Plastic Forks - Ted McKeever

Ted McKeever’s 1990 5-part full-colour series for Epic really tested the boundaries of the writer/artist’s ideas and artwork, but also pushed the extremes that Marvel’s daring creator-independent imprint was used to publishing. The idea behind Plastic Forks is as bizarre as you could imagine and McKeever’s artwork really goes for it in a dynamic way.

Two scientists are working on a way to make human reproduction self-contained, with both males and females capable of reproducing independently without any contact between the sexes. So far the experiment has only been tried out on monkeys, but after a dangerous incident in his laboratory, Dr Henry Apt recovers in hospital to find his sexual organs replaced with a mechanical construct.

Escaping from the institution holding him, Apt takes off across the desert pursued by secret agents, finding assistance from an eccentric former soldier, Angel, building his own weaponry and escape vehicle in preparation for the coming apocalypse. But what has happened to the doctor’s pregnant wife? Where people are as disposable as plastic forks, it’s not good news...

Using colour for the first time after the black and white indies Transit and Eddy Current, McKeever’s artwork and painting moves to another level, thickly textured, exploring the rich colouration of the deserts locations and the gothic horror of the story’s over-heated explosive storyline that takes the phallic nature of weaponry into new territory.

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