Piece of the Week: ‘Invaders!’ by Lopesco

This week’s Piece of the Week, “Invaders!” by Lopesco takes us right back to being a little kid, giddy with excitement for the next installment of comics, cartoon, and newspaper strips. The excitement of character-driven narrative and installment-adventures that stay with you long after you’ve read the last page has been heavily referenced in Lopesco’s work, with newsprint textures and hand-sketched quirky characters.

“Invaders!” is delightful in its ability to capture the imagination — there are UFOs and astronaut laser-gun-toating chihuahua’s ready to mess you up. The delightful 1960s bee-hive-haired-psychedelic-dress wearing-chihuahua-side-kick is a lovely addition to the scene. The vintage newspaper effect is all in the detail, the swirls on the shift dress, the hand-drawn lines to accentuate the curvature of the top of the astronaut’s helmut, and the sketched in laser gun make this POW a simple, melancholic image.

It is illustration such as this that reignites a yearning for a return to the real, it reminds us of a simpler time, a childhood when communities felt smaller and tighter. I like the ambiguous relationship between the UFOs and Chihuahuas, it could easily be an illustration from a choose your own adventure novella or an art house animated short.

Weird, wonderful, and not apologizing for the laser gun, this illustrative throwback to sweeter times is our Piece of the Week.