Review: Burnouts #1
High school life must be hard. In most of the iterations I have seen on TV, students need to be mindful of vampires, werewolves, murderous siblings and gang brunette versus gang blonde, cliques and the need to burst into song every ten minutes or so. Tough days indeed.
Take this book for example; Andy just wants to have a bit of fun, to blow off some steam as all he seems to do is study and live right. No beer, no girls and definitely no weed! Ostracised from a number of school groups he finally rebels, hits a party and discovers of horrendous truth! The world is under attack from aliens which you can only see if you are high!  Seems like Andy may have no choice to try to save the world, one spliff at a time.
Dennis Culver has written a book that has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. There are enough of the familiar high school elements to give the book an easy-going feeling that carries on through its fun, but preposterous, main theme. The characters in the book are a tad traditional, or cliched, depending on how generous you are feeling, which I suppose helps with contrast of the aliens. As a fan of old school shows like The Invaders and movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I am more than happy to spend some time with this, the newest incursion .
The art by Geoffo is a style that, normally, I am not a fan of. It seems that this cartoon style structure, akin to Babs Tarr and a raft of other artists is still on trend. Here though, it works with the goofy setup, the cartoon style allows for greater recognition with a lack of work required by the reader, as if the book is aimed at the stoner crowd itself. As the book reaches its big moment, the art demonstrates elements of an out-of-body experience, whilst still keeping things relatively light; well as light as being possessed by green snot aliens. Colors are provided by Lauren Perry who give the world a bit of a day-glow feel, with letterer Dave Dwonch trying different fonts and word balloons to intimate the flow of conversation and the classroom.
Regardless of the target audience, there is enough humour in Andy’s quest to have fun-turned-world-saviour to engage with a wide range of readers, especially if you ever wanted to read a book where 90210 and They Live are meshed together.
Writing – 4.5 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors – 3.5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Dennis Culver
Art by; Geoffo
Color flats by; Lauren Perry
Letters by; David Dwonch
Published by; Image Comics
Author Profile
- 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
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