3 out of 5

A page per hour, hours non-consecutive but the content not at all planned, with 24 pages delivered per 6″ x 9″-ish issue. This is conceptually the same pitch as the first Recreational Thief, and the net result is approximately the same: it’s brilliant as long as your down with Browne; and it’s incredibly unfocused – arguably moreso than the first round. Because while Ryan’s method of improv has him using a particular “trick” of making a random “remember when this happened?” reference, and then flashing back to that moment until the next “remember when…” gives us an entire tunnel of flashbacks, volume 1 had the other imposed limitation of being a page a day, which probably allowed for a bit more memory of where a particular gag was going, or where it’d been, and allowed Blast Furnace (a thief with a flaming tie and sunglasses) to be somewhat of a featured character. Going to non-consecutive hours, this is all nonsequitors, with Ryan fully relying on the flashback structure to just pick up a new thread every few pages, design some crazy-ass characters, run with that scene until it dies, and so on. Blast Furnace hardly appears; consistency from issue to issue is not a thing.

And yet, because Browne actually has storytelling chops, he can’t just poop out 100% random, so there’s at least an attempt to string this into… something. Maybe that “attempt” is a foreword that pretends to be recap, or a deke towards tying some “plot thread” to another; regardless, the spirit of narrative tip-toes around, and is responsible for lending some sincerity / innocence to even the crassest or dumbest stuff.

But yeah, nonetheless, the relative randomness and constant changeups make this more amusing than anything, with the aforementioned brilliance being a valid attribute because it takes a special something – even if the hours are non-consecutive; even if we only got to 4 out of “probably six” issues – to commit to arting and writing this stuff, forcing your brain wrinkles to crease and uncrease around impossible concepts, and to make that readable (and enjoyable!) to your fans.