REVIEW: Hairbutt: The Original Hard Boiled Hippo

Written byÂ Bodine Amerikah &Â Jason Paulos
Art byÂ Jason Paulos
Published byÂ Asylum Press

Anthropomorphic characters have been around for years. For every Buggs Bunny and Mickey Mouse you have Ren and Stimpy or Rocko and his modern life. Hairbutt is Australia’s entry into this crowded genre.

Created by co-written by Bodine Amerikah and illustrator Jason Paulos, Hairbutt is pretty much what you’d expect from this sort of book. There is a cast of characters with which to interact and cause problems, none so problematic as his own brother. Â The world in which they all inhabit is the usual mix of oddness with a hint of reality that allows the humour to work.

If Amerikah and Paulos have a big plan in play for the hero, it’s lost somewhere in the middle of all the fat and butt jokes. Enough, I get it; he is a hippopotamus and hippos are big. In this collection of stories there are plenty of opportunities for these aspects to make an appearance. From a personal point of view, some of the low-power words, to highlight accent no doubt, is inconsistent throughout the book. Please, pick a style and stick with it!

In addition to a writer credit, Jason Paulos is also provides the pictures. For the most part, the style is the expected cartoony look but as you progress through the book, there are elements of caricature on show.

As funny books go, this is ok. Whilst certainly not covering new ground, if this type of book is your type of book, this may be your type of thing. As for me, this isn’t any I would choose to read,but that’s mainly because I am not a fan of the genre, rather than not a fan of Hairbutt.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

You can find this title on Comixology

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