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The Squirrel Machine
An anachronistic parable for the convulsive elite. What is the squirrel machine? Is it a rodent ensnarement device? A mechanism for concealing one’s guarded harvest? An anachronistic fable? A meaningless diversion?
Set in a fictional 19th Century New England town, the narrative initially details the relationship and maturation of Edmund and William Torpor. But the two brothers quickly elicit the scorn and recrimination of an unamused public when they reveal their musical creations built from strange technologies and scavenged animal carcasses. Driven to seek a concealment for their aberrant activities, they make a startling discovery. Perhaps they will divine the mystery of the squirrel machine.
What is The Squirrel Machine? An immutably strange and haunting narrative that transcends known logics and presumptive dream-barriers; A distillation of subconscious beauty and inspired madness; A dangerous object for the incautious; A revelation for the undernourished crypto-seeker; The virgin caress of unconsummated apocalypse; The unspeakable thing that you always knew. It’s also the longest and most ambitious graphic novel by legendary obscurantist cartoonist Hans Rickheit, 200 pages of exquisitely rendered pictorial narrative. Meticulous, strange, and hauntingly beautiful, this enigmatic work will ensure the inquisitive reader a spleenful of cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel. 192 b&w illustrations.
Set in a fictional 19th Century New England town, the narrative initially details the relationship and maturation of Edmund and William Torpor. But the two brothers quickly elicit the scorn and recrimination of an unamused public when they reveal their musical creations built from strange technologies and scavenged animal carcasses. Driven to seek a concealment for their aberrant activities, they make a startling discovery. Perhaps they will divine the mystery of the squirrel machine.
What is The Squirrel Machine? An immutably strange and haunting narrative that transcends known logics and presumptive dream-barriers; A distillation of subconscious beauty and inspired madness; A dangerous object for the incautious; A revelation for the undernourished crypto-seeker; The virgin caress of unconsummated apocalypse; The unspeakable thing that you always knew. It’s also the longest and most ambitious graphic novel by legendary obscurantist cartoonist Hans Rickheit, 200 pages of exquisitely rendered pictorial narrative. Meticulous, strange, and hauntingly beautiful, this enigmatic work will ensure the inquisitive reader a spleenful of cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel. 192 b&w illustrations.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2009
7 people are currently reading
516 people want to read
About the author
Hans Rickheit
13 books31 followersHans Rickheit has been an artist and cartoonist for over 25 years with a devoted following of readers and fans. His comics and drawings have entertained and educated people worldwide, having been featured in publications such as THE STRANGER, KRAMER'S ERGOT, PROPER GANDER, PAPER RODEO, LEGAL ACTION COMICS, BLURRED VISIONS, HOAX and TYPHON. In addition, his work can be found in other media, from posters and TV shows to movies and art galleries.
Currently living in Hawley, Massachusetts, he is the man responsible for CHROME FETUS COMICS and the Xeric-Award Winning Graphic Novel, CHLOE (200?), with the latter being serialized online as you read this. Recent published works include THE SQUIRREL MACHINE (2009), and the newly released FOLLY (2012), both from Fantagraphics Books. Original, ongoing serialized projects include the comics ECTOPIARY--a six hundred page graphic novel in the making--and COCHLEA & EUSTACHIA, a story that Hans promises will be "completely unencumbered by tempo, character development, plot, or logic."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
March 13, 2016
Set in a steampunk-ish 19th century New England, two brothers, Edmund and William, create musical instruments from scrap and animal carcasses which are unsurprisingly greeted with horror by the townsfolk. They also fall in love and grow up and apart. It’s like, life and junk.
Yep, it’s time once again to dip into the unimaginative, dull mind of Hans Rickheit who can’t help but tell the most straightforward stories ever conceived. Oh wait, I mean the opposite. That said, The Squirrel Machine is probably the most accessible of Rickheit’s books, which really isn’t say much considering how utterly batshit insane his comics are!
There’s the usual surrealist horror and nightmarish imagery. There’s a musical organ made up of pig’s heads, disgusting skin growths are eaten as food, machinery and flesh are meshed together in unholy ways. Some of the dialogue is utterly incongruous, eg. “Vessel es nuxtual” is repeated throughout, and there are a lot of uncomfortable sex scenes set in some really disturbing places.
It’s also really beautifully drawn in Rickheit’s strong line with utterly creative backgrounds and objects appearing throughout - full marks as always on the skilful artwork. The book also gives the reader the impression of a sort of coherent coming-of-age story. I was interested in seeing how these two boys’ lives ended up in such a bad place and Rickheit doesn’t go completely overboard on the obscurantist storytelling (but he goes pretty far regardless).
