1 out of 5

Normally I’ll give a series a few issues before weighing in.  And I held on to #1 until #2 came out, flipping through #2 at the store, settling on ‘no,’ then coming back to read the first ish.  Ugly.  And stupid.  Ugly and stupid enough that I’m curious why Image bought into it.  But – there might be something to the pitch.

Todd gives the impression of having pre-existed somewhere.  The characters arrive, not fully formed, but as though we’re already supposed to be laughing.  Which is shitty, preconceived writing.  And hey, lookat this, on the inside cover of issue #1 we get the rundown on all the players, attributes that show up nowhere in the book itself.  I read once that Image only picks up books if the writer / artist can prove a sort of proof of concept, and so if that still holds true, I can follow how this series might’ve come to light, because the character outline sounds funny, and you draw up a basic outline of your story (which again, is funny in theory – Todd, happy-go-lucky ugliest kid – is accused of being a child killer thanks to his happy-go-lucky inadvertent involvement with the crime), and you have your artist whip up a few pages and character concepts, and boom snap, here’s your four book deal.

I visited Kristensen’s webpage to see if maybe Todd had existed elsewhere, as maybe a webcomic or something, but it doesn’t appear as such.  But I did read that he’s worked on several SPIKE television series, and the picture of him shows a lot of product being used in his hair, so maybe these are details to support the notion that he’s a tad douchey and help explain why Todd is completely unfunny, written incompetently for a comic book (no understanding of timing or paneling), and completely misses the ‘tasteless dark comedy’ note it’s trying to hit because who gives a shit about a joke that was apparently told before the book begins?  You put a bag over a kid’s head, call the book ‘ugliest kid on earth,’ and hyuck instant comedy.  Maybe one issue of proper introductions (and not fucking inside cover summaries, you poo pants) before jumping into your ridiculous plot.  That’s not amusingly ridiculous, rather…

-sigh-

Verbal slings.  Sorry to get angry, gang.  It’s rare that a book reads like such shite to me.