A comics industry veteran once told me books with anthropomorphic leads in sexy situations don’t get published, which is why I was surprised they were proven wrong with the release of The Worst Dudes. The book opens up with a party gone wild and our lead standing over the action with his giant pink privates hanging out in full view. A shocking way to open the story, it effectively sets the tone for the rest of the book and the debauchery ahead. Our protagonist Caligula quickly establishes himself as a party animal literally (He’s a giant pink lion man.) when he’s just finished with one party and starts phoning friends in an attempt to form another.
It is here where we get a look a the weird and whacky characters that populate this universe, from a beautiful broad with three heads to a born again Christian alien. The character designs are fun as they twist together real stereotypes with science fiction figures and themes. Admittedly the art is well done in this issue, making it easy to follow the story with its clear visualization of the plot and its colourful characters.
How Was This Book Published!?
As I’ve stated before and on the front of this book in a giant red warning font, The Worst Dudes is not for those who are easily offended, which may end up working in this book’s favour as mature content is often sought out merely because it has a taboo effect seen in programs like South Park and Family Guy. Dark Horse comics took an interesting risk publishing a book about a washed-up sex-crazed erotic dancer that also happens to be a seven-foot pink lion. Never in my life did I expect to see a comic like this published by the same company that puts out The Legend Of Zelda lore books but here I am writing a review on it. The overall story for this issue follows Caligula and his friends, a hard-boiled detective and a spoiled teen who is the heir to a powerful empire. Each character is distinct in their roles, with the kid talking like a living Dungeons & Dragons manual and the big cat-man making frequent innuendos to ensure nothing is ever taken too seriously.
What really caught me off guard was the chapter where our heroes are confronted by a squad of dominatrix enforcers that beat the hell out of the main cast with their lady parts unashamedly on display. During this scene, something clicked, and I started cheering for our heroes to succeed when it came time to throw fists because their twisted team dynamic started to grow on me. Quite a bit of setup is established to flesh out Cal that the others are sadly missing in this issue. The detective is meant to be some kind of big deal which we find out through dialogue, but sadly, here they didn’t follow the show don’t tell rule that would have gone a long way in setting up the rest of our main cast.
Decent Dialogue
The high point of the book is the dialogue these whacky characters speak with wit and brevity making their roles in this trippy space world a tad more believable. Speech bubbles bleed into one another naturally due in part to the organic nature of the dialogue on display, making it a lot easier to get invested in these characters, given their less than stellar morals and values.
“The Worst Dudes is far from the worst comic I’ve read. Once you get past the shock value, the crazy characters and the whacky world starts to grow on you.”
Final Score 3/5 Stars
Writer: Aubrey Sitterson
Artist: Tony Gregori
Publisher: Dark Horse
Author Profile
- Australian Article/Comic Book Writer, Co-Creator of RUSH!, Comic Crusaders Contributor and Bit⚡Bolt on YouTube.
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