Liō

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Liō
Liō strip from 2006-07-26.
Author(s)	Mark Tatulli
Website	http://www.gocomics.com/lio/
Current status / schedule	Daily
Launch date	2006-05-15
Syndicate(s)	Universal Press Syndicate

Liō is a daily comic strip created by Mark Tatulli and syndicated through Universal Press Syndicate. The strip focuses on the adventures of a (subjectively) strange little boy named Liō. He lives with his father (unnamed in the strip) and his pets. The setting of the story varies from Liō's house, his school, and the general outside world. The time period appears to be contemporary. The strip is notable for the fact that most of the story is told visually, with little or no dialogue.

1 Plot
2 Characters
3 Style
4 Production
5 Movie
6 Collections
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Gags frequently involve the supernatural/occult, alien invasion, or mass destruction of many sorts, creating a surreal, disturbing atmosphere in the comics. Some of the strip's recurring themes involve Liō getting even with grade-school bullies, helping animals (most of which are non-anthropomorphic but display obvious intelligence) defend themselves against humans or their predators, and performing mad scientist style experiments. He is often seen using robots that he constructs himself for causing mischief. Another recurring gag in the strip is parody of other famous comic strips, with Cathy, For Better or For Worse, Garfield, Zits, Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts already targeted.

[edit] Characters

In addition to Liō, the strip only has one other major character, Liō's unnamed father. He is frequently shown to be the subject of Liō's pranks and sometimes has to get his son out of difficult situations. On one occasion, when he watched a news report of an alien invasion, he gave Liō a hard spanking for holding an "alien ship" in the backyard.

Liō has at least five pets: Spider, a spider who has helped him cheat on tests; Cybil, a white cat who has unique methods for getting Liō to feed her; Frank, a cobra that sometimes sleeps in Liō's bed; Ishmael, a giant squid; and Mittens, a lobster rescued from his father's planned dinner.

There are several frequently recurring characters:

Liō's hunchbacked assistant
his grade-school teacher, Mrs. Gatchi
a group of school bullies
assorted mythical monsters (both alive and undead)
assorted aliens
various lab creations (some alive, some robots)
Eva Rose: A violent girl with bangs that cover her face that Liō has a crush on. She does not return the feeling, and is often quite violent towards him or his expressions of love. This does not sway Liō in the slightest.

[edit] Style

While it may seem that all the strips are from Liō's imagination, Mark Tatulli has stated that everything that goes on in the strip actually happens to Liō,^[1] though most of the time others turn a blind eye to it, unlike the other-worldly situations that occurred to Calvin in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.

Another notable aspect of Liō (one reminiscent of such strips as The Little King, Henry, and Ferd'nand) is its general lack of dialogue, though there are occasional vocalizations (such as "Eeck!" or "Aggh!") and there are labels on certain objects to make the gags more obvious. One-time characters have sometimes spoken, and characters in some of the parodies have had dialogue even when Liō himself is silent.

Tatulli has credited Gahan Wilson, Charles Addams^[2] and U.S. Civil War era caricaturist Adalbert J. Volck as influences on the visual style of Liō'.^[1]

[edit] Production

The strip debuted on 2006-05-15 in more than 100 newspapers which included The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Houston Chronicle, Denver's Rocky Mountain News, The St. Petersburg Times, Raleigh News and Observer, Detroit Free Press and The Seattle Times. Because it is a wordless strip, it also debuted in De Morgen, a Brussels-based Flemish newspaper.^[3]

As of August 2007, Liō runs in nearly 275 newspapers worldwide.^[4] Because of its mostly wordless nature, the comic is very successful in overseas markets and Asia in particular, where it is handled by Atlantic Syndication.

[edit] Movie

An October 23rd, 2007 article in Variety revealed that the strip had been optioned for a live-action feature film. The project is being produced by David Kirschner.^[5]

[edit] Collections

Title	Cover	Publication Date	ISBN	Contents
Happiness is a Squishy Cephalopod		August 1, 2007	ISBN 978-0740768491	Strips from the first year, including a foreword by Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine.