Jackson, Rob – Great Deeds Against the Dead #2

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Great Deeds Against the Dead #2

As you can probably guess from that cover, that mysterious creature from the cover of the first issue does indeed come into play this time around.  This is also the end of the series, so all my questions from the last issue are neatly wrapped up.  That creature with the giant gumball head is the most evil toy ever, made after a the residents of a frat wake up hung over, send their dopiest member to pick up the toys needed for a school project (if they don’t finish right away the dean will throw out their entire fraternity!), and he accidentally picks the box marked “evil toys”.  They’re all melted down, poured into a mold, and form into that thing in the front of the train.  This thing gets sent back in time (after which the experimental time machine blows up), so he/it has had plenty of time to set some evil plans in motion.  I’m trying not to ruin anything again this time around, but if you look closely at that cover you’ll see one half of the psychic adventurers, the artist Tisdale Carnegie and his lawyer (strapped to a board).  So clearly they all end up together eventually, but the fun is in the journey, right?  Bits in here that I feel OK giving away involve the psychic adventurers being trapped in a funhouse (and being forced to stand around all day in costume to earn their daily meal of hot dogs), Tisdale’s agent running into the lawyer for that creature (with disastrous results for the agent’s friend), and Tisdale building a box out of his dead love’s picture (which is the only thing that lets him see).  That’s just scraping the surface of the insanity in here, but Rob does an excellent job of tying up all the loose ends and bringing it all home, even managing to end on a (darkly) funny note.  There’s even a tiny strip on the front and back cover dealing with the early days of the evil gumball machine creature.  The story is wrapped up, you can get the whole thing in two easy installments, and I think it would be an excellent idea if you did so.  $2