Ricky & Lyle by Ralphie

My favourite comic in Faction #1 was Ralphi’s Ricky & Lyle.  

Featuring a bogan boy and his best friend, an obnoxious anthropomorphic cat, the strip followed their slightly dubious adventures in search of quick money.    

Not content with just being hilarious, Ricky & Lyle was also elegant, sharp and true.  

Now, a couple of years later Ralphi has just released a Ricky & Lyle mini-comic. On par with the debut of the wayward pair, it possesses the same wry, understated confidence and comes in a very tidy package - as part of French publisher Radio as Paper’s Rapmc series.  

Under a lovely two-colour wrap-around cover is a sixteen page story that is over all too soon, but compensates by providing an abundance of details that somehow never crowd the panel and rewards multiple reads.  

At the heart of Ricky & Lyle is a keen sense of liking and compassion for the characters despite a manifest of shortcomings that should make them completely unsympathetic.  

All this is portrayed with an an art style so deft and fluid that it seems as much handwriting as cartooning. To say Ralphi's comics are assured is a huge understatement and it beggars belief that she has only comparatively recently turned her talents to crafting comics.  

These strips are excellent. Whatever you do, find yourself some Ralphi comics now. You won't be disappointed.

Buy Faction 1 here

Buy Radio as Paper's Ricky & Lyle here

Kelly Sheehan

Faction Comics + Earth's End