3 out of 5

Alright – which joker let this one through? Also: man, I miss this era of comics, when jokers would actually things like this through.

Bob the Galactic Bum was later reprinted in John Wagner’s and Alan Grant’s home field 2000 AD, stripped of identifying DC tics; while I recognize you could do that with a ton of series, including ones starring Batmans and Supermans, not as many would feel as “right” in 2000 AD as Bob, and few would be as easy to adapt as swapping out character names and adding tits to one of the characters. That should give you some indication of how left-field this mini-series was, and also how randomly it was inserted into the DCverse.

But let’s say you’ve got a publishing opening on the schedule; let’s say it’s the 90s, when Lobo was a saleable commodity; and let’s say you’ve got the Lobo scribes – Wags, Alan – ready and willing to fill that schedule gap. “Can we do what we want?” the duo might’ve asked, with a possible answer being: “As long as it has Lobo, go for it.” …And so we get four issues of the duo in full shtick mode, lead “Bob” a space-faring hobo dressed like W.C. Fields and doing constant Groucho Marx-esque routines (constant – the pages are streams of dialogue espoused almost solely by Bob), and pokes at British royalty via a representative alien race who have a blind army and choose throne succession via a tradition of eating platefuls of broccoli, and other ridiculousnesses. Lobo shows up approximately one page per issue and says some Lobo-isms.

Prince Gazza of planet Chazza is out with his bodyguard, on a quest to seek guidance from a guru prior to his taking over the throne. Unaware that his brother, Prince Rando, is desirous of the throne, Gazza survives an assassination attempt issued by Rando, and comes under the “protection” of the traveler Bob – and his “What?” uttering pal Buck Fifty – who sees a meal ticket to riches. Cue four issues of Bob manipulating the naive Gazza while also navigating through additional attempts on Gazza’s life (through slapstick and happenstance), while Lobo brings up the rear, tasked also with tracking down Gazza and ushering him home safely.

If that sounds a bit like a self-justifying plot in which we’re chasing our own tails: yes. The story hardly matters, except as a vehicle for making fun of royal traditions and highfalutin ‘tudes, and letting Wags and Grant operate in pure silly satire mode, skin to early era Judge Dredd writings. While it can be a bit exhaustive sifting through Bob’s endless prattle, it’s also a sign of how some writers can populate the pages with words and still have it be a good time: it’s more just visually exhaustive; when you read this stuff, it flies right by, and merits many a’chuckle. Of course, key to this is artist Carlos Ezquerra, whose pinched-face characters add the perfect visual punctuation and comic timing to all of this, even if 99% of the book is, literally, just Bob talking to Gazza (and then Buck Fifty saying “What?”).

There are some additional DC nods here and there, including the Khund alien race, and Lobo being part of L.E.G.I.O.N. at this point, but this is truly a very standalone series. Thankfully, that means it’s not tied down to being part of an event or anything, and with Lobo being the kind of character you really can just toss in as needed, it gave these seasoned 2000 ADers some space to do, essentially, a creator-owned nonsense series in the DC sandbox, not needing to worry about spinning up some more enduring or “important” property and just having fun. While it’s also wholly disposable for those reasons, the fun part of the equation is undeniable: it’s something to pull off the shelf once in a while for some momentary yuks.