As for the meaning, who knows? Maybe we’re viewing the story from the perspective of Edmund or William, two troubled kids, one of whom is wearing goggles quite a bit, and we shouldn’t take what we see as literal but more metaphorical? Maybe Rickheit identifies with the boys’ misunderstood art? Is it an exploration of a mind? Maybe Rickheit just gets a kick out of people trying to figure out his nonsense?
All I know is I really liked it! The Squirrel Machine is dark and weird, it’s barmy but in a quasi-intelligible and, yes, enjoyable way and is full of striking imagery. You’re in the hands of an artist who fully understands the language of comics and who can keep the reader invested in his madcap story even if they don’t know what’s going on most of the time - and that quality in itself shows how talented this guy is. Still, I get the impression that if he wanted to, Rickheit could easily take the mundane approach and tell a standard narrative.
I have no idea what any of it meant, which inevitably ends up making me feel a bit unsatisfied, but it was a really good abstract comic. Clearly this dude needs to be Scott Snyder’s successor on Batman!
Yep, it’s time once again to dip into the unimaginative, dull mind of Hans Rickheit who can’t help but tell the most straightforward stories ever conceived. Oh wait, I mean the opposite. That said, The Squirrel Machine is probably the most accessible of Rickheit’s books, which really isn’t say much considering how utterly batshit insane his comics are!
There’s the usual surrealist horror and nightmarish imagery. There’s a musical organ made up of pig’s heads, disgusting skin growths are eaten as food, machinery and flesh are meshed together in unholy ways. Some of the dialogue is utterly incongruous, eg. “Vessel es nuxtual” is repeated throughout, and there are a lot of uncomfortable sex scenes set in some really disturbing places.
It’s also really beautifully drawn in Rickheit’s strong line with utterly creative backgrounds and objects appearing throughout - full marks as always on the skilful artwork. The book also gives the reader the impression of a sort of coherent coming-of-age story. I was interested in seeing how these two boys’ lives ended up in such a bad place and Rickheit doesn’t go completely overboard on the obscurantist storytelling (but he goes pretty far regardless).
As for the meaning, who knows? Maybe we’re viewing the story from the perspective of Edmund or William, two troubled kids, one of whom is wearing goggles quite a bit, and we shouldn’t take what we see as literal but more metaphorical? Maybe Rickheit identifies with the boys’ misunderstood art? Is it an exploration of a mind? Maybe Rickheit just gets a kick out of people trying to figure out his nonsense?
All I know is I really liked it! The Squirrel Machine is dark and weird, it’s barmy but in a quasi-intelligible and, yes, enjoyable way and is full of striking imagery. You’re in the hands of an artist who fully understands the language of comics and who can keep the reader invested in his madcap story even if they don’t know what’s going on most of the time - and that quality in itself shows how talented this guy is. Still, I get the impression that if he wanted to, Rickheit could easily take the mundane approach and tell a standard narrative.
I have no idea what any of it meant, which inevitably ends up making me feel a bit unsatisfied, but it was a really good abstract comic. Clearly this dude needs to be Scott Snyder’s successor on Batman!
March 19, 2016
This is pretty amazing. Look at my descriptors. You can call this an art comic, with elements of horror and steam punk and surrealism/dream logic. Creepy and funny and strange and wonderful, all at once. Great meticulous drawing, with sort of sloppily lettered dialogue, which was disconcerting for me.
Set in nineteenth century New England, the story is of Edmund and William Torpor who make musical music from instruments partly technological and dead animals! Creep and strange horror/steampunk mashup, I'd say. Has in spite of everything a kind of Victorian feel to the narrative, such as it is. The point isn't plot, though; it's mystery and imagination, Poe territory. And Al Columbia and Jim Woodring and fantasy horror psychedelia nostalgia.
Rickheit also did Cochlea & Eustachia, and The Consequences of Folly, which are also strange, foregoing traditional plot, character, any of that. Dream stuff, Freudian at times, tinged with horror erotica in some strange way, all of his work. So interesting.
Set in nineteenth century New England, the story is of Edmund and William Torpor who make musical music from instruments partly technological and dead animals! Creep and strange horror/steampunk mashup, I'd say. Has in spite of everything a kind of Victorian feel to the narrative, such as it is. The point isn't plot, though; it's mystery and imagination, Poe territory. And Al Columbia and Jim Woodring and fantasy horror psychedelia nostalgia.
Rickheit also did Cochlea & Eustachia, and The Consequences of Folly, which are also strange, foregoing traditional plot, character, any of that. Dream stuff, Freudian at times, tinged with horror erotica in some strange way, all of his work. So interesting.
March 12, 2015
Bullet Review:
WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?
WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE??!?
WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?
WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE??!?
