Cyclopedia Exotica

It makes sense that Cyclopedia Exotica got its start as a serialized Instagram comic. Every so often you get a quick four panel set-up and punchline, but it's at its best when it gets to stretch its legs and tell a story. Across a large ensemble it speaks to microaggressions, tokenization, self-loathing, and marginalization with cyclops as a clear stand-in for the other. But there's also stuff here about finding love, as well as worries about selling out, growing up and settling down. I'm not sure I need to know that male cyclops have two-pronged penises and that female cyclops have 3 vaginas which leads to (naturally) a second womb where a not-twin baby will grow simultaneously in embryonic diapause. I get it, they're different - they're cyclops! And yes, many a set-up and punchline fall flat and feel obvious, but on the whole the work is still a light distraction that never takes itself too seriously while poking at often serious topics.