“The story is depressing as often as it is funny, a cautionary tale that’s at its best when Hanselmann spreads his writing wings, extending beyond a gag strip into an honest exploration of his deeply flawed leads.” “Profane though it is, the narrative of three 20-something roommates casually tormenting each other mixes an intelligent understanding of depression and anhedonia with its crudeness.”

“Featuring old-school underground comix, but with the style and serial nature of even older-school Sunday newspaper comics strips, Megahex is the sort of comic that could only gestate on the Internet, and only find final, full expression in book form from a publisher like Fantagraphics. Hanselmann evokes conflicting emotions the characters are hilarious, yet moments of desperation and true sadness emerge from the bong smoke.” “The strips are intricately drawn and painstakingly watercoloured, while the narratives are a gloomy insight into the lives of suburban down-and-outs. And what you’ll leave with is far scarier than any spook house frights the fear of looking deeply at yourself in the mirror and finding a monster (or nothing) in your place.” There are plenty of hysterical Darwin Award-worthy situations in Megahex, but that’s not likely to be your takeaway. But there’s so much lurking beneath the seemingly superficial surfaces - questions about friendship, loyalty, love, drug addiction, sexual identity, and hopelessness.

It would be easy to dismiss Megahex as another stoner comic. is an existential stoner tale that is part Furry Freak Brothers, part Beavis and Butt-Head, and part Jean Paul Sartre (with some Jackass thrown in for good measure). He Captures that stoner stay-at-home life so accurately that I actually find his comics really depressing and thank God I don't ever have to hang out with anybody like that ever again.” “For a series about slackers, these books are remarkably emotionally visceral and intense.”

Megahex by Simon Hanselmann