I couldn’t tell you if this was the first adventure for Garth Kirby or just another along the way. I kind of like that fact about it though. I know that most comic readers and/or people who partake in storytelling don’t like to be thrown into a world, but that’s never been something that’s bothered me. Rather I find it interesting to explore the world and get the lay of the land. The issue is actually pretty easy to sum up. A book from Egypt is stolen from a museum by some ninjas. We then meet Garth in his mechanic shop as he argues with a woman about when her car will be ready. The lady is under the impression that he can do the job faster than the two days he’s telling her and so they banter back and forth. Let’s just say that Garth probably isn’t known for his customer service. After that the ninjas arrive at Garth’s shop in their Yakuza clothes and demand their money for