In which the team’s encounter with the deadly Pot Luck Organization at Dizzyworld reaches its epic conclusion…
Publisher: Eclipse Comics
Publication Date: May, 1987
Writer: Don Chin
Pencils: Sam Kieth
Inks: John Nyberg
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Editor: Letitia Glozer
Editor-in-Chief: Catherine Yronwode
Publisher: Dean Mullaney
“Rodent’s Revenge” – Story and Art by Parsonavich.
Cover Price: $1.50
Current Price: $1.20
Preface - Penumbra
Catherine Yronwode kicks off the issue by listing the names and occupations of all the people who wrote in or visited. I didn’t necessarily want to copy the list here, but heck! Why not?
Holladay Duncan – Cycle Jockey
Gerard Jones – Writer
Timothy C. Marion – Typist (BTW – How’s work these days, Timothy?)
Sholly Fisch – Nice person
John Speidel – Student
Jim Bahler – Financial Investigator
Myda McFarling – Retired Typesetter
Duane E. Robert – Dentist
Nat Gertler – Programmer
Francis Valery – Comic Dealer
Michael P. Stein – Unknown
Dana Snow – Clerk
Chris Brumfield – Student
Douglas Grainger – Former Student
Did I get everyone’s names? I think. Did I spell any of them wrong? Probably. Are we ready to move on with this review now? Definitely!
Story
Picking up from the previous issue, Mongo attacks the Hamsters. Random acts of violence occur.
Captain Tree and Bush Boy appear to save the Hamsters, but their help is not needed, THIS time...
Big Eddie gets into a duel with Clint over Randi, and tries (unsuccessfully) to get her back.
The Hamsters try to get away from the P.L.O. on the “Spaced Mountain” ride. After a collision, they end up crashing in the swamp outside, which happens to be the set of “Jungleland”.
After a brief altercation with a plastic lion prop, a jungle boat tour goes by. The Hamsters and Randi pretend to be part of the exhibit.
Meanwhile, the members of the P.L.O. get on the overhead tram, looking for the Hamsters. They take a hostage and threaten the park with a bomb unless the Hamsters come out of hiding.
Just in the nick of time, Captain Tree and Bush Boy intercede. The hostage is saved, and the members of the P.L.O. are all blown up by the bomb. Unfortunately, Captain Tree and Bush Boy are also caught in the blast, sacrificing their lives in service to Freedom.
Epilog #1 – A Public Service Announcement
At the end of the comic, we get a PSA from “Educomics” (somehow related to the ACLU?). We are treated to a page encouraging us as students to fight for the right to wear armbands at school. Or something like that.
Epilog #2 – “Rodents Revenge”
As a callback to the ongoing feud between Boris the Bear and all Funny Animal Comics Everywhere, Clint is sent a letter by one “Troy Slooperhagen” (real name?) asking him what he does in his spare time. He shows the story of once when he invited “Clarence the Cub” over to his house, and relates the hilarious yet heartwarming antics that ensued when he mutilated poor Clarence and glued his eyes shut with superglue.
New Characters:
- Full Cast of Dizzyworld:
1. Rickey Rat (previously introduced)
2. Plutonium
3. Darn Old Duck
4. Craisy
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| Yep. That's the place in Florida I remember! |
- Captain Tree – New Eclipse Superhero
- Bush Boy – The good Cap’n’s sidekick.
- Clarence the Cub – A distant relative of Boris the Bear, perhaps? Or a pseudonym?
Review
This is the beginning of the relatively short “Sam Kieth” era. This is a defining moment in ARBBH history. The change from Parsonavich to Kieth is a marked change in both art style and humor.
Another change was made as well. The cover shows a new art style for the Hamster logo.
Speaking of which, this is probably my favorite cover of all of the Hamster comics. The art style on it looks really great. I like how Clint looks especially. It also features this blog’s namesake catch phrase: “Ho! Hamsters!” (And its alternative version: “Hamsters! Ho!)
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| Catchphrase time! Oh, yeah :) |
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| Clint - Lookin' manly! |
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| Randi? Is that you? |
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| Mongo attacks! |
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| Some fantastic artwork by Sam Kieth |
When we finally get to the epilog short story of “Rodent’s Revenge”, Parsonavich’s familiar art comes as a bit of a relief:
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| The more familiar Parsonavich |
As far as the content of the comic goes… (sigh) This will be my first negative review, unfortunately.
To be honest, I didn’t like this issue very much. While Sam Kieth’s art is amazing, it just isn’t funny like Parsonavich’s. It’s funny in its own way, but I missed Parsonavich’s crazy screwed up perspective panels.
The humor quality for the issue overall fell flat for me. While there were many laugh-out-loud moments in previous issues, I can’t really recall any in this one. It was a bit of a let-down really.
I wish I could understand what went wrong here. The quality of the art is bar none. So how could the humor have failed so much? What happened? Were there not enough ideas? Just not enough content? Every series has its high and low points, so maybe that’s all this was.
As far as the story goes, despite being short, it is satisfying in a way. The whole storyline of the P.L.O. that began in issue one been finally fully resolved. It’s an actual arc! Odd to think that the first six issues of ARBBH actually follow and (explosively) resolve a story arc, but it does happen. This leaves issue #7 open to start with an entirely new story.
