4 out of 5

Do you only know of Mike Norton from Battlepug?  Are you curious to see his writernary skills applied to something more serious?  Something less pugsy?

…Better luck next time.  A compilation of three years’ of 24-hour comics entries – an event where creators write and draw a 24 page comic in the same amount of hours – ‘The Curse’ is spectacularly accomplished, given the rushed nature of its creation, but full of the kind of nonsense (and crassness) that one might imagine becomes forefront thought when under pressure to make those creative juices flow.  Is it cheating that Norton would return to a concept and characters for subsequent entries?  It would be, if there was actually a plot to follow, but The Curse is mostly just good, campy fun.

Of: a pirate curse transmitted by pirate bite; pug private investigators and David Bowie Labyrinth goblins; an unnamed Jeffrey Combs who’s living a mash-up life of Re-Animator and Human Centipede.  Whaaat?  Yes.  And amidst the dashed lines and dabbed, computer-applied grey tones, you’ll find Norton’s fluid grasp of energy and pacing, shamefully better and more readable than some artists who get more than a day to deliver fewer panels.

Selling 84 pages with no bonus material for 14.99 seems a bit steep, though the entertainment value is high and, I assume, it is the only way to get this material  in print in one collection.  At the same time, having it all together in one spot (and bereft of the 24-hour context), the gaps obviously shine through the tales: the ever-present swearing and lack of consistency with the story are full evidence of the zero pre-planning something like this entails.

But, man, Norton did this all in three days?  With that context, it’s ridiculously impressive, and who doesn’t want to see a story with a pug with a pegleg?