Scout Comics 2020
Written by Bob Frantz & Kevin Cuffe
Illustrated by Walter Ostlie
Lettered & Edited by Chas! Pangburn
The last we saw of Metalshark Bro, dude was transformed back into a regular shark that swam off into the sunset. It was a classic revenge mission: he killed A LOT of people, got the giant floating eyeball, ate a lot of grub, and defeated Satan's nephew. Unfortunately, this victory was short-lived. A demon hamster kidnapped his bestie, so now he's forced out of his sharky-sabbatical to fight off Cthulhu dudes, mutant alligators, magic demons, and his own aggression.
Since I have been reviewing comics I have been branching out further from my so-called comfort zone and I will wholeheartedly admit that I am super glad that I have been. Because in all honesty this usually wouldn’t be something I would gravitate towards. So while the humour can be a little predictable and lowbrow that doesn’t make it any less funny or fun to read. Every facet of this book feels like a rip-off of something so much larger but the life of me I cannot, remember what made us think that we were wise and we’d never compromise, place what it would be. So it really is something that falls into the whole reminds you of but is wholly pretty unique.
I like the way that this is being told. The way we see the plot & story development always moving forward through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is laid out beautifully. I am enjoying how we see the characters being introduced and what role in the scheme of things they play. Mind this is volume 2 so the fact that it is so new reader friendly is hugely important and it should make you want to go back and find volume 1 as that’s now on my list of things to do. The character development is sensational and the personalities are hard to miss and even harder to not like, regardless of who’s who. It is crazy fun to see them act out who they are before us and I couldn’t help but continue to giggle at some of the wording, phrasing and the kind of unbridled audacity that they possess. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we are able to see just how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
Walter is this kind of mad genius because I shouldn’t enjoy his work as much as I do. It brings me this mad underground comix vibe where we mix heaven and hell with Dungeons & Dragons to come up with these utterly charming characters. The creativity and imagination that we see is delightful and how we see the faces and the facial expressions bring them all to life in some really astonishing ways. Krogun’s face when he gulped I loved that face and that expression. The way we see backgrounds being utilised throughout not only enhance the moments or bring us a better understanding of this realm they also show depth perception bring us a sense of scale and provide the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. I am a big fan of the colour work we see as well. We see some unique and bold colour choices and then how we see the various hues and tones within those colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is gorgeous.
It really is nice to see that Scout can go to opposite corners with what they bring us. The uber serious, the uncanny and the damn funny there isn’t anything missing from the repertoire except maybe a revival of Maze Agency. This is a good fun time and it’s its utter ridiculousness that makes it that way and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.