May 29, 2017
This is completely amazing. Never has the nightmarish grotesque been rendered with such perfect beauty of lines and form, or with such poetically suggestive and graceful storytelling. Rickheit manages to push into a heightened onereic madness triangulated by surrealism, psychedelia, and a kind of Crononbergian antiquarian bad science, but, importantly, works it very effectively into a believable, relateable context built of mundane quotedian and psychological details that elevates what some take for finely-wrought but disjointed disturbing imagery into something that for me, was totally tragic and moving. And supposedly this is an attempt to render some kind of autobiographical truth, which really ups the pathos. (may no one ever be devoured by my subconcious, please.)
The story is basically a turn-of-the-century coming of age drama about two outsider genius brothers building unusual musical instruments from the, uh, materials at hand. Their art later gets entangled with the demands of adolescence and family in increasingly complicated and unclear ways. And things get weird. Think bits of a hybridized Jim Woodring and Hans Bellmer terror-desire invading everyday reality, and then let the story get dark, dark, dark, and totally unsettling even my jaded conceptions, at times. The crux of this story's un/reality is a tricky concept to disect, but I'll offer a few possibilities: Edmund, the elder brother, seems like he may be more directly in touch with his subconscious than most, than is healthy, to the point that it may be manifesting beneath the family home and between the walls. Or maybe it's more like a collective id between the brothers. The collective unconscious? Or could it be the repressed urges of their long-dead father, still buried after all these years? Or his workshop? Or something that even he did not know about, something primal and arcane, there long before he built the house. If you're the kind of surrealist/symbolist reader that I am, the lack of easy explanation, allowing this multiplication of potential meanings instead of textbook allegorizing, is not a failure, but a clear asset.
Art-wise, this is meticulous and ornate, capturing unbelievable constructions with an unmatched literal clarity. The result works in a manner similar to how Poe's extensive detail helps suspend disbelief in his gothic fantastic, perhaps. And Rickheit is so good a rendering eerie architectural detail that I feel like it's gonna look like I was copying him very badly in my own recent comics attempts.
Though I'm not sure that the last act entirely works for me, I think I see how it fits into the greater whole, and acts two and three deliver much of the emotional payoff otherwise denied by the last, I think. So on the whole, this is brilliant, fantastic stuff. Rickheit is one of the best and most original comic constructors out there right now, and I seriously hope that this masterful work, and his new collection via Fantagraphics early next year, can help push him into a level of recognition that will allow him devote more time to these incredible projects.
Post-script: I retrospectively docked this one star because while it plays to all of my biases (surrealist horror, architectural insanity, the things between the walls of ordinary life and home, the subconcious (maybe the same thing as the last entry), precision linework, weird sublimated experience), I'm not sure if the narrative development is fully articulated here. Not that it needs to be all obvious or explicit, but I'm not sure the underpinnings are entirely in place, which is more important. Further thought, re-reading needed, obviously. And it's exceptional either way.
The story is basically a turn-of-the-century coming of age drama about two outsider genius brothers building unusual musical instruments from the, uh, materials at hand. Their art later gets entangled with the demands of adolescence and family in increasingly complicated and unclear ways. And things get weird. Think bits of a hybridized Jim Woodring and Hans Bellmer terror-desire invading everyday reality, and then let the story get dark, dark, dark, and totally unsettling even my jaded conceptions, at times. The crux of this story's un/reality is a tricky concept to disect, but I'll offer a few possibilities: Edmund, the elder brother, seems like he may be more directly in touch with his subconscious than most, than is healthy, to the point that it may be manifesting beneath the family home and between the walls. Or maybe it's more like a collective id between the brothers. The collective unconscious? Or could it be the repressed urges of their long-dead father, still buried after all these years? Or his workshop? Or something that even he did not know about, something primal and arcane, there long before he built the house. If you're the kind of surrealist/symbolist reader that I am, the lack of easy explanation, allowing this multiplication of potential meanings instead of textbook allegorizing, is not a failure, but a clear asset.
Art-wise, this is meticulous and ornate, capturing unbelievable constructions with an unmatched literal clarity. The result works in a manner similar to how Poe's extensive detail helps suspend disbelief in his gothic fantastic, perhaps. And Rickheit is so good a rendering eerie architectural detail that I feel like it's gonna look like I was copying him very badly in my own recent comics attempts.
Though I'm not sure that the last act entirely works for me, I think I see how it fits into the greater whole, and acts two and three deliver much of the emotional payoff otherwise denied by the last, I think. So on the whole, this is brilliant, fantastic stuff. Rickheit is one of the best and most original comic constructors out there right now, and I seriously hope that this masterful work, and his new collection via Fantagraphics early next year, can help push him into a level of recognition that will allow him devote more time to these incredible projects.
