Viola, Jason – Herman the Manatee Gets Hit By A Boat Volume 1

Website

Herman the Manatee Gets Hit By A Boat Volume 1

You’d think that a strip that almost always ended with the main character getting hit by a boat would get boring in a hurry. It threatens to get boring but Jason does an admirable job of turning it around before it goes off the rails. The art is fantastic, which is almost a shame as there really isn’t a lot to show most of the time other than a manatee, some fish or possibly a surface view. It’s comics like this that make me think that I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss web comics. Well, it’s not I dismiss them out of hand, it’s just that I get so many physical mini comics that it would be impossible to get into reviewing web comics too. If you were wondering, yes, this is the exact same reason why I don’t review zines. Anyway, I should probably mention a few of the comics, even if I have already given away the ending for most of them. Herman is lured up to the surface by a song, bubbles, different asshole fish and a fortune cookie. He tries a few different methods to get around this problem, each with varying degrees of a lack of success. We also see a bit of Herman’s early days, and from those it’s a wonder that he ever gets out of whatever he uses as a bed in the morning. There’s also a smartly done parody of the work of both George Herriman and Edward Gorey to liven things up when it starts dragging a bit. Jason sent along three more volumes of this series, and it may or may not get terribly boring over the long term. Either way, this first issue is worth a look, and if you don’t believe me then his website should have more than enough samples to convince you. $3