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H., Eric – Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #4
Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #4
You know, for all the times that I’ve wondered if this website isn’t a complete waste of time, or if maybe I’m losing interest in mini comics, I think back to the fact that if it wasn’t for this site I would have never seen comics like this one. And OK, fine, I could have lived without it, but it (and other comics) have made my life just the tiniest bit better, and isn’t that the point of art? Oh crap, I just asked what the point of art was; even rhetorically that’s dangerous. Moving on, if you haven’t read #3 in this series, you’ll be more than a bit lost here. No recap of any kind, and that’s going to be the extent of my negative comments for this issue. Chickenbot starts off as he’s chasing the bad guys down, and we very quickly get a death, a highly quotable fight (“no one eats my head, you huggably-soft psycho”) , another death and an escape. Oh, and smallpox. Finally Chickenbot makes it to the big bad guy and things get wrapped up, but almost certainly not how you might have expected. Is that too vague? Yeah, I’m not spoiling any of this one, sorry. It’s a given that Eric has a pretty firm handle on the humorous aspect of this book, but I wasn’t sure about some of the weightier aspects. Could he play serious drama and emotion with a title character that is half chicken, half robot with the apparent last name of “over easy”? Yes. Yes, he can. He had already proved that he could handle the longer stories, but this just reinforces that. The tension and the pacing were also damned near perfect for both issues. The art also keeps improving, and it was pretty damned good to begin with. This comic has just jumped to the top of my wish list for new animated shows, and up until a few minutes ago I wasn’t even aware that I had such a list. Buy it, that’s what I’m getting at here. Maybe if enough people buy it he’ll become rich enough to spend some serious time on this, and I’d love to see what happened if he did. I think this is $4 but I’m not positive. Either way you can get this and #3 for $6.50 which, unless you already have #3, you should very much do.
H., Eric – Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #3 – The Chicken Who Loved Me Part 1
Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #3 – The Chicken Who Loved Me Part 1
Finally, Chickenbot gets to pick a cool job! After suffering through some dangerous and awkward temp jobs, Chickenbot walks into the temp agency and sees “Spy” as an option. He can’t resist, naturally, and us readers end up with what is the most completely satisfying Chickenbot tale yet. Don’t get me wrong, all of them have had their moments, and it would be a stretch to call any of them bad. This one just has the feeling of an artist that is hitting his stride with a character, and kudos to Eric for putting these issues out so quickly while still increasing the quality of his art each time around. That’s a formula for good things happening, if there is any justice in the world. There’s not, you say? Well crap. At least he still gets the satisfaction of making a great comic, and the rest of us get the satisfaction of reading it. Back to the story! Chickenbot gets acquainted with all the doodads that spies get to play with and learns of his mission to meet with an informant about a plot to poison chocolate. Naturally his informant is assassinated just before he gets to the good part, so Chickenbot has to improvise a bit to get closer to the man doing all the poisoning. And hey, it is a spy story, so it wouldn’t be complete without Chickenbot seducing the girlfriend of one of the major players in the plot. Any more would give away too much for my tastes, but a few James Bond bits are cleverly included, there were so many genuinely funny pages that I had real trouble picking just one (and only settled on this one because it’s vague enough to not give anything too major away) and things have been set up nicely for the next issue. His website is currently about 2/3 of the way through this issue, so head on over there and check it out if you like, but at this point people should really be getting on that Chickenbot bandwagon regardless. Also, as of an older update on his site, he seems to be getting down on the whole webcomics thing, which is perfectly understandable for people who aren’t independently wealthy and have a functioning brain. I’ll bet a few orders from you folks would perk him right up, and you’re only hurting yourself by not reading this series, so do the right thing, eh? No price listed, but something this hefty should be in the $5 range.
H., Eric – Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #1
Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #1
Are you one of the people who read Eric H.’s Odd Jobs #1, or perhaps saw the review for it on this site? Well, Eric has decided to put that whole story out in one issue, so this one is #1 of that series as well as the conclusion of the story. It would have been roughly two issues, if you were curious. You can read the review for that issue here, but to sum up: Chickenbot goes to a temp agency to make some cash. He picks the job of werewolf hunter, sets off to a town terrorized by said werewolf and has a series of occurrences that convince him that the people being terrorized are fairly worthless, but can’t leave until (contractually) until he finishes the job. The first issue (although I guess this is going to be the only issue from now on) ended with Chickenbot confronting said werewolf, but we really didn’t get to see much of the fight… until now. The rest of the story is the fight with the werewolf (and Chickenbot’s weapons all fail in spectacular fashion), followed in the morning by the fight with the child who is the werewolf on full moons. No spoilers from me, but that was some funny stuff right there. Eric is putting pages up at his website for free (which is a good thing, as I don’t see any way to order the comics from his website), so if you go there now you’ll be about a third of the way through the second part of the story. As for the comic as a whole I thought it was great stuff. His fight scenes were funny and suspenseful (a difficult bridge to walk), and as for the ending… well, how else is a werewolf supposed to be put under control? If you already read the first issue of this series you’re required to get this to see how it ends, if not, well, the whole story is now in one convenient package, even if it does seem to be tricky to purchase at the moment. Check out his website and maybe bug the guy, if he sent me a copy then he must have them lying around somewhere. No price either, but as this is two issues, let’s say $4.
