Cartoonist Sam Szabo opens her sidesplitting collection of comic strips with a disarming introduction to the Enlightened Transsexual, a cosmic entity so advanced as to have "experienced life as at least three genders... tantamount to omnipotence." She is brimming with wisdom and willing to entertain the burning questions of mere mortals. It's this mixture of earnestness and egotism that provides the backbone for what is a truly hilarious body of work. Each vignette is a veritable buffeting of punch lines: a census worker at the door learns that the ET's birthplace was primordial ooze, and her orientation is chaotic neutral. These gags are assembled in vibrant and psychedelic drawings that have just the right amount of frenzied verve to nail the irreverent, and sometimes unhinged, sense of humor behind them.
What grounds these comics, though, is a poignant attention to the indignities that trans people face in a world filled with absurdities. Perfectly balanced and ridiculously funny, Enlightened Transsexual Comix is an out-of-this-world parade of earthly delights, for fans of Lynda Barry and Adult Swim. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness