The craziness ups itself here but simply becomes too much.
Creative Staff:
Story: Damon Gentry, Troy Nixey
Art: Troy Nixey
Colors: Guy Major
Letterer: Troy Nixey
What They Say:
As Brick City goes to hell, Detective Buckle and his Lovecraftian monster sidekick Vinegar Teeth try to solve what’s turning all the citizens into deadly zombies in the penultimate issue of this bizarre horror comedy!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Vinegar Teeth in its opening installment was definitely something that I was drawn to because it was unlike most other books out there. It took a bit to get a handle on it but it introduced something amusing in our title character but was so dense in artwork and the flow of the story that it started to become overwhelming. That doubled down with the second issue, which made it a very hard read to figure out what’s going on. The third issue here essentially doubles down on that and pushes forward with more craziness. It’s all very simple and straightforward with what’s going on but it’s so overstuffed in its presentation and layout that it really did push me from looking at the pages for a few minutes mid-book because it was just too much.
With Artie out of the picture having quit, Vinegar Teeth is on the job himself and is doing his best to be a cop. He’s trying to be like Artie until he remembers that doing the opposite of Artie is probably for the best and that works when you really get down to it. The problem is that he’s dealing with a couple of criminals in an alley that he’s come across that are part of the growing number of undead out there and he gets caught up in the situation and eats them. That sends him into a spiral panic that gets him to visit Artie for help, resulting in some disturbing material of Artie in his wifebeater shirt and underwear drinking with Vinegar Teeth and both of them getting wasted. It’s a weird situation that’s again, just so dense visually, that it loses what it’s trying to do.
As we got a taste of the undead out there and what they’re all about with the giant space creature that’s infecting the water and bringing this about, the city is falling to chaos. So while we had normal cop scenes with weird stuff with Vinegar Teeth, we now have that on top of the undead where they’re busily drinking as much water as possible. And Artie and Vinegar Teeth are back on the job, making it one of his shorter quitting moments. And stuff. Really, the book just packs so much into it with so much awkward dialogue and word balloons that cover a lot of real estate here – that it’s just overwhelming.
In Summary:
I was going to drop the book with this issue but the fourth is the final one so we’ll finish it out. Expectations are low at this point, however.
Grade: C-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 21st, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
