Review: PUNKS: The Comic #3

PUNKS: THE COMIC #3
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

CREATORS:  Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain – @JoshFialkov @KodyChamberlain
COVER: Kody Chamberlain
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (December 2014)

Rated T+ / Teen Plus

I'm just getting to the third issue of Punks: The Comic.  This series is a revival of writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Kody Chamberlain's 2007 small press comic book, Punks.  Chamberlain produces Punks' “original art” by cutting up various photographic images and compiling them to create the characters, settings, and storytelling.  Punks focuses on a quartet of cut-ups:  Dog, Skull, Fist, and Abe Lincoln.

As Punks: The Comic #3 opens, Abe is readying their humble abode for his family's arrival.  It's Thanksgiving, a time for family gatherings.  Skull, Fist, and Dog aren't to excited about this holiday visit.  Can they get excited about the ACLU, Sean Connery, and some Baldwin brothers?

[Punks: The Comic #3 includes some story pages from the original Punks comix and a strange interview with pre-superstar Rick Remender.]

It's a coincidence.  I was reading Punks: The Comic #3 around the same time actor Chris Pine was apologizing for the tepid reception of Jack Ryan film series reboot in which he starred, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (not the best title).  It isn't Pine's fault.  Maybe Jack Ryan movies should be based on actual Jack Ryan novels written by the late Tom Clancy and not on screenplays written by gilded studio hacks like David Koepp.

But I digress...  It's just that The Hunt for Red October, a movie based on a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novel, plays an integral part in Punks #3.  This issue, although quite good, does not hit the highs reached by the first two issues, but #3 hints at Punks' seemingly endless possibilities for humor, satire, and farce.  Fialkov and Chamberlain have a weapon by which they can eviscerate the current social-political, cultural, and pop culture landscapes of America (and maybe even the old landscapes).

I assume both creators want to “work in this town again,” so American comics, both as an industry and as a culture, are probably safe.  That and the zealous protection of copyrights and trademarks may keep this dynamic duo from slaying comic book sacred cows.  Still, the sky's the limit for Abe, Skull, Fist, and Dog, and I'm sure they'd take a crap on the sky, too.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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