Lux and Alby sign on and save the universe

Title: Lux and Alby sign on and save the universe
Writer: Martin Millar
Artist: Simon Fraser
Published: 1999 by Slab-o-Concrete Publications
Genre: Humour and adventure
Pages: 267


I got this one already in the beginning of January, and have read it twice, but never got around to writing about it. Now I'm trying to clean up, so let's give Alby, Lux and Ruby a look before on the shelf it goes!

Originally written around 1991 and 1992, the comic throws together three of Millar's main characters: Lux the Poet, Alby Starvation and Ruby. (Ruby's the only one I haven't read about yet, but since Ruby and the Stone Age Diet has apparently just been reprinted, maybe I'll get lucky and find it somewhere.) All three are residents of South London's Brixton, and it was probably only a question of time before they'd end up squatting under the same roof. Then the universe starts to collapse, and it's not just Alby's paranoia this time. It's really coming down.

Nirvana is in peril, and if it is lost, so is the happiness of the world. Trees, plants and animals are unhappy, not to mention people. Meanwhile, Alby is worried, as usual, Lux is trying to get people to listen to his poetry, and Ruby is trying to get back on her ex-boyfriend. Goddess Ishtar's useless handmaiden Menta is sent on a quest to become the best kisser in the universe.

...things do not look good for the universe.

Millar's books consist of short chapters or paragraphs, with what the attention jumps from one character to another. Sign on is written in the same way, but with the comic medium, the 'paragraphs' are sometimes only one picture long. Usually a bit longer, though. It's confusing in the beginning, but soon enough gets easy to follow. Fraser's art changes around quite a lot, but it's good, even if Alby doesn't look like I've imagined him for the past 15 years or so.


"Here stands Lux, a heroic if unappreciated artist, blessed with astonishing good looks and divine poetic powers, tragically reduced by an unappreciative public and an uncaring social security office to keeping a lookout for Maggie, the notorious paraplegic bicycle thief... how will he regain his self-respect? How will he claw his way back from the abyss of degradation?"