The Epilog story of “Rodent’s Revenge” was interesting. When I first read this comic, I was unaware of Dark Horse Comic’s Boris the Bear and his first issue, titled “Boris the Bear Slaughters the Teenage Radioactive Black Belt Mutant Ninja Critters”. Now here I am, years later, and I’ve read not only a bunch of Boris the Bear comics but also issues of “Laffin’ Gas”, which kept the feud going!
So it’s cool to read this story where we get Clint’s take, where he pretty much ruins life for one “Clarence the Cub”. It’s good stuff. So to Parsonavich I say, “Well done, sir!” I can almost feel a slow clap coming on.
But I was kind of bummed out by the issue overall. It’s why it has taken me so long to write this review. It’s hard to say negative stuff about a comic series I like so much!
Favorite Moments
- The introduction of Captain Tree and Bush Boy.
- The plastic lion’s breath flattening Clint’s mohawk.
- The tour guide’s reaction on the jungle cruise, when he sees the Hamsters.
- How Clint is drawn by Sam Kieth, both on the cover and in the book.
Memorable Dialogue / Hamsterisms:
- “Tuna time!’
- “Eat bullets, Beelzebub!” “Let me at those furry disciples of the anti-christ!”
- “Hamsters… Ho!”
- “Hamsters… Wo!”
- “I’m not a dog – I’m a hamster, you ugly green booger-eater!”
- “Tiny hamsters – have no fear… Captain Tree and Bush Boy are here!”
- “Your stomach can’t withstand the Tibetan Death-Punch!”
- “Hey – if Indiana Jones can do it, then so can I!”
- “No way! Indiana Jones was a stupid dork! Spielberg must be nuts!”
- “Wow! This is just like the time warp scene in ‘Star Trek IV’!”
- “Jeepers! What was that?” “I dunno – But his breath flattened out my mohawk! Nobody does that to my mohawk and lives to tell about it!”
- “Ptew! Yuck! That lion tastes gross! G-R-O-S-E!”
- “Uh, and here we have, uh… A new attraction to Safari-land… Three wild, uh, hairy pygmy warriors beat a young hunter who, er, failed to spear a gazelle for dinner!” “Ooga Booga Boogie!”
- “The time has come, Bush Boy – Now! To the prune-mobile!”
- “Well, I’ll be – This isn’t Visine – it’s superglue! I swear they look exactly alike!”
Random Thoughts
“Rodent’s Revenge” is said to be “inspired by James Dean Smith and the Marquis De Sade”. Credit where credit is due!
It is kind of ambiguous in the artwork here just exactly how many fingers the Hamsters have. This is the first time I’ve noticed, but in most panels they are drawn with three fingers. But in a few, it is clearly four fingers. So the art is inconsistent. (I prefer four fingers, myself. Three looks too cartoony.)
On page 13, Jackie is incorrectly illustrated with a circle around the right eye, when it should be the left.
Speaking of which, come on guys! Note to the Editors: There’s a simple rule for determining which eye the circle goes on:
bRuce = Right
jackie = left
See? Bruce has an “R” in it, and so does “Right”. And Jackie doesn’t have an “R”, so it’s “Left”. Easy ‘nuff, son!
Hamster Droppings:
Mention is made of Sam Kieth’s other work, including Mage, Critters, Stig’s Inferno, and the Wandering Stars.
Don talks about an ARBBH color graphic novel(?). Very interesting! If they made it, I’m afraid I don’t have it. Yet.
Props are given to one “Joltin’ John Nyberg”, who also inked Nexus, as well as Master Letterer Kurt Hathaway.
Letters Page Contributors / Hamster Hall of Fame:
This has to be one of the most bizarre letters pages I’ve ever seen, simply from the fact that it lists the FULL ADDRESSES of each of the contributors! I don’t know if that was an oversight or what, but I find it kind of odd to say the least!
Here the lucky people are, sans addresses:
R.S. McLarty – Douglasville, GA
Mike Barr – Harbor City, CA
Aaron Kimball – Arlington, VA
Trey Vorderbrug – Monroe, GA
Sheree Price – Bivouac of the Barbaric Banzai Bushido Bipeds
Jason Andrew Hanr – Buffalo, NY
Jim Chin – Gainesville, FL
Aaron Kimball asks about Ray Zone, if that is the person’s real name or not. Don Chin confirms that it is, and mentions that Ray also has a father: O. Zone, and a brother: N. Zone, who plays football. (That Don Chin – always being helpful!)
Jim Chin mentions that he has a brother Brian Chin “of modeling fame” who was both in “Star Trek 2” and “Escape from New York”. Not recalling any male underwear models in either of those movies, I googled Brian and found this:
Memory Alpha Wiki – Brian Chin
“Brian Chin was an employee at Industrial Light & Magic who was assigned as a model maker under Steve Gawley. He was among the team responsible for the construction of the USS Reliant studio model for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
One word: Awesome!
Don concludes the letters page with some book, music, and movie recommendations. Some pretty good choices there, I agree.
There’s a “Top of the News” section showing info on Don’s “Enchanter” series… Interesting. There’s also a notice of the 400thpublication by Eclipse.
It ends with an ad for “Reid Fleming – World’s Toughest Milkman”.
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| Reid Fleming! |
I’ve long been intrigued by these ads, and wanted to read this series. So I recently ordered a hardback of the complete collection and it arrived this week:
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| Yes! I just bought this book! |
Onward to ARBBH issue #7!
Rating
Humor 3 / 10
Story 8 / 10
Art 8 / 10
Style 9 / 10
Overall 7 / 10
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