Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch
Viper Comics
Josh Howard, the writer/artist responsible for Dead @ 17 with a rep for drawing cute girls imperiled by and fighting back against the supernatural, presents a nice, thick anthology of short stories starring the most charismatic of cryptozoology's creatures. Howard himself writes and draws two of the tales, and 52 other writers and artists contribute a wide variety of stories involving Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), Yetis and Sasquatches of all stripes.
Standard anthology standards apply—some stories are awesome, some are awful, most are pretty great—but they all feature a big, hairy monster man in a pivotal role. Fight stories abound—including Bigfoot vs. a vampire, a puma, hunters, a manticore, UFOs, Osama bin Laden, environmental activists and Hollywood—but the book seems to cover all of the bases of traditional versions of the character, while adding a few new ones.
Alex Ness contributes a four-page script that sums up our fascination with the mythical monster men, which exist in some form in almost every culture, that could act as the book's thesis statement.
Then there's the Yeti or Sasquatch as wise man of the wilderness, imparting natural wisdom and protecting those in danger.
There's Bigfoot as big, scary monster, violently tearing campers apart, often in defense of scantily clad women.
The Bass/Rankin abominable snowman from the stop-motion Rudolph specials sort of appears, in a story by Christopher Graybill in which Santa Claus sends a Yeti to punish naughty boys on his behalf, since he can only personally mess with children during the Christmas season (it doesn't work out very well for the Yeti).
And in perhaps the weirdest story, we're presented with a Yeti that has a steam shovel for a right arm and wears a little yellow hard hat, and causes an environmental quandary (he's an endangered species and thus protected, but he also wants to drill for oil).
Johnny Hiro
AdHouse
Giant monsters and giant robots aren't merely staples of Japanese pop culture, they're also staples of American pop culture making fun of Japanese pop culture. "Staple" is, of course, a kinder way to say "cliché," and the fact that Fred Chao's Johnny Hiro involves both, topped off with a groaning pun of a title, wasn't exactly a good sign.
But as hard as it may be to believe, Chao's giant Japanese monster parody actually is different from all the others you've seen. This black and white story follows Johnny (described on the cover as "half Asian, all hero") through a wild night in which kaiju "Gozadilla" comes to Brooklyn to capture his girlfriend Mayumi from their bed. Why? A flashback explains that her mother was part of the Voltron-like giant robot pilot team, and he's out for revenge. Johnny sort of haplessly follows along, until the monster is felled by jet lag, and disposed of by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who actually has a fairly substantial guest-starring role.
Chao's story gets by on plenty of quirky charm and a comfortable, lived-in version of the Brooklyn setting. The stunted pronunciation of Mayumi seemed wrong to me, but maybe Chao just knows more English-as-second-language Japanese women than I do. Art is nice, with a theatricality (like the stars).
Super F*ckers
Top Shelf
James Kochalka's insanely profane series Super F*ckers is now on its fourth issue, though it's numbered 277 just to be annoying. The premise is a simple one—a group of teen superheroes all hang out together, in the style of the Legion of Superheroes or Teen Titans—but these are more like real teenagers, meaning they're a pack of insufferable douchebags who are only interested in drugs, drink and sex, and communicate almost exclusively in swear words, gay jokes and inappropriate uses of the word "retarded." It's kind of like Seinfeld, but instead of being a show about nothing, it's a comic about nothing ... nothing but hilarious swearing, of course. That's been the joke for four issues straight now, but it's still funny. It may have something to do with Kochalka's super-cute art (he's the guy who released an aesthetics essay entitled "The Cute Manifesto") and ultra-bright colors, which stick to bright primaries and pastels, softening the ugliness of the characters while accentuating the outrageousness of their actions. A naked bleeding dude tripping out on the hallucinogenic slime trail left by an alien ally who's just injured himself by trying to have sex with a piece of pottery might be scary in the hands of some artists, but it's actually kind of cute in Kochalka's minimalist style.