Two Tales From Manky Valley by Frank Peña

This is the second book from the BecauseInter.net guy.

The BecauseInter.net guy! C'mon!

His first book Pyromaniac Pooka is just as adorable/wrong, but only has ONE story. Gawd. What the actual fuck is that (awesome and adorable) shit? In Two Tales from Manky Valley you get TWO. Holy shitballs. I know Frank, and so he sent me a free e-book for my reviewing pleasure. Usually this would have made me cry from my eyes (No trees died for this? What is wrong with you?) but because it’s illustration heavy it is actually really fun to read on a screen. Maybe I was so used to reading web-comics that it didn’t phase me, or maybe I’m cured of my Ludditeitis. Either way, I can vouch for the readability of the e-book. There is no real blurb (except the little ones I found on the website) so I will instead allow the author to describe himself to you.

Frank Peña is a raggedy old hobo who lives in North Carolina with twenty cats. 

If you see a guy in a bathrobe and fuzzy bear-feet slippers dancing to the overhead music in the produce section of a grocery store, that is probably him. 

Approach with candy.

Perhaps that's actually more informative than a blurb for telling you exactly what you can expect from Manky Valley. It is silly. I’ll talk about each story separately:

The Prettiest Pony and the Atomic Death Cannon

(Checkout the Preview!)

Follow The Prettiest Pony and her pals, Butterface and Brownbagger, on an epic adventure into a haunted castle, that results in a chaotic trail of rainbows, cake and charred skeletons all across Manky Valley. (From Becauseinter.net/mankeyvalley.html)

The main themes in this piece appear to be sexist talk of anthropomorphised horses, and death cannons. Largely the themes blend together to create something brightly coloured and vaguely repulsive, both visually and ideologically. Freud says the castle represents a vagina, so I guess bestiality as well, cause they go inside of one of them. LESBIAN bestiality. I mean, my word. The juxtaposition of The Prettiness of the Pony and the castle-shapedness of the vagina confuse our ideas of what is sexual and what is just a castle, or something. Maybe we all want to sleep with our parents, or each other. Maybe we all have genitalia that resembles listed buildings. It is very meaningful. 

Li'l Stabby Goes on a Hug Rampage

(Hot damn! Another Preview!)

Learn valuable life lessons about what happens when Li'l Stabby--everyone's favorite hug-addicted, magically animated butcher knife--is set loose in a forest full of snuggly critters. Can anything stop his cuddly reign of terror? Probably not. (From Becauseinter.net/mankeyvalley.html)

Unlike the gritty realism of the sexy pony story, this tale is overflowing with glittering whimsy.

Having seen the first twenty minutes of Pinocchio, the Plant-Watering Fairy followed standard magical-meddling protocol by rifling through the Lonely Old Lady’s possessions for something to animate.

*sigh*

The kindly aim of a passing fey to ease the suffering of an old woman begins one kitchen implement’s quest to learn more about life and himself. We learn valuable lessons like “Don’t piss on knives, especially if you’re magic!” and “Don’t hug knives, what the fucking hell is the matter with you?” I found myself moved to tears and a little bit of fear by just how carefully Lil’ Stabby’s rampage has been imagined. Freud probably thinks the knife is a penis, I’m pretty sure he says that. This is basically about a magical death orgy, if you’re Freud. Although I guess so is everything, if you’re Freud. So…why WOULDN’T you want to read it? Sort yourself out.

Really though, as far as ridiculous fun and sinister fairy tales go, these are super examples of both. They are also an excellent cautionary tale for loved ones about the dangers of too much caffeine. You could also perhaps point them in the direction of my twitter feed. 

There are reviews on the site where you can (and surely must) buy it rather than on the e-book I recieved, here they are:

"It's basically a hate-poem to vaginas...[Frank] is like a modern Jack the Ripper, only with cartoon ponies."- Reverend CDAAAH
  
Apart from the fact that it's actually prose, nobody died and certainly certainly nobody was disembowelled on the streets of London, this is correct.

 "If a psychologist were ever to read this, he would lose his shit." - Frank's Mom

As I discussed, Freud would have a field day. Momcho is ever wise.

"O__________O...I don't wanna be a derp face" -Lady Gracington von Holtburg


Well, quite.


In summary, I agree with everything I said and whatever else I said I agreed with, and it will make you laugh. Buy it!

5 Mell-Heads, though one was recently taken away to be examined.