Created by Karla Pacheco and Maren Marmulla, Inspector Pancakes Helps The President Of France (Solve The White Orchid Murders) is a twisted take on the popular children's storybook format. The basic hook is that the beautiful illustrations and large print captions tell the kid-friendly version of this story in which a talking American dog detective travels to France to assist its President in locating his missing croissant, while the smaller type details the decidedly kid-unfriendly story of the hard boiled, depressive and nihilistic canine cop and his pursuit of a serial murderer who butchers his victims in deeply disturbing ways. It is hilarious and wrong.

This is just the sort of sick thing one would expect from Seattle based humorist Pacheco, whose reliably raunchy Twitter feed is a favorite of many comic book professionals and insiders, including fellow fictional(?) reprobate Chip Zdarsky, whose fans would doubtlessly get a twisted kick out of Inspector Pancakes. Some favorite passages include "Inspector Pancakes slammed Archie Two-Thumbs' face into the curb.. a hot trickle of piss ran down Archie's leg" and "Inspector Pancakes knocked back three fingers of fiery relief and eyed the gun in the drawer" and "Inspector Pancakes stared off into nothing."

 

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If horrific violence, substance abuse and bestiality aren't your idea of a good illustrated story, you might find the g-rated version of Inspector Pancakes more palatable. While it's highly unlikely (oh god, we hope so) that actual kid won't ever see this book, the portions of that do mimic a children's book do so very well indeed. Marmulla's doggie detective, Parisian environments and amusingly stereotypical French characters are expressive and delightful, despite the fact that their cuteness and earnestness just underscores how depraved Pacheco's contributions really are.

 

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Available via Kickstarter for 12 more days ($5 for digital, $20 for hardcover), Inspector Pancakes comes with pinups and postcards by a number of other talented illustrators, including ComicsAlliance favorites Kate Leth, Anthony Clark and Becky Dreistadt. You can learn more about the project and its rewards at Kickstarter.

 

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