Thomas Wogan is Dead

Written and illustrated by Dave Hughes, the monthly cartoonist for Geoscientist magazine, Thomas Wogan is Dead begins with the mundane life of the titular character before moving to a strange purgatory-like environment. Thomas is a loner who worships Delia Smith, buying all her cookery books and even the body hair she shaved off on a radio show. As his favourite food is beans on toast, he doesn't share her culinary ambitions, but is quite specific as to how the meal should be prepared.
 
One day he finds himself in a white room with a bat, a fish, an egg, a natterjack toad, a cuckoo and a sea-urchin. Sitting there naked and holding a slip of paper with a number on it, he looks at the LED display and wonders what happens when his number comes up. Is Thomas really dead, or dreaming - and what do these creatures represent?
 
Meanwhile the inhabitants contemplate why they are there, what 'there' is and speculate that they have all died - apart from the egg of course, because eggs can't talk. The character designs are excellent and they all have their personas from the irritable and foul-mouthed cuckoo to the laconic fish.
 
This is a darkly humorous, almost existential, read which begs the question "How would you like to go?" It's a brief read at 88 pages, but is funny, moving and quirky, nonetheless, marking Dave Hughes as a talented writer and illustrator and I'm now considering buying his previous book The Immeasurable Adventures of Gorky Park (but not subscribing to Geoscientist magazine!).  I liked Thomas Wogan is Dead very much and it would make a fine present for someone this Christmas or even a coffee table book for yourself.