Review: Canned Haminal by Crystal Chesney-Thompson

by Chriss Cornish published: August 16, 2010 1 Comment

This Book Is About

Hmmm…a regular pig seems just too big to distribute in a handy consumer grade can. But wait, clever food scientists have found a way to combine a guinea pig, a hamster, and a regular ‘ol porker to create a cute and tasty critter just right for canned distribution. Behold the Haminal.

“He’s smaller, tastier / boneless and pink… / and fits in a can so much better, we think.”

My Thoughts On This Book

Canned Haminal is a super cute and funny little indie book that tells the story, in rhyming verse, of an imaginary animal/meat product that is equal parts adorable and silly. Think live hamster meets Spam™.

You’ll laugh. You’ll Giggle. You’ll go, “what the-?”

Crystal Chesney-Thompson’s Canned Haminal is one of the many cool self-published and small press works I discovered at the 2010 Comic Con here in San Diego. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the twice-my-size banner with a giant pink Haminal the size of a bulldog on it that drew me to the booth. No, it was the cover of a standard-sized comic over on her husband’s half of the table. It wasn’t until after I’d given Crystal the last of my Con cash for the three issues of Marishi 10 that I noticed HER work; all those plushies and the Canned Haminal book. *shakes head*

Oh, yes. I DID say “plushies”. She also sells little Haminals in an actual can with nutrition information on it. As well as some of the other animal/foods from the book.

So….This Book Thing…

This self-published book is about the size of a 7″ x 5″ photograph (when not open). The printing itself is good and done on decent paper

The art is crisp and in a graphic style with a nice color pallette. I also like the shapes that decorate the background in most of the pictures; it’s a nice touch that adds to the graphic style of the illustrations.

The rhymes are fun and simple enough to appeal to younger readers. The verses themselves are printed in easily read bold black sans-serif font.

Sample Pages

Crystal was kind enough to let me take some photos of the Canned Haminal book for this review, since I was fresh out of the ‘ol legal tender at the time.