"An irony-free synaesthetic experience"

My latest Astral Weeks column at the L.A. Times looks at Dash Shaw's phenomenal Bodyworld:

Though Panther upends the social order, disastrously, in his quest to pin down the plant's psychotropic qualities, he wears his heart on his sleeve. "I just want to meet a nice girl who's into 'Tarnsman of Gor' and settle down," he explains, with helpless, hilarious sincerity. In one of many bravura backstories, we learn that a once-suicidal Panther fell into his line of work thanks in part to his aching response to some Viagra spam; ignoring its meticulously mangled language, he discerns a painful truth about his lack of bedroom prowess.