3 out of 5

There’s a page in the annual that’s reprinted in this trade that has Perhapanauts characters hanging out with some telling background items: a Goonies poster, an Archie comic, and a B.P.R.D. comic.

The B.P.R.D. reference is way too telling, and I noted it last time: a team of paranormal investigators, featuring an Abe Sapien-looking type, someone with mental powers; a ghost; and a large, brawly type… But the Archie nod actually helped settle something that’d been bothering me about the book – that it felt pretty dumb. Dumb is not exactly the right word, and more insulting than I mean, since I quite enjoy Archie, rather… it’s weightless. Not challenging. And not trying to be anything more than that.

Writer Todd Dezago likes to throw around a lot of terminology amongst his B.P.R.D.-proxy B.E.D.L.A.M. teammates for the alien / paranormal stuff they encounter, and some casual world-building assists in giving the series the vibe of something that’s aiming for grander, longer-term storytelling, but then the actual tales told are of the get-in get-out punchline Archie variety, even while an ongoing plot is happening. That’s kind of frustrating, feeling like a bit more effort could flesh this out, but those above-mentioned references helped: the isolated-but-linked B.P.R.D. structure of singular stories that eventually built on each other; the harmless adventuring of Goonies; and the casual, all-are-welcome tone of Archie – and then we have Perhapanauts.

Craig Rousseau’s cartoonish, background-less style and Rico Renzi’s poppy colors are more focused on this go-round, employing a simplistic style very effectively to hit action and comedy beats, though I still can’t get on board with the lettering style, which alternates between using word bubbles and leaving the words floating, and I just find this somewhat maddingly inconsistent with comic “rules,” or even as it’s applied within the series. “Second Chances” is a mish-mash of threads following up on last volume’s big baddie, as well as a new concern with getting an ages-old creature back home. This latter bit introduces a 4th dimensional wrinkle I’m not really sure the book is complex enough to deal with, but Dezago’s offhand way of writing effects that rather amusingly.

Also collected are some older shorts which are recolored anew, the Jersey Devil annual, and extra pages from a previous Black Caravan reprint. Due to the way some details connect with the first series, there’s worth in reading both trades, but I do think the pacing and characters are a bit better / more realized here, and given that there’s nothing especially definitive in either – except the kind of easy-going, harmless vibe I’m picking on above – I’d recommend giving this one a read out of the two, should a choice need to be made.