Lou and Wendell are back after a 6-month hiatus...boy, was I excited!
 
Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of Wendell in this issue. And I like Wendell faaaaar better than the star of this series. He's the Jerry Lewis to Lou's Dean Martin. Imagine that...the werewolf is the straight man! It is precisely Wendell's dialog that gives this comic it's magical (and comical) touch. Lacking an abundance of this ingredient, this installment comes off as "decompressed."
 
That aside, this issue does have a lot of wacky action. Lou and fellow bounty hunter, Deschain, are in hot pursuit of a coyote who is transporting far more than illegals across the Arizona border. And this extraneous cargo is extremely well drawn. AAMOF the scenes of chaos are far better designed than anything I've seen in this title before. It is apparent that Diego Greco is honing his craft as this story evolves. Too bad I can't say the same for writer, Joe Kelly.

 

What happens after frogs rain cats and dogs? They eat each other of course!
 
The canine cast of characters from the Dark Horse Book of Hauntings and the Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft are back with a couple of their feline pals for this new miniseries. They're scratching fleas and solving mysteries for Truth, Justice, and The American Way!    

After witnessing the strange downpour followed by the amphibian cannibalism, Whitey, Jack, Ace, Red and the rest of the gang are taken aback by the fact that the frogs have all disappeared as quickly as they came upon the scene. And in the now-established tradition of the beasts of Burden Hill, the dogs are compelled to investigate these mysterious phenomena.

The story is basically pretty straightforward. After all we are dealing with the intellect of pugs and beagles. But the painted artwork by Jill Thompson is so cute and charming that you just want to cut these characters out and paste them all over your shoes.

 Holy, moley…you ain’t ever seen sea creatures like this before! 
 
Swordfish in armor dueling with aplomb! Of course they can do that, because they have arms and legs.Schools of tiny fish that talk! Of course, they can only say one or two words at a time, but everything they say, they say in unison.A cute little puppy-fish! Of course he’s a vicious pit-bull that will gnaw a tentacle off an octopus in a New York minute, but he’s got such a cute puppy-fish nose.

If you think that these characters sound strange, their motives are even stranger. I became so engrossed with the piscine shenanigans at the bottom of the sea, that I forgot why Cursed Pirate Girl went down there to begin with. Usually when I read a book, whether it be a comic book or a novel, something odd will occur and I'll think to myself, "This is like when Batman did such and such...or King Lear did that." But I never recall similar occurrences from other works when reading CPG. It is just that original.

This is the best thing from Marvel all year. Paul Pope, Pete Bagge, Bertozzi, Jason...what a line-up!
 
One story is funnier than the next in this anthology, and they all make fun of iconic Marvel characters. Pope's tale about the Inhumans is the centerpiece of this comic. It is also the longest contribution, and the hero of the team is Lockjaw!...returning from his triumphant rescue of Bo Obama in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers!
 
The Watcher in Bertozzi's 1-pager is a perv with hairy legs wearing high-heels. Kochalka has the Hulk being attacked by pathetic clones of himself. Jason has his dog/bear/non-specific animals in the roles of Spider-Man, the Flash and Doc Octopus. Johnny Ryan's story has Aunt May buying porno. What more can one want in a comic book?

Well, now I know the reason for the title. The hero of this book, Gus, likes chocolate bars. That's the only sweet thing about this comic.
 
Gus is the victim of an unnamed disease or genetic defect which has manifested itself in his having antlers. Other children afflicted by this maledy appearently show other abnormalities, such as being covered in fur.
 
His father is also the victim of an unnamed disease. So was his mother, before she died. But this is not the disease that the children have. It seems to be something akin to tuberculosis. 
 
Gus and his father live in a forest where hunters go around blowing each others brains out.
 
This is a lighthearted and uplifting comic...not! It is also extremely light on copy, so it can be read in about 3 minutes. The art is fair enough, though not really to my liking. Compared to this title, the Walking Dead is a laugh riot.

Uh oh...this is what I was afraid of.  The Chew storyline is sliding downhill. 
 
I thought the writing was more interesting in issue #2 than issue #1, but the introduction of Amelia caused me some trepidation. Introducing a romantic interest (that didn't exist from the very beginning) in a comic so soon makes the whole storyline seem rushed and turns the whole project into a "love comic." I would have preferred for Chu to have a few more adventures working for the FDA before being sidetracked by a woman. So, now we have the third issue of the series almost totally revolving around Tony's infatuation with this restaurant reviewer.
 
Will this be an ongoing series or just a 5-issue mini? The breakneck speed at which Layton is taking this book makes me wonder if he will even have enough material to take it to #5. I hope I'm proven wrong, but right now I have a problem. I haven't had enough time to get to know and empathize with Tony to care whether or not he gets his girl.
 
The art, as usual, is fabulous.

Mr. Stuffins has a secret…inside his fluffy little body. It’s a secret program, meant to be implanted in a giant killing machine, but all the best laid plans of teddy bears and men often go awry. So we find out in Mr. Stuffins #1.

Zach is a little boy with two type A parents who are about to get separated. His father takes some time out of his busy day to buy Zach a toy at the mall, hoping that a gift will make the boy feel better about his tenuous life. The father shows the boy a football, trying to distract him from reading about all the features of an EZ-Bake oven. But in the end another toy catches Zach’s eye, a “Mr. Stuffins Teddy Bear”. The bear turns out to be the depository of a top-secret chip that was implanted in haste when a certain Black Ops type individual found himself cornered in the mall.

Zach goes home to his mother, his slutty sister and his sad life, while his father goes on with his business. During the night, Mr. Stuffins comes to life and the mayhem begins, but mostly in the form of bragadacious bravado to impress Zach. In issue #2, Mr. Stuffins actually confronts some bad-ass operatives who break into Zach’s home in order to kidnap his family. By the end of this issue, the mystery becomes full-blown. This is really, to my surprise, a very well written book.

I like the art. A little bit Sam Keith, a little bit Humberto Ramos. Not as good as Keith, but a lot better than Ramos in my opinion. Both the style and the layouts are pretty decent. There were a couple of spots that I had to examine for awhile before I could tell what was going on, but this Rob Guillory guy is new and given time, I'm sure his storytelling skills will improve.

Now to the writing. John Layman is a veteran, so I'm going to be more critical in evaluating his work on this. I like the premise. I like it a lot! But I thought that the script could have been quite a bit funnier. John has it in him, so I was disappointed. I'm hoping the issue #2 (Tony going to work for the F.D.A.) drives the story up a notch.

This is the continuation of the saga that began in Bad Dog #1. I'm not a big Kelly fan, but the cover of #1 intrigued me, so I gave it a shot. The "bad dog" in question is half of a bounty hunting team named Lou, who is a werewolf. Lou is unique among werewolves in that he chooses to remain in his lupine form at all times, so as to always be intimidating in case his quarry should suddenly appear.

However, despite Lou's uniqueness and despite his first-star billing, the really interesting member of this team is his partner, Wendell...a fat, ugly, normal human being who curses more eloquently than any fictional character that comes to mind. Wendell's penchant for storytelling compares, somewhat, to that of the Joker, but with absolutely no charisma whatsoever and no element of dangerous intent implied. Wendell might be dangerous in the end, but as far as I can tell, it is Lou who is the danger. Wendell is just a bungling moron who comes up with more metaphors for sex and masturbation than Moliere.

If you like a lot of bar room action...in the sense of excessive drinking, violence and language, you'll like this book.

It's the Christmas season and, predictably, time of Santa-denying again. In Jingle Belle Holiday Special Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein, the Scrooge wannabe is not a crotchety old man or a goofy imaginary animal, but a lady politician...totally predictable these days when every creative endeavor, it seems, is steeped in politics. How boring is it when the very first word balloon is uttered by a character who is immediately pegged as at best immoral and at worst prison-worthy?

The artwork by Stephanie Gladden, a fellow member of the Atlanta comics family, is spot-on. Her visual storytelling in this particular genre is unparalleled, so I gritted my teeth and read on suspiciously, reveling in her spectacular compositional talent. But all the artistic genius in the world couldn't suppress the gag effect that eventually overcame me. My apologies go out to Steph whose abilities, I believe, were wasted here.

I yearned for a twist in the story that would have made it more interesting, but as I read on, Paul Dini's agenda became so evident, I gave up hope. Traditionally, Christmas tales are meant to be uplifting...terminating in an epiphany that restores one's faith in humanity. Instead all I got was a 21st century morality play that, in the end, propped up the Frankenstein monster as the true holiday hero, while Santa came off as little more than a politically-correct, accomodating entrepreneur...and a poser.

Which brings me to the most disappointing aspect of Dini's scenerio. It wasn't funny. When it becomes taboo for any character (except maybe one running for public office) to be portrayed as stupid or downright bad...when each and every hero is also an antihero...when no demographic can be insulted for fear of racial (or whatever) profiling...there can be no true comedy. What makes people laugh is not grey area pandering. Humor is black and white...stupid and smart...right and wrong. What makes something funny is that it is painfully true.

Ubu Bubu is actually two characters. Ubu is an adorable crayon-eating kitty. Bubu is the demonic creature that uses Ubu as a host.

In the first issue (the cover of which I could find on comicvine) Bubu had killed and devoured the parents of the children who kept Ubu as a pet. Bubu turned the children into prisoners in their home, doing the bidding of the Doom List handled by Stig, "The Ringmaster of Chaos." There are other extremely bizarre secondary characters that I will not even innumerate here, since even the vaguest description would be a spoiler.

In the second issue, Henry, one of the children, has a birthday party that would make the party in the movie "Blue Velvet" look like something straight out of "Sesame Street." And the Sexy Nazi Pool Party Culminating in the group crucifixion of the party-goers is hilarious.

This comic is one of those gems that cannot be delved into in terms of plot or character development, because death and subsequent resurrection are a page to page occurrence. But every page takes one by surprise guided by Smart's incredibly crafted storytelling.