geekent’s stuff’n things

You know it can’t be a good sign when a book’s publisher takes the bulk of his two page introduction praising the creator but panning the characters he’s developed. “This is shit. It’s awful, nobody is going to want to read it.” That’s a direct quote from SLG publisher Dan Vado with respect to the SLG published Skelebunnies by Tommy Kovac.

To be fair, Vado, in his intro, does state that he came around and eventually came to enjoy the living dead abominations that populated the three one-shots that are collected here with additional bonus features. I wish I could say the same.

I like irreverent, oblique, and silly humour, I also can enjoy scatological dick and fart jokes with the next Kevin Smith/Judd Apatow patron, and even violence as comedy I can chortle at. Skelebunnies has all these styles of comedy, and yet very little of it amused me. I wasn’t put off by it, I wasn’t offended, and though Vado is right and it is “wrong on every other level”, I didn’t find it so audacious as to be admired. Most of the buttons Kovac is trying to push have been pushed before, and and with far more skilled fingers. This is not to say Kovac isn’t talented, his recent, utterly fantastic Wonderland is a prime example that Kovac can tell a story, and even here his cartooning is wonderfully rendered in a variety of styles, showing incredible flexibility. I guess it just comes down to I don’t find his creations funny.

To be honest, here’s why: this sort of stream-of-consciousness, punchline-free humour which sometimes takes dead ends or really has no purpose is exactly my sense of humour about 15 years ago. I’m not saying I was as talented as Kovac (my cartooning skills weren’t even close to being as sharp) but I can see the cogs moving in the background, I can see the wizard behind the curtain, and I know how flimsy the foundation is. It’s not trying too hard, it’s just not trying hard enough. The lack of cohesion is one part of it, but general berserk, fourth-wall breaking, semi-self aware pointless mayhem is the bigger issue. There’s a lack of craft to the comedy, it’s missing refinement. Put Skelebunnies up against Milk and Cheese or Arsenic Lullaby and the difference is tangible.

“What’s the point?” the back cover copy asks. “To giggle, my friends. To giggle.” If only. Vado has higher praise in his introduction for two other Kovac series, Autumn and Wonderland, I’d recommend you start there instead.