Jack Rabbit #4

Posted: Tuesday, November 2, 2004
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Jack Rabbit #4 Creator(s): Jeff Zwirek
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $1(US)

This comic is described as part gritty police drama and part funny animal hijinks. So it goes without saying that the main character is a rabbit police officer. A police force, mind you, that also includes a snapping turtle and a dog.

Jeff Zwirek is having fun, I can see him in his room, hunched over his desk, cackling away to himself. Ah the joys of creation, albeit slightly deranged creation.
Jack Rabbit has woken up one fine morning to find himself implicated in the death of a hooker. Zwirek then proceeds to add a disturbing number of layers over this premise in an attempt to add intrigue and depth to the story. Maybe there are a few too many characters and storylines introduced as the basic plot does become a little confusing at times.

There are some wonderful episodes. My personal favourite is the irritable snapping turtle’s bullying of his dog partner. Another nice touch is the way Zwirek deals with the different time frames. He uses the façade of a run down apartment block where each window represents a different year. We move backwards and forwards in time as we pass through each window. It is a nice way of providing unity in a comic that covers a sizeable time sequence. The rest of the comic’s layout is fairly standard.

This is a gritty even grimy tale so I was surprised at the way Zwirek censored the bedroom scene so as to protect us from the sight of female rabbit boobs. I concede he could be having a laugh at our expense here, I certainly hope so. The art- work is more effective is the first half of the comic. The chase scene on pages 17 and 18 doesn’t quite explode as much as it needs to.

Never mind though, this is a fun comic that rolls along nicely and with its rich cast of characters promises much for the future [Heavy metal band member Jezus Diablo is a character that simply must meet up with the snapping turtle at some stage]. I have yet to warm to the main character but it should be obvious that I feel a real affinity with the snapping turtle.

In a Word: Ominous.



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