Steve Lafler has maintained his status as a loose cannon on the deck of Alt/Underground movement comics for decades.

Ever the maverick marching to his own beat, Lafler enjoyed long runs of his improvised Dog Boy comic books as well as the jaunty, unhinged Buzzard anthology. From there the self-styled maestro settled into the BugHouse trilogy of graphic novels, a history of Bebop jazz realized with an all-insect cast.

Subsequently, the artist decamped to Oaxaca, Mexico with his family for a decade, where started a country-punk band, Radio Insecto.

Death Plays a Mean Harmonica is Lafler's fictional report on the sublime city of Oaxaca in graphic novel form.