Sunday Trade: three fingers

three fingers by Rich Koslowski

A dark look at a fictional parody of the Disney empire told in a documentary style. The book follows early film pioneer Dizzy Walters and his toon partner, Rickey Rat. Dizzy is a small time movie maker going nowhere when he discovers Rickey playing piano in a club in the toon slums. Recognizing the enormous potential in the toon rat, Dizzy makes "Railroad Rickey" and a star is born...

After that is when the story begins to get dark. While Rickey is a huge success other toon actors have a harder time crossing over. Eventually a bizarre superstition springs up. That Rickey owes his success to a birth defect where he has only 3 fingers on each hand. This leads to the Hollywood money elite to look the other way (and to secretly encourage) toon actors to maim themselves, having their hands surgically altered. The book at this point begins interviewing various other toon stars, mostly versions of the Warner Brothers stable of characters...

three fingers is a masterfully done story of greed and superstition, using a world of living toons. Showing how people can be willing to go to any lengths to achieve fame & fortune...