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H., Eric – Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #2
Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #2
Eric made the decision to keep his comics self-contained after putting out the first half of the first “Odd Jobs,” and can I just reiterate that it was an excellent idea. This issue features out hero going back out to find another job and, as always, his options are rather limited. He goes with “paranormal investigator” over “gnome wrangler”and “dragon slayer” and ends up trying to figure out the truth about a UFO sighting. He heads out to the farm (and alien sightings are always on or near a farm), pokes around a bit and finds prairie dogs with hats firmly attached to their heads and the head farmer spontaneously combusts. Chickenbot seemingly has no fear, as he finds out the truth about the aliens and hitches a ride up to their ship. I won’t ruin any more of it, but I will say that he could have picked “dragon slayer” right off the bat and saved himself a few steps. Sure, putting these comics out as self-contained stories means there’s going to be more time between issues, but every one of these so far has been a treat. “Funny and smart” is a big part of what I look for in comics, and this one has both qualities in large lumps. The only trouble is with Eric’s website as, even though it has the entire comic available for free, there’s no link to any place to actually buy a copy. Wait, did I just say that getting to read his comic for free was a bad thing? I’ve been doing this too long. Clearly it’s a good thing for us comic readers, but if Eric is going to be nice enough to post the entire thing he maybe should have a link for people who like to own physical copies of comics. And some indication of the price. It’s a hefty thing, so I’m going to say $5 randomly, but I couldn’t tell you where to get a copy.
H., Eric – Odd Jobs #1
Odd Jobs #1
Ah, the abbreviated last name. Always fun for a website like mine that at least sort of tries to keep things in alphabetical order. This is the first book of Eric’s that I’ve seen (unless he put out other stuff with his actual last name attached), but I highly doubt that it’s his first book. Either that or he was born with an innate knowledge of making comics. This series (and it better be a series after that ending) is about Chickenbot needing to find some work and heading out to the local temp agency. He gets to pick from a list, ends up with with the job of Werewolf Hunter, and sets out to complete his task. Once in the town he asks around about the beast and finds out that it has appeared 20 times and only killed 3 people and that the townspeople are utterly helpless on their own, unable even to clean up the dead bodies until outside help arrives. Disgusted, he attempts to back out of the job, but due to his terms of employment he isn’t allowed to get another job until this one is completed, so off he goes to confront the monster. No sense spoiling the rest of it, but I will say that most of the fight, if such a thing is going to occur, is going to happen in the next issue. The fun in this issue was getting to it, as Chickenbot is consistently entertaining, even if he does seem to have stolen his eyeballs from a character in the Neil Jam universe. It’s worth a look, although I’ll hold off going all nutzo about it until I see future issues. No price tag, but with a color cover I’ll go with $2.50 for no good reason.
Gray, Shaun – Odd Jobs
Odd Jobs
Warning! If you haven’t played any RPG or turn-based adventure games, it’s OK to skip this. Seriously, go read Rafer Roberts, he has a nice full page of rambling to keep you busy. Because while this is a fine comic on its own, chances are this won’t make any sense to you unless you’re at least a little bit of a dork in the video game sense. This is the story of a sorcerer and a zombie who are looking for work, and the best they can do is to be the monsters some guy beats in a random encounter meant to boost his experience. The catch is, though, that the monsters have to lose. All sorts of in-jokes here, funny stuff if this sort of thing has sucked out huge chunks of your life like it’s been known to do to me from time to time. No price, but I would have to guess a buck or two…
