Jack and Lucky #3

Posted: Wednesday, March 7, 2007
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Jack and Lucky #3 Creator(s): Anthony Hon
Publishers: Motenai Comics
From: USA
Price: $2.00

Don’t be put off by the uninspiring cover of this comic what lies within is well worth the couple of bucks cover price. Hon presents us with two stories here, one is heavily autobiographical and the other [and first] the third part in his ongoing series about a man and his gigantic, semi human cat.

The most appealing aspect of this latest chapter in the lives of Jack and Lucky is the parallelism of the narrative. This is extremely well handled and splendidly paced throughout. What we have then are two plots that run parallel to each other complementing, contrasting and at times predicting each other. As Jack goes through the nerves of those embarrassing moments that precede the initial first romp with a date his cat Lucky is outside in the yard involved in a violent struggle with Freddy a small, yappy [but also demonic] dog.

The tension between sexual foreplay and the violence in the yard makes for a great read. And in the end the difference between the two become•well just a little blurred.

As a character Lucky doesn’t really work for me. He is huge and almost human which is fine it’s just that the drawing of him seems to lack the imagination that an unusual character such as this deserves. On the other hand the human characters, male and female, are wonderful and totally believable; especially Jack who is struggling to gain control over a situation that is beginning to escalate to places beyond his comprehension.

The art work is bold with a nice confident use of black which adds a nice depth to many of the panels.

The second story ‘Drown’ is yet another tale of ‘comics are my therapy for dealing with my unhappy childhood’ sort of thing. Heavily autobiographical, Hon attempts to explain to us, as readers, that his ineptitude as an adult is the result of his pushy parents. Normally I find these kind of comics a little tedious and feel like shouting ‘get over it’ to the creator but I am pleased to say that this particular variation on a popular theme manages to draw back from the brink of maudlin, self indulgent ‘woe is me’ drivel because of Hon’s awareness that he is an adult and the way he lays enough hints that his current and future situation is, at least partially, in his hands, and right now he has decided to use those hands to create comics. Fair enough.

The comic rounds off with a large single frame page of a topless girl wearing a cowboy hat riding a huge tongue. I found this to be worryingly appealing and spent far too long looking at it.

In a Word: Toothy.



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