Cochlea & Eustachia, Volume 2

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Henry Chamberlain | May 21, 2026

What can one say about Cochlea and Eustachia that these two lasses can't say for themselves? If you're a Hans Rickheit fan, you know that these vixens are the Betty and Veronica of the underworld. Or the Veronica and Veronica? For the discerning mature reader who appreciates the finer things in life, Hans Rickheit's work is, without a doubt, sublime and masterful. Cochlea & Eustachia Volume 2 collects all the most recent serialized webcomics and it is a delight to behold. I just wanted to provide some thoughts inspired by what I see. If I'm left with any questions, I can always pause and know I can look into those vacant eyes of our twin dynamic duo and realize that no answer can sometimes be the most liberating response. You don't have to know everything! It's all there on the page. Then again, there are layers of subtext that you might miss on a first reading, layers of sadness and layers of questions meant to allude easy answers—or embrace no answers at all.

Hans Rickheit got off to an early start, already creating comics to be read by the public while still in high school. Soon after, he had embarked upon his life’s work, beginning with his mini-comic series, Chrome Fetus, featuring the two beguiling twins he was destined to work with up to the present. Key moments in Rickheit’s career include winning a Xeric Grant for his graphic novella, Chloe in 2001. This is closely followed by the Cochlea & Eustachia comic strip in the notable Seattle alt-weekly, The Stranger, circa 2002. This led to Rickheit’s graphic novel, The Squirrel Machine, along with other titles, published by Fantagraphics in 2003. A first volume collecting Cochlea & Eustachia was published by Fantagraphics in 2014. Rickheit has now released his own second volume.

Sure enough, Volume 2 offers more of what fans love: generous helpings of surrealism, erotica, body horror, and absurd humor, and nothing so pedestrian as a traditional story arc. Our two main characters are not going to go on a journey of self-discovery and evolve into the best versions of themselves. No, they're more likely to just thoughtlessly rip and tear their way through whatever catches their very nebulous minds.

Cochlea and Eustachia invite you to become one with them in their mad pursuits. Certainly, these are not mere objects to gaze upon, there’s something far more going on. As much as Daisy Mae of Lil' Abner comes from a pin-up tradition, she’s also so much more, a true force of nature, even supernatural. That kind of transcendent quality can be found in the very best characters that manage to bridge the gap between the salacious and the profound: characters that are pleasing to the eye and take it further, invite every eye, and mind, to engage with it.

Our two girls pad about the confines of some massive Victorian mansion, or castle, decked out like a freakish haunted fun house, complete with endless corridors, forbidden rooms and dank and creepy nooks and crannies. The girls are painfully lonely and don't even realize it. They would just as soon make friends with a rat than stoop too close to self-reflection. They are best at reacting to what they see and then instinctively using whatever seems handy, from eyeballs to anus. It should not surprise you to know that various items, alive or nearly dead, will make their way to one hole and come out the other. Well, that’s body horror for you, along with Rickheit’s take on the subconscious. That brings me back to the fact that our twin dynamos: ids in overdrive inviting you to free yourself of any inhibitions, whatever your carnal and sensual tastes, they dare you to tap into your inner misfit.

The air is filled with a sense of dread and debauchery. All it needs to reach a delicious perfection is some inane and naive comment by our duo. Eustachia (or is it Cochlea?) has taken a liking to a mysterious man who has a head shaped like a diving helmet with a bulging eye and antlers. He has been bestowed with the nickname of, "Fronky." There is nothing remotely charming about Fronky but he has become a favorite, at least for the moment. Is Fronky a friend or a foe? Maybe both. Maybe neither. But get a load of those antlers! There’s one scene where Cochlea ( or is it Eustachia?) takes a shit in a chamber pot and, once she wanders off, Fronky picks up the specimen for, who knows what, further study?

We keeping moving along and it's not long before all the poking and prodding leads to an inner world populated with an endless army of duplicate versions of Cochlea & Eustachia. They also wear masks but don't bother with anything else. They're simply naked and running around, getting into all sorts of trouble. There’s a little toad of a man, along with some actual humanoid toads, who wish to get the better of these lasses but they never seem to get very far. The original Cochlea & Eustachia duo are besides themselves. If they lingered for too long on any one given moment, it is anybody's guess whether they would laugh or scream. I appreciate the devilish beauty and endlessly applaud.

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