The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1: It’s Not Science, It’s Madness!

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 opens with an amazing introduction to the eponymous lead: an intrepid boy hero who finds himself caught up in strange supernatural events. After witnessing the murder of his classmate, who to Christopher’s shock was a werewolf, he finds himself utilizing his strange powers in order to set things right with a resurrection. However, he starts off small, working to resurrect a small pigeon as something sinister brews in the shadows.

This book reads with fifty shades of flavors from all over popular pulp fiction. While a lot of Christopher’s charm comes from this, his social situation and life not unlike the mad scientists of retro dime novels, what works best for this book as an opening issue isn’t necessarily the hooks in here regarding it’s plot, tone, and spooky elements. While Tyrnon is known for those three things, this book takes a different approach to dragging readers in.

The issue is entirely focused on endearing you as much as possible to Christopher. The plot falls by the wayside here, only propping up when Chris’ own journey as an individual intercedes with it. A majority of this issue is a well-framed narrative flashback, that weaves together Chris’ entire life from birth up until now and is narrated over with express purpose. His past and his abilities to understand all sorts of weird science instantaneously isn’t here for flavor or for just a lengthy introduction, but because his past is inherently important to the story at hand. As such, the writing here, from structure to pacing, is incredibly on point. There isn’t a page wasted.

As an actual character however, Christopher will not be everyone’s cup of tea as the book’s lead, however, he doesn’t have to be. He’s likable but extremely dorky. He struggles with being ostracized quite a bit, but what he deals with internally isn’t quite as universally relatable as one would expect. A lot of what he faces his something that affects him in specific ways, but this doesn’t mean the character himself lakes a sort of relatability. There are bits and pieces of him that will read universally familiar to all who read this book, bot that universal love is always needed.

The art team of Issac Goodhart & Miquel Muerto do a great job of visually connecting with the tone and atmosphere setup by Chris’ attitude. This book is a YA story through and through, and the two visually express in ways that are well meaning and simply beautiful to look at. It certainly works for the book, their dynamic paneling a healthy bit of counter balance to the overall simple story unfolding in the pages of this first issue. Overall, the plot here remains still in setup mode. Character designs, small hints, and the book’s big driving moments of agency for Chris are all there to serve the overarching story, but it’s clear introducing Chris came first and foremost.