Review by Karl Verhoven
Teenager Mary Martínez is first seen accompanying her mother and stepfather to her great-aunt’s farm to locate Aunt Pearl’s missing will. Pearl was an eccentric who immediately closed down the family mining business on inheriting it decades previously, and her house is a mess. We learn much more about her as Pig Wife continues. Mary’s troublesome behaviour is caused by her parents splitting up and subsequently not seeing her father, and Abbey Luck places further stress on the family as they search through the mess of Pearl’s house, Mary discovering more than most. A whole new world, in fact.
Both Luck and Ruka Bravo are credited for art, with no breakdown beyond. They supply a naive, flat style not greatly attractive at first, especially the clashing colours, but it’s a style to become accustomed to as the strangeness takes over. This is very reminiscent of the type of absurdist nightmares Kim Deitch specialises in, a comparison increased by Pig Wife being a generational saga with one person’s insanity another person’s reality. Also like Deitch, Luck has a prodigious imagination for freakishness, taking everyday objects and situations and embedding them in an alternate mythology. An example is Mary witnessimg the burying of lightbulbs in a prolonged interlude underground. To increase the unease Luck separates chapters with illustration pages channelling the peculiar religious fervour of Hieroymus Bosch, while scenes devolving into other nightmares come from an alternative well of creative inspiration.
“I want you to know I take this problem seriously”, says the rural police officer, before adding “I’ve eliminated all dairy products from my diet”. Such off-kilter and alarm-warning statements are par for the course from the additional cast, none of whom are comforting. Yet, cleverly, the people she meets on a strange journey make Mary reassess her past more realistically, and despite continuing weirdness there’s a very human heart to Pig Wife. This isn’t just via Mary’s very relatable troubled existence, but others as we come to understand them better even accompanied by a prevailing madness and gradually piecing together a horror as great as any shown before. Yet in places Luck shows a mastery of comedy, particularly with the gradual decline and dissolution of Mary’s stepfather.
Pig Life doesn’t just step into the weird zone, it dives right in with boots on and rolls around with the pigs. That being the case means it’s not for everyone, but by god anyone drawn to the strange is going to be delighted.
