Skullkickers vol. 1: 1000 Opas and a Dead Body

Image has been having a run of sleeper hits over the past year or so with titles like this, “Morning Glories,” “Carbon Gray,” “Nonplayer,” and more getting big buzz and selling out upon their release.  “Skullkickers” arrived at the start of this trend and you have to appreciate the idea behind it.  Imagine a buddy comedy set in a fantasy “Dungeons and Dragons” style world with the tone of “Army of Darkness.”  In this volume, our two nameless heroes — identified only as the “dwarf” and “big guy” at the back of the book — strike a deal to rescue the corpse of a nobleman from a necromancer and his henchmen.  Violence ensues as the duo track the thieves across the land, and (naturally) wind up unleashing a much bigger and nastier magical threat upon the countryside.

It’s hard not to like a comic that opens with the lines, “Yeeesh!  Who ever heard of a fat werewolf?”  But I felt a little disappointed in the end that I only “liked” this collection.  Writer Jim Zub has a flair for the absurd, and that results in some great moments such as how the protagonists torture information out of a thug by basting him, the clever sound effects like “imminent violence,” and the subtitles for the face-smashed necromancer.  The problem is that the dwarf and the big guy have about as much depth and character as their names imply.  Their single-mindedness can be amusing for a while, but they’re ultimately just a pair of ciphers.  

The story itself isn’t that interesting either, but I can accept the fact that it’s just a device that allows Zub to deliver on the absurdity.  However, the art from Edwin Huang (with Chris Stevens on the bonus stories) is very flashy, with an appealing animation-esque look to it, and it’s a perfect fit for the over-the-top tone of the book.  I did like this book, but I feel that it has the potential for greater heights of ridiculousness and comedy.  I’ll be looking forward to the next volume to see if Zub and Huang can deliver on that.