Lio is a creative, surreal comic about Lio, a young boy who lives in a world full of monsters and various creatures that he likes to befriend. Created by Mark Tatulli, Lio began in 2006 and has a spooky atmosphere, with minimal dialogue. While the child Lio is drawn to the supernatural and has a morbid sense of humor, the normal people around him often take on the role of the “ordinary guy.”
The comic can sometimes resemble Calvin and Hobbes crossed with The Adams familyexplore the world through the eyes of a unique child, with many slightly scary elements. While Lio is not as popular as the previously mentioned strips, but these parts blend into a tone that stands out from other comic strips while also providing plenty of humorous, imaginative jokes.
10 Lio took “operation” literally
Release date: June 15, 2021
In this strip, Lio was given a long build-up to getting ready for surgery, with several panels showing him dressing up in a surgical outfit for the role. The final panel then revealed that Lio had misunderstood his father’s invitation to play the game Operation as meaning Lio was allowed to operate on someone.
This means that Lio spent a lot of time preparing for the surgery and choosing the right surgical instruments for the operation, only to be surprised to find that he was actually supposed to be playing a game with his father. Another possibility is that Lio knew he was going to play a board game, but decided to immerse himself in his role using his morbid sense of humor.
9 Lio demonstrated crazy science to Pooh and Piglet
Release date: July 14, 2006
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In this comic, which shows the strip’s consistent black humor, Lio is caught by Tigger conducting a scientific experiment on Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, who for unknown reasons switch heads. In a room decorated like Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, Lio has an innocent, surprised look on his face, as if he didn’t expect to be caught, but he also doesn’t fully understand the consequences of his actions.
To keep the gag from becoming so dark that it becomes unfunny, Tigger’s face was only shown as shocked rather than sad, making the joke easier to digest. Additionally, since Lio’s motivation for experimenting on the popular characters remains unexplored, the reader is free to come up with any humorous explanation for the situation.
8 Lio has set up his own version of Uber
Release date: September 27, 2019
In a bit of classic darkness Lio Humor mixed with topicality: This strip featured Lio setting up a driving service called “Luber” to pull Death in a wagon to his next destination. The joke showed Lio’s childlike innocence, as if he was hanging out with an imaginary friend. If his comic still existed today, one could imagine a similar drawing of Calvin pulling Hobbes in a wagon combined with a similar money-making idea from Calvin.
Although this film still did not use dialogue, it was a rare Lio Comic where you can read a conversation, complete with a grim description of Death’s duties. Other funny elements included Death’s use of a smartphone and the sight of Death in a crouched position as he rides in a children’s cart.
7 Lio built a snowman out of wet cement
Release date: July 8, 2019
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Another gag is reminiscent of Calvin and HobbesLio built a snowman in this strip, but instead of making it out of snow, he molded it out of wet cement and then left. While Calvin often gave his snowmen surreal or terrifying features, Liō chose to build a normal-looking snowman, with the wet cement being the highlight. Another way Lio stands out from other children in comic strips can be seen here: his winter hat is decorated with a small skull on the top – an artistic choice that is very characteristic of Lio.
Whether Lio was intentionally bothering the construction worker with his snowman remained unclear. Given that there was no snow on the grass and the comic was published in July, the most likely conclusion was that this scene did not even take place in winter, making Lio’s motives even more suspect.
6 Lio wished for something from a shooting star
Release date: February 20, 2023
In this joke, Lio seems like a normal kid who wants to wish on a star. Rather than having some morbid wish come true that involved monsters or aliens, Lio and his annoyance were the focus of the gag. Interestingly, this choice allowed Lio to act as a “straight” character, which is unusual for the series.
The stars’ actions, including their ability to transform into texting language – including repeatedly writing “JK” or “Just Kidding” – raised amusing questions about the laws that govern Lio’s universe. Even in-universe, the stars cracked a joke, much to Lio’s annoyance and shock in the third panel. Lio’s shocked expression in the third panel also seemed like a phenomenon that doesn’t normally occur.
5 Lio fell through his own roof
Release date: November 29, 2008
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The surreal gag in this comic shows Lio falling endlessly and then waking up safely in his bed – a common phenomenon among people who have nightmares. However, when Lio looked up, he realized that he had somehow crashed through his roof. The way this sequence plays out is left unexplained to the reader, resulting in a combination of surreal horror and humor.
This joke feels like something from Alice in Wonderlandwith a focus on dream logic and a bizarre outcome. A nice artistic decision in the first two panels was that the edges of the drawing were drawn particularly jagged as Lio falls, which heightens the sense of terror. Lio seemed like a normal child here who was attracted to strange things. He even had a small stuffed animal in the shape of a vampire rabbit that comforted him when he woke up.
4 Lio took Harold’s purple crayon
Release date: September 30, 2012
The simple joke in this one-panel comic was the aftermath of Lio’s theft of the crayon from Harold and the purple crayonand used it to help other children in the Lio Universe. True to Lio’s character, when given the ability to create anything with a magic pen, Lio decided to use it because of its fear potential. The children Lio scared were specifically drawn in Mark Tatulli’s style rather than Harold’s, showing that the events took place in Lio’s world.
A detail that readers who are not familiar with Harold and the purple crayon was Harold’s look of utter annoyance, which provided a humorous contrast to his usual demeanor. Another funny detail was that Lio went to the trouble of drawing a crescent moon in the sky before drawing a monster, suggesting that he wanted to try out the crayon first, although the moon also helped to make the gag clearer.
3 Lio may have won a competition
Release date: June 12, 2021
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In this rather cute scene, Lio received a standard, untrustworthy sweepstakes letter and assumed that “Maybe you’ve already won!” meant he was being congratulated on a definite win. Alternatively, Lio was celebrating the possibility that he might win. This comic was a fun inversion of the usual reaction someone would have to a piece of junk mail, and alluded to a false win for the recipient as Lio acted as if he was definitely a winner.
Some of the more detailed drawings in this strip contrast with Lio’s simple design. The second panel shows Lio with unusually realistic hands and fingers, and the third panel shows Lio on a podium in front of more elaborate looking fireworks. These elements contrast with Lio’s childlike innocence by giving the joke a bit of a more realistic, adult world.
2 Trees advertised Artificial trees
Release date: December 1, 2017
Here, Lio marched happily with an axe and the intention of cutting down a pine tree, presumably for Christmas. However, the trees themselves placed a flyer in front of Lio’s face to convince him to buy an artificial tree instead. This early December strip was obviously tied to Christmas, which was only hinted at by the addition of the pine trees and Lio’s axe.
This comic keeps what exactly Lio was doing hidden until the last panel, as his axe is not fully visible until the last panel. In this way, Tatulli creates some suspense as to what exactly happens until the reader reaches the end. Before that, one might assume that Lio was holding a baseball bat or a sign. Ironically, the trees may have drawn attention as Lio seemingly walked away from them.
1 A shady television seduced Lio
Release date: November 22, 2016
The silly gag in this scene was when Lio tried to go to the library, but then a strange looking TV appeared in a nearby alley and beckoned Lio over like a stranger trying to sell drugs to a child. This was also a rare Lio Strips with actual spoken dialogue, although Lio himself remained silent so that his reaction could be read however the reader wanted to interpret it.
Amusingly, the spoken dialogue came from an object that does not speak in the real world, let alone move, hiding in an alley, which added to the humor and the typically surreal atmosphere of a Lio Strip. The joke could also be read as a metaphor, as Tatulli is expressing that television is addictive and children should spend more time reading. Overall, the sequence was another hilarious joke from Lio that helped make this comic strip incredibly popular.