Post-script: I retrospectively docked this one star because while it plays to all of my biases (surrealist horror, architectural insanity, the things between the walls of ordinary life and home, the subconcious (maybe the same thing as the last entry), precision linework, weird sublimated experience), I'm not sure if the narrative development is fully articulated here. Not that it needs to be all obvious or explicit, but I'm not sure the underpinnings are entirely in place, which is more important. Further thought, re-reading needed, obviously. And it's exceptional either way.
July 24, 2014
Probably the only book you'll ever read featuring an organ customized to work with decapitated pig heads instead of pipes, The Squirrel Machine is a graphic novel exercise in synthetic fetishization and psychosexual abstraction. Rickheit crisply draws the story of two scientific wunderkind brothers who create bizarre musical inventions utilizing the bodies of various farm animals. But their poor, little world is about to take a deviant nosedive when young love enters the picture and a secret, labyrinthine structure is discovered beneath their house. Like Un Chien Andalou and Eraserhead, yer fucked if you think a coherent story or a set interpretation can be divined from what abstractions are presented before you, but go ahead and whip out the closest copy of Freud you got on hand and start psychoanalyzing! What I liked most was Rickheit's use of steampunk aesthetics as a means of crafting disturbing sexual imagery, as opposed to just an excuse for having characters wear top hats and engineer boots while riding around in zeppelins. The Squirrel Machine is certainly a unique approach to sludging through the subconscious. Makes a great gift for any occasion.
February 14, 2025
if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
271218 (ddmnthyr): read this now three (3) times. though that might not be how to think of this. maybe i ‘looked’ at this three times over the years, not because i forgot it, not because i want weirdness, but because i want to ‘understand’ it intellectually as much as ‘sense’ it intuitively. i might maybe wonder how and want to know if i can access hans reickart’s deeply fascinating, horrifying, darkly satiric subconscious world...
so i look/read/think/etc. this again. i read some great reviews in agreement, others in sadness. i want everyone to love this work, i want to advance possibilities of this medium, i am so impressed by reading/looking... at this again. as any work of great art it not only has immediate effect but persistent effect, something new every time, something worth repeating, trying out new art strategies, new philosophical, psychological, historical insights. and so i see the late 19th century thoughts when it is not yet clear where science and technology are going, when despite surface triumph of rationality there is rising of disturbing artistic expressions... so i see the dreams given new forms and psychic terrain new cartography...
so i can read/look... at this work who knows how many times. there is to me beauty in ironically clean, sharp, well-drafted lines, all in service of rendering the most complicated disturbing fantastic story. the images are realistically presented but ‘content’ is anything but realistic. maybe this is the Bildungsroman of two very peculiar brothers in that small town conservative world where nobody else thinks of artistic musical possibilities of pig heads, nobody is ready for this, where only the modest little girl who becomes curious new england maid, is diverted from propriety to perversity... and maybe more (who knows as she disappears from the story), where it is only the outsider girl who, um, sleeps with pigs, who is thought beautiful by one boy... this book was given to me by riley, who knows me perhaps too well: he was certain i would love it... i do not know, does this mean i am predictable? or just inherently weird...
first review: weird? yes. great? yes. surreal? yes. terrifying? yes. nauseating? probably. have no idea what this is, but like it. like a lynch movie in graphic form, like a series of interlocking nightmares, like… nothing else. can imagine this as a very strange, compelling, fantastic movie, but would probably break the bank in cost. and who would want to star in it?
271218 (ddmnthyr): read this now three (3) times. though that might not be how to think of this. maybe i ‘looked’ at this three times over the years, not because i forgot it, not because i want weirdness, but because i want to ‘understand’ it intellectually as much as ‘sense’ it intuitively. i might maybe wonder how and want to know if i can access hans reickart’s deeply fascinating, horrifying, darkly satiric subconscious world...
so i look/read/think/etc. this again. i read some great reviews in agreement, others in sadness. i want everyone to love this work, i want to advance possibilities of this medium, i am so impressed by reading/looking... at this again. as any work of great art it not only has immediate effect but persistent effect, something new every time, something worth repeating, trying out new art strategies, new philosophical, psychological, historical insights. and so i see the late 19th century thoughts when it is not yet clear where science and technology are going, when despite surface triumph of rationality there is rising of disturbing artistic expressions... so i see the dreams given new forms and psychic terrain new cartography...
so i can read/look... at this work who knows how many times. there is to me beauty in ironically clean, sharp, well-drafted lines, all in service of rendering the most complicated disturbing fantastic story. the images are realistically presented but ‘content’ is anything but realistic. maybe this is the Bildungsroman of two very peculiar brothers in that small town conservative world where nobody else thinks of artistic musical possibilities of pig heads, nobody is ready for this, where only the modest little girl who becomes curious new england maid, is diverted from propriety to perversity... and maybe more (who knows as she disappears from the story), where it is only the outsider girl who, um, sleeps with pigs, who is thought beautiful by one boy... this book was given to me by riley, who knows me perhaps too well: he was certain i would love it... i do not know, does this mean i am predictable? or just inherently weird...
first review: weird? yes. great? yes. surreal? yes. terrifying? yes. nauseating? probably. have no idea what this is, but like it. like a lynch movie in graphic form, like a series of interlocking nightmares, like… nothing else. can imagine this as a very strange, compelling, fantastic movie, but would probably break the bank in cost. and who would want to star in it?
June 6, 2020
I'm all for the disturbing and surreal, but I really have no idea what this one was trying to say. Nice art, though.
June 27, 2020
Beautifully strange and strangely beautiful.
The first work I've read by Rickheit.
A truly unique voice with incredibly strong and imaginative artwork.
I could walk endlessly through those interior shots of the laboratory (if that's what we can call it).
As much dream logic as narrative, where you know you've experienced something but on awakening you're not quite sure what exactly that was and it's quickly slipping through your fingers anyway
The first work I've read by Rickheit.
A truly unique voice with incredibly strong and imaginative artwork.
I could walk endlessly through those interior shots of the laboratory (if that's what we can call it).
As much dream logic as narrative, where you know you've experienced something but on awakening you're not quite sure what exactly that was and it's quickly slipping through your fingers anyway
July 31, 2011
i felt violated. except i was willing. i could have put it down. but i didnt, and now i have pictures of mutilated animal/instruments in my head. Imagine cronenberg / lovecraft / lynch / bros quay. I dont know. what has happened to me? I have developed a total aversion to body mutilation. I have a new distaste to all manner of extreme graphics for that manner. For a several yr stretch I was numb, and I sought out the sickest craziest gonzo gore cinema. Maybe it made me feel something. Then i stopped taking anti-depressants and I cant stomach any of that stuff. Maybe there is a spiritual component that coincided with the pharmaceutical component. But I am more sensitive now. I can be moved to tears by a beautiful piece of music. I can feel overwhelming love to the point where it seems to fill every cell of my body. I can feel, period. Maybe I am done with this stuff. Yes, some of the most creative artists push boundaries, and question taboos, and turn normalcy on its head. But so what? To what end? Who is going to be better for reading this? I guess its safer than taking LSD and walking naked into a slaughterhouse, but i assume the experience is about the same.
February 26, 2017
I think the back-cover synopsis is quite accurate. This book is "exquisitely rendered, strange, and hauntingly beautiful". The author is quite accurate described as an "obscurantist" cartoonist.
There's not really much anyone can say about this comic, I don't think.
The relationships between the two brothers and the mother could have been better developed, but they do take a backseat to the mysterious places the boys explore in their vast mansion, and the strange devices and art they create.
This book has a childish (in a good way) imagination in its explorations mixed with a cynical and Lovecraft-ian proclivity. I would love for the author to do another volume similar to this but more suitable for kids (as I would have loved to have read a book like this as a child). I was more interested with the abstract architecture and technology than with his abstract flesh mutilation.
This is my first book by Rickheit and I quickly picked up another.
There's not really much anyone can say about this comic, I don't think.
The relationships between the two brothers and the mother could have been better developed, but they do take a backseat to the mysterious places the boys explore in their vast mansion, and the strange devices and art they create.
This book has a childish (in a good way) imagination in its explorations mixed with a cynical and Lovecraft-ian proclivity. I would love for the author to do another volume similar to this but more suitable for kids (as I would have loved to have read a book like this as a child). I was more interested with the abstract architecture and technology than with his abstract flesh mutilation.
This is my first book by Rickheit and I quickly picked up another.
November 26, 2014
THE SQUIRREL MACHINE erzählt in schwarzweiß Bildern die Geschichte der Brüder Edmund und William Torpor, die im New England des 19. Jahrhunderts wundersame wissenschaftliche Forschungsprojekte betreiben und technisch modifizierte Tierkadaver als Musikinstrumente einsetzen.
Die Bilder sind beunruhigend, die Geschichte ein phantasmagorischer Fiebertraum, den Guy Maddin oder David Lynch auf der Leinwand träumen könnten, und neben der Phantastik (die Steampunk-Elemente enthält) haben auch Ekel und Sexualität ihren Raum. Eine Faszination des Grauens, die mich als Leser kräftig durchgeschüttelt hat, mal mit holzschnittartigen, sehr übersichtlichen Panels, mal mit Wimmelbildern, die man sich lange anschauen kann, ohne sie zu druchdringen.
Und es liegt wohl auch gar nicht in der Absicht von Hans Rickheit (*1973), dass der Leser THE SQUIRREL MACHINE liest, versteht und zufrieden beiseite packt. Das Buch ist verstörend und wird den Leser, wenn er kein dickes Fell hat, in eben diesem Zustand zurück lassen.
Die Bilder sind beunruhigend, die Geschichte ein phantasmagorischer Fiebertraum, den Guy Maddin oder David Lynch auf der Leinwand träumen könnten, und neben der Phantastik (die Steampunk-Elemente enthält) haben auch Ekel und Sexualität ihren Raum. Eine Faszination des Grauens, die mich als Leser kräftig durchgeschüttelt hat, mal mit holzschnittartigen, sehr übersichtlichen Panels, mal mit Wimmelbildern, die man sich lange anschauen kann, ohne sie zu druchdringen.
Und es liegt wohl auch gar nicht in der Absicht von Hans Rickheit (*1973), dass der Leser THE SQUIRREL MACHINE liest, versteht und zufrieden beiseite packt. Das Buch ist verstörend und wird den Leser, wenn er kein dickes Fell hat, in eben diesem Zustand zurück lassen.
May 7, 2013
It would be really nice if, considering that I introduced him to the wide wonderful world of sequential art, that Zack wasn't the one that suggested all of my favorite graphic novels of the last two years.
This was the most disconcerting, bizarre, and wonderful graphic novel I've read since The Aviary. And like The Aviary it was equally as irreverent, nonsensical, and almost impossible to fully deconstruct.
The Squirrel Machine is like traveling through the nightmares of a supremely talented psychopath. I'm also partial to illustrations entirely in black and white.
Additionally, I'll never look at pigs the same again. Or, in that theme, musical instruments.
This was the most disconcerting, bizarre, and wonderful graphic novel I've read since The Aviary. And like The Aviary it was equally as irreverent, nonsensical, and almost impossible to fully deconstruct.
The Squirrel Machine is like traveling through the nightmares of a supremely talented psychopath. I'm also partial to illustrations entirely in black and white.
Additionally, I'll never look at pigs the same again. Or, in that theme, musical instruments.
May 8, 2010
Unapologetically weird but beautifully illustrated, this story involves two brothers who seemed obsessed with creating weird musical machines out of animals and other living things. It's surreal and even a little funny in its over-the-top images (kinda like the way that new horror flick The Human Centipede looks). One of the things I really liked about this though was the fact that Rickheit delivers all this weirdness without feeling the need to explain it. You step into his world and you have to figure it out.
January 9, 2017
Whilst I loved the art, surrealism and strangeness of this book, I feel that it lacked meaning.
I'm a big fan of the bizarre and surreal but usually there is meaning behind it, as with cinema, art and comics it usually acts as a visual metaphor or puzzle to be pieced together in your mind, but a lot of this seems to be weirdness for the sake of it. It seems like Hans Rickheit came up with this beautiful imagery and then tried to apply a story to it. I liked this book but I don't think it'll be one I'll re-read.
I'm a big fan of the bizarre and surreal but usually there is meaning behind it, as with cinema, art and comics it usually acts as a visual metaphor or puzzle to be pieced together in your mind, but a lot of this seems to be weirdness for the sake of it. It seems like Hans Rickheit came up with this beautiful imagery and then tried to apply a story to it. I liked this book but I don't think it'll be one I'll re-read.
September 8, 2017
Creepy, disturbing and grotesque.
Right up to the end, I had no clue what was going on.
Many times I felt like throwing up after witnessing images that can't be unseen.
Images that will surely give me nightmares for weeks to come.
Was that young girl kidnapped, raped and chopped into pieces?
Ugh...
Right up to the end, I had no clue what was going on.
Many times I felt like throwing up after witnessing images that can't be unseen.
Images that will surely give me nightmares for weeks to come.
Was that young girl kidnapped, raped and chopped into pieces?
Ugh...
December 29, 2011
My first foray into graphic novels. The immediate challenge was to figure out how to read the damn thing. Nobody laugh. Its not straightforward for the uninitiated. Having caught on to the rhythm though, I settled in for the ride. Not much dialogue here at all, but I come prepared: did I not just sit through two hours of ‘The Artist’ where nary a word was spoken? Dialogue is superfluous here anyway. The narrative (no pun intended) unfolds languidly without the need for verbal accoutrements. Its permeated with subtle references to every major theme/meme/genre thats evolved in the past century. Building a monster/Frankenstein? Check. Jekyll and Hyde: check. Damien Hirst and cows in formaldehyde: you betcha. Alice disappearing down the rabbit hole: major theme .
The rabbit hole here is a cavern of wondrous inventions and organo-machinoid hybrids underneath the floorboards of Edmund and William’s house, the latter being inventors/artists ahead of their time. The subterranean Aladdin’s cave is probably more a figment of their imagination than anything else, but even so it introduces an element of breathless dreamlike quality to the escapades of the two boys. It is down below that they, (in true cliché form), work out their Mengele motifs.
There is a lot of gore here. Of the Tom Six’s ‘Human Centipede’ variety. But its presented in a haunting, gothic pastiche which adds multiple dimensions to the seemingly banal acts of ‘horror’. I read this through in an hour, but already I feel it merits revisiting.
I also looked up Hans Rickheit’s personal blog, definitely worth a read as well. And if you like his work, donations are appreciated: he seems to be working at some grocery store and drawing on the side, but finding it hard to make ends meet. I admire his dedication.
http://thesquirrelmachine.blogspot.co...
The rabbit hole here is a cavern of wondrous inventions and organo-machinoid hybrids underneath the floorboards of Edmund and William’s house, the latter being inventors/artists ahead of their time. The subterranean Aladdin’s cave is probably more a figment of their imagination than anything else, but even so it introduces an element of breathless dreamlike quality to the escapades of the two boys. It is down below that they, (in true cliché form), work out their Mengele motifs.
There is a lot of gore here. Of the Tom Six’s ‘Human Centipede’ variety. But its presented in a haunting, gothic pastiche which adds multiple dimensions to the seemingly banal acts of ‘horror’. I read this through in an hour, but already I feel it merits revisiting.
I also looked up Hans Rickheit’s personal blog, definitely worth a read as well. And if you like his work, donations are appreciated: he seems to be working at some grocery store and drawing on the side, but finding it hard to make ends meet. I admire his dedication.
http://thesquirrelmachine.blogspot.co...
April 24, 2013
Crazy.
I'm not easily offended or disturbed, but this managed to do it (not on the whole, but little bits here and there). The only thing I've ever read which made me cringe more than this was 'Furry Trap' by Josh Simmons.
The difference between the two is Rickheit uses subtlety and artful delivery, whereas Simmons gut punches the reader without ceasing.
This was a real toss-up between 3 stars or 4 stars. 3 would be because I'm a prude and was oft upset by content, 4 would be because the content so clearly and successfully delivered an emotional impact. I opted for 4 stars because I feel it more accurately represents this work without factoring in my bias.
I'm not easily offended or disturbed, but this managed to do it (not on the whole, but little bits here and there). The only thing I've ever read which made me cringe more than this was 'Furry Trap' by Josh Simmons.
The difference between the two is Rickheit uses subtlety and artful delivery, whereas Simmons gut punches the reader without ceasing.
This was a real toss-up between 3 stars or 4 stars. 3 would be because I'm a prude and was oft upset by content, 4 would be because the content so clearly and successfully delivered an emotional impact. I opted for 4 stars because I feel it more accurately represents this work without factoring in my bias.
May 11, 2015
This is like waking up from a dream, being able to outline some of the major occurrences, but not being able to remember and make sense of everything that actually happened while you were sleeping. With maybe a nocturnal emission thrown in. I've had Squirrel Machine for a few years now, and what finally goaded me into reading it was Rickheit's latest book, Cochlea & Eustachia. His is an incredible style, but it takes a little getting used to. But if you appreciate the work of Jim Woodring and of Al Columbia, then Rickneit is definitely for you.
October 18, 2009
Bizarre and nightmarish for me. Maybe I just didn't understand what he was trying to do but I just found the story and artwork to be offensive and disturbing. Two brothers with gifts for invention turn their skills to making instruments out of animal carcasses. Definitely not a graphic novel for teens or me either it would seem.
April 8, 2013
well.. that was weird.
September 9, 2021
Too disturbing to really enjoy. Not really sure I understood the plot. Got lost in the illustrations, but not sure what they were about.
June 28, 2022
What if we kissed in the giant soda fountain full of snails?
June 3, 2011
Ugg this book grossed me out, and it's hard to do that. The illustrations were done in a beautiful style but I feel like it was all gross for the sake of gross. The story line seemed to revolve entirely around allowing the artist to draw more gross animal stuff.
Or maybe it's gross for the sake of steampunk? Guys, is this what they call steampunk? Is that still so hot right now? Whatever, I didn't like all the animal cruelty even if it was just pretend.
Also this book comes with the most pretentious book jacket compliment of all time " ...cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel." HAHA! I am removing one star for inaccuracy, since I already half washed it out of my mind only two episodes of Judge Judy.
Or maybe it's gross for the sake of steampunk? Guys, is this what they call steampunk? Is that still so hot right now? Whatever, I didn't like all the animal cruelty even if it was just pretend.
Also this book comes with the most pretentious book jacket compliment of all time " ...cerebral serenity that will take exposure to vast quantities of mediocrity to dispel." HAHA! I am removing one star for inaccuracy, since I already half washed it out of my mind only two episodes of Judge Judy.
March 1, 2010
Delightfully strange and surreal. Definitely warrants two reads. At the end of the book, I knew that I enjoyed the book and also wondered what the hell just happened. Going back through the book, I found that it was easier to understand the story in its individual chapters first, then try to weave them together as a larger work.
The illustrations are wonderful. The characters visually stand out really well in each scene, and a lot of the subtle characterizations are accomplished through the drawings.
The illustrations are wonderful. The characters visually stand out really well in each scene, and a lot of the subtle characterizations are accomplished through the drawings.
June 20, 2012
The Squirrel Machine 4 stars
Two brothers build strange musical instruments out of dead animal carcasses. The pictures in this graphic novel is beyond what you could imagine. A Very Bizarre Steampunk as the two brothers try to unravel the mystery behind the "squirrel machine."
Despite the black and white pictures which once again makes me want to pull out my crayons. I was mesmerized as I looked on at this obscurantist cartoonist work the one and only Hans Rickheit.
Two brothers build strange musical instruments out of dead animal carcasses. The pictures in this graphic novel is beyond what you could imagine. A Very Bizarre Steampunk as the two brothers try to unravel the mystery behind the "squirrel machine."
Despite the black and white pictures which once again makes me want to pull out my crayons. I was mesmerized as I looked on at this obscurantist cartoonist work the one and only Hans Rickheit.
September 7, 2010
a sick little book with beautifully disturbing art. the story meanders through the inventions and exploits of two brothers with a penchant for carcasses. a weird journey where little is explained and most is macabre.
September 9, 2014
Visually impressive and absorbing for sure. It's a disturbing work of art that aggressively attacks feelings of comfort and complacence with grotesquerie. If that's your thing, you will like it -- the two stars is more a reflection of my taste than the level of creative genius on display.
December 2, 2011
winner best
gross out dream
this month
hands down
gross out dream
this month
hands down
January 10, 2023
The Squirrel Machine is my first full-length Rickheit piece. I met him randomly at an art and signing event at a comic book store. After a quick sketch and chat with my kids, I bought a handful of his work for sale and really enjoyed the steampunk whimsy of his old-time science fiction worlds. Really engaging and striking art, Rickheit’s story is about two brothers who live amidst a labarynthine underground world where they must build and invent machines and musical instruments, usually using the minds, organs, voices, and heads to power and operate the macabre machinery. Beyond that, this is really difficult to explain but wildly inventive with gorgeous art. I have been following online as he adds more and more to his stories (at least Squirrel Machine and The Gloaming continue online (... much of his art beyond Squirrel Machine have additional erotic and violent motifs). Still a wild ride and a great intro to the work he does. Will continue to read his stuff enthusiastically – hard to describe but entirely, strangely captivating and entertaining.
December 2, 2019
Þetta er ótrúlega flott bók, svarthvít high-contrast draumsýn um yfirþyrmandi mekanisma og árekstur eða samruna við oftar en ekki gróteskan lífs-massa, og saga af tveimur bræðrum, samstarfi, áflogum og einhverskonar endalokum.
Það er kúnst að fylla síðurnar af öllum þessum smáatriðum og allri þessari sviðsmynd en undirstrika samt aðalatriðin, án þess að nota liti eða nokkurskonar skyggingu. Og að leiða söguna örugglega áfram þrátt fyrir allan þennan massa sem bókstaflega fyllir annarsvegar hús bræðranna og skóginn í kring. Svart-hvíta stemningin er drungaleg, þrúgandi og skýr. Þetta er svakalega vel gert.
Ég hef aldrei heyrt minnst á bókina né höfundinn áður, sem mér þykir skrýtið en skemmtilegt því núna get ég leitað uppi aðrar bækur eftir hann.
Það er kúnst að fylla síðurnar af öllum þessum smáatriðum og allri þessari sviðsmynd en undirstrika samt aðalatriðin, án þess að nota liti eða nokkurskonar skyggingu. Og að leiða söguna örugglega áfram þrátt fyrir allan þennan massa sem bókstaflega fyllir annarsvegar hús bræðranna og skóginn í kring. Svart-hvíta stemningin er drungaleg, þrúgandi og skýr. Þetta er svakalega vel gert.
Ég hef aldrei heyrt minnst á bókina né höfundinn áður, sem mér þykir skrýtið en skemmtilegt því núna get ég leitað uppi aðrar bækur eftir hann.
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