Johnny Raygun: Classics

Posted: Tuesday, March 29, 2005
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Johnny Raygun: Classics

Creators: Rich Woodall and Matt Talbot
Publisher: Jetpack Press
Address: 4 Green St, East Rochester, NH, 03868, USA.
Price: Free comic book day.

I am pretty easily pleased when it comes to comic book heroes. I don’t really care what shape or size they come in as long as they have one vital personality trait. They must be witty, either that or naïve. Dear, Johnny Kurtzberg possesses both of these attributes, bless him. Just as well really because he also has a very silly haircut.

This is a funny comic book. It is genuinely funny. I mean calling the local fast food outlet "It Might Be Chicken," now that is funny. When you see the cook preparing the food and how they deal with customer complaints, well that is just laugh out loud stuff.

Johnny Kurtzberg is a Raygun agent devoted to fighting crime wherever he may find it, in the "It Might Be Chicken" hamburger bar or the sewers beneath the city or even in the local comic book store, wherever crime appears Johnny Raygun and the other Raygun agents will be there to bumble their way through another adventure.

In this edition published for Free Comic Book day we have three self contained stories, two short strips plus a handsome pin up of our hero.
My personal favourite is the opening story where Johnny does battle with the Alligatress the sinister seductress of the sewer [a villain in the same league as the wonderful Poison Ivy]. His attempts soon prove to be a PC debacle to the extent that even the remote controlled Television camera abuses Johnny in the final frame.

Woodall and Talbot excel in their creation of villains and in the second story we have Maxwell Atom a clumsy inept petty criminal with a thick cockney accent. In the third story Johnny has to infiltrate the annual auction and bid for The Super Soldier Syrup, straight forward enough but that was before Johnny lays eyes on the tempting Mechabotozoid and gets caught up in the excitement of an auction.

The artwork is impressive and the page layout often innovative. Overall each frame has been created with care, attention to detail and an understanding of what it adds to the whole. It looks just fine. It is the humerous dialogue that really stands out though. The one-liners, the hair jokes and spanking monkey fist it all just rolls along. Sure this is 90% parody of a genre that is easy to poke fun at but what the heck, if its funny then laugh at it. This is not a comic to change the world but reading it does make our planet seem a more fun place to be.

In a Word: Boo Yah

(That's actually 2 words Steve - Ed.)



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