Forget about elections, snow, wild tigers ripping at your face, bills, those same tigers ripping at your legs, problems with your girlfriend, problems with your boyfriend, problems with your tiger, global warming, house fires, the mumps, the whooping cough, rubella, zombie bites, swarms of bees, bees and tigers mating to breed flying, stinging death machines, and that crazy ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
SALVATION is here in the form of ace cartoonist Jacob Chabot.
WHO?!
To quote Christopher Walken, “Jacob Chabot is just like you or I…he puts his pants on one leg at a time. The only difference is, once he has his pants on He makes Eisner nominated comics.”
Mighty Skullboy Army Vol. 2, Jacob Chabot (W/A), Dark Horse
I have no problem writing that Jacob Chabot is one of the most talented cartoonists working in comics today…and the fact that he’s still working is an incredible miracle! Last time I saw Jacob’s stuff was over in Spongebob Comics Magazine where he draws an impressive amount of the material, and previous to that he had a two pager in the Fear Itself tie-in humor comic Shame Itself.
The guy is working hard to make a living in a field he loves, a field with diminishing returns and thankless hustle. Jacob caught a break when he won Dark Horse’s online comics contest several years’ back. At the time, the comics industry could see money to be made off web comics but couldn’t quite figure out how to do it. Both Dark Horse and DC’s ZUDA web comics were run as contests…I think we all won!
Thanks to this period we not only have the amazing Chabot’s Mighty Skullboy Army, but we also have Steve Ellis and David Gallaher’s Harvey Nominated and highly awesome weird west werewolf comic High Moon at DC’s ZUDA.
But I digress.
OF SKULLBOYS AND STAPLES
The Mighty Skullboy Army features the half-assed attempts to take over the world by a squat, tuxedo-wearing Skeleton. Though a brilliant inventor, he only seems to know two ways to solve problems: Throw money at the problem or send in his army.
In this particular case, Skullboy’s eponymous army of might consists of just two individuals, a clanky blue robot and a wiry monkey. Both of them are smarter than he is. Both of them are far more even tempered.
Skullboy sends his army against school bullies, Future versions of himself, bears and whatever else he feels he can. The stories feature around gentle humor and wacky situations…kinda’ like a dumb Ritchie Rich meets Red Dwarf.
The art is striking, tight ink control over crisp clear lines. Cute characters full of flow and style. It is some of the most visionary and exciting American comics being done today.
If you can find the first volume of Mighty Skullboy Army anyplace BUY IT instantly. Lucky for all of us, the second volume of this flat out amazing comic is available this week from Dark Horse.
Buy it, enjoy it, treasure it forever and DO watch out for flying bee/tiger hybrids. Bigers? Tees?
——————————————————————
More musings from Unkiedev, Earth’s own sidekick, can be read at unkiedev.blogspot.com
