circus, three young girls get themselves into bother with the workers. Another story with these characters is THB Happy Birthday, where a Martian birthday ritual leads to an anarchic trip across the city to deliver a cake, which is also referred to on the books cover.

The remaining strips are all short works, from the Seuss-esque "I Am The Most Handsome" to the unfathomably personal Faust; leaving Search For The..., a portrayal of a Martian legend. Search and Hidden are both reinterpretations of earlier pieces, while THB Circus is the complete rework/mutation of an earlier piece.

RVWR: PTR
August 1999

More Information

1: Paul Pope

Creator's site - full of info on work to date and forthcoming.