Lio's Astonishing Tales: From the Haunted Crypt of Unknown Horrors

By Mark Tatulli

A boy's imagination is unleashed in Lio's Astonishing Tales: From the Haunted Crypt of Unknown Horrors. The 2009 National Cartoonists Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip, Lio is unique in its pantomime content and drawing style. This treasury includes creator commentary and origins of Lio.

It's slightly dark and terribly funny. Lio, the main character, a young boy with an imagination that has no limit, explores everything kid. From bumps in the night to things hiding under the bed, readers get an inside look at different shades of humor but always come out the other end unscathed and laughing.

"Lio is brilliant!" --Dallas Morning News

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9780740790447

Book preview

The first LIŌ strip, though not the first one I ever drew. I don’t like the spider. I drew him before I studied what spiders look like. The legs are all wrong. I like to think I’ve gotten better since then.

This strip says a lot about LIŌ. He has a connection with animals, especially creepy ones, and the school situation is also one we can relate to. I wish every LIŌ strip had this simple dynamic.

I like the rabbit’s ears in panel two.

I drew this strip about three months before Paul Winchell’s death, but added the homage just before print. I loved Paul Winchell when I was a kid.

The first LIŌ Sunday. I didn’t want to use a single-panel gag, but the syndicate wanted to start with a strong visual. I was worried that LIŌ would be seen as another single-panel Far Side rip-off. Funny how we overthink things in the beginning.

I used to have a toy gun like that; it was even that same blue color, but it shot Ping-Pong balls.

This is an especially dark LIŌ strip. It raises the question: What will LIŌ do with that boy after he traps him? Most of the really dark content in LIŌ is left to the reader’s imagination.

The first appearance of a cephalopod was this octopus. I had originally imagined the octo as a surrogate mother for LIŌ, but it didn’t feel right after this strip.

Only funny to those who are familiar with the Alien movie franchise. This is the type of strip that leaves some readers with big question marks over their heads. I can’t do this sort of thing too often.

I like this strip. Again, it’s LIŌ weirdness brought into a situation we can relate to.

I like how the fridge drawings came out.

The first appearance of Peanuts characters in LIŌ. I wanted to use the retro 1950s Peanuts look, but it was a bitch to reproduce. Schulz just made it look so simple.

Hate this strip. Too much text and not a strong enough gag to justify it.

The burning city/marching rabbit army panel was fun to draw and especially exciting to me because I knew that nothing even remotely close to the weirdness of this