Arsenic Lullaby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arsenic Lullaby was the name of a comic book series. It subject matter contains such subjects as "Voodoo Joe" a man cursed to help ordinary people get revenge, "The Clot" a man who was diagnosed with a deadly skin bacteria, and had to get all of his skin removed, "Baron Von Donut" an immortal donut mascot originating in WW2 Germany, and a dozen zombie fetuses that Voodoo Joe had liberated from an abortion clinic dumpster. It was nominated for a Harvey award, and it was written and illustrated by Douglas Paszkiewicz (pronounced Pass-KAA-vich), the self proclaimed "King of Dark Humor" Several graphic novels collecting Douglas' favorite works have been produced, but are extremely rare, just like the individual issues. It has sparked four spin off series by Paszkiewicz, which are Laughter Of The Damned (3 issues), Misery A Go Go (2 issues), Arsenic Lullabies (2 issues), and The Thousand Deaths of Baron Von Donut (1 issue). The underground success of Arsenic Lullaby can be attributed to its extremely bleak outlook on life, its patronizing of Middle America, and its amazing dark humor. It ran for 18 issues, all of which carry a disclaimer admitting that due to Paszkiewicz's spelling inaccuracies, some of the dialouge is written phonetically. Douglas' has gone on to do work on a reprint of The Gift #1, in which there is an Arsenic Lullaby-like story in the last seven pages, and Mad Magazine for Kids.
Douglas continues to publish Arsenic Lullaby sparatically while working on cartoon storyboards, contributing to Mad magazine, Mad Kids, and various other publications brave enough to give safe harbor to his very dark, and caustic humor.