Advance Review: The Schlub #1

Those Image boys have certainly come a long way since the days of superhero-ing with Wild C.A.T.S or Cyber Force, Savage Dragon or Spawn. In fact, they have come so far that thanks to Ryan Stegman and Kenny Porter, they can bring the funny about the very things we love!

All right, maybe not everything we love. After all, this book features a dentist, n who loves them? This one in particular is a bit of a sad sack to be honest. Falling out with his family, estranged from the one person who loves him, Roger Dalton feels that the world is against him, with his only outlet bad oral surgery. and falsified signatures. That is until a super hero battle bestows upon him an interaction with a magic relic. From there on in, Roger’s Kryptonite becomes a case of “what has the world done for ME lately?”

Stegman and Porter take the idea of a person gaining power and automatically doing the right thing and turns it on its head. Fair enough, young Peter Parker also had a chip on his shoulder, until he had that major loss. With taking all the time to get the reader kind of invested in Roger’s life, it would be a shame to “Parker” him into doing the right thing. Stegman and Porter allow the basest of instincts to come to the fore and, thanks to some sparkly dialogue featuring plenty of “woe is me”, or “me life sucks” adds a level of dark humour to proceedings.

The humour quotient is ramped up by the cartoon, almost comic strip stylings of Tyrell Cannon’s art. Bold figures exemplify the fun of the situations, albeit with a touch of very dark humour; I am not sure you will ever feel comfortable going to the dentist ever again! The art is not all smile and giggles; Cannon brings the chaos of the battle and the confusion of the transference to life, with perhaps the climax that hints at a wickedness of future intent. Colorist Mike Spicer brings the full four-color press, so to speak, intimating the comics of yesteryear, the brightness of which suits the world that Stegman and Porter have created. Finally, for a “funny” book, there is a ton of verbiage which letterer John J. Hill deal with superbly, ensuring thst the action is not muted in any way.

An interesting take on the whole “with great power, comes…..” parable that is synonymous with comic books, deliver on the worst of human nature. What dark joy!

Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 4.5 Stars

Written by; Ryan Stegman & Kenny Porter
Art by; Tyrell Cannon
Colors by; Mike Spicer
Letters by; John J. Hill
Published by Image Comics / KLC Press

The Schlub is due to ship August 23rd

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network