IDW Publishing 2016
Written by Ryan Ferrier
Illustrated by Valentin Ramon
Last issue we met Teddy Graham and his sponsor in hell Costello. We saw that hell isn’t anything like that book said it would be instead it’s one therapy session after another, a different kind of hell. So the boys broke the rules and went topside and got caught. Meanwhile in heaven things aren’t what they seem either. We ended with Teddy meeting the bossman downstairs. I gotta say this whole thing is like one big hallucinogenic trip and good or bad is up to the person having it. Fun and all kinds of plain wrong it’s a journey that kind of makes fun of what you think you know and provides a look at what hell could really be depending on the person.
So this issue some interesting stuff happens as we open with Teddy meeting well Satan or as he likes to be called Joe. There are consequences to the actions they took and we see that but what got me was the conversation the two had. Ryan is kind of giving us stuff out of left field here and it’s all kinds of awesome. I mean there’s so much double talk and ass-kissing and the stuff you hear when you’re being snowballed that it’s pretty darn impressive.
Ryan’s writing of this is probably one of the best things you can experience. I mean aside from the whole concept here what he’s doing with these characters is a kind of tongue in cheek smart humour that could have more meaning to it or it could just be hey I wanted to have fun and make some nonsense. So what you get out of it really is up to you and either way it’s just the kind of fun you don’t expect to have when dealing with these opposing, yeah right, versions of the afterlife.
Valentin’s doing some fun and amazing work on the interiors himself. I love the depiction between heaven and hell, the colours alone setting them apart for an otherwise eerily similar actions well it’s good stuff. Not only that but his eye for how this needs to flow is great as his use of pages and panels demonstrate. This is for adult readers and as such i’d like to see more actually shown, so that scene with Teddy on that creatures lap, is something going up his butt?, or when God got out of bed with one that would break the record books, should’ve been shown not black boxed.
I do like Maria’s little segment here. After what Teddy tried to do by seeing her and then seeing the flashback during his therapy session she’s a wildcard. Meaning we really don’t know much about her from her angle so seeing even a little bit helps flesh out not only her character but why Teddy holds her in such high regard as well. Though what she says makes me want to know more now more than ever.
His holy bedroom oh goodness yes and thank you for this. I like the equal opportunity portrayal here. Sex is sex and God well he enjoys it and doesn’t matter the gender well done! The real great part is why we’re there however and how this will affect what’s happening to Teddy. Ah such revelations and nuggets of things that will impact the story are showcased here and it makes things go from just that highly amusing weird story to something with a lot more meat to it.
Don’t sleep on this one folks this is the kind of stuff that meant for water cooler discussion!