Kid Crazy and the Kilowatt King

There’s nothing like a journey into the big city to test your mettle, so Kid Crazy sets his sights on a distant metropolis. Along the way, he meets a glowing top-hatted robot named Denunzio, who tries to warn him of the dangers of the city, especially the menacing, demanding, and very rude Kilowatt King. Denunzio joins Kid Crazy on his adventure through the strange hinterlands around the city before they both confront the Kilowatt King on this throne.

Kid Crazy and the Kilowatt King is a two-fold story, capturing all the wonder and delights of a boy’s first adventure on a quest to prove himself, only for the second story to kick in later, as Kid Crazy gives both the reader and the Kilowatt King a lesson in the redeeming power of politeness.

The strange and imaginative visuals are like Shel Silverstein and Dave McKean took a crack at populating the Star Wars universe with peculiar creatures, and it gives both the City and Kid Crazy a wonderful, dirty, mechanical aesthetic all their own.

Kid Crazy and the Kilowatt King couches its morals in both rhyming silliness and visual weirdness, but the message shines through. It’s an Aesop’s fable for a new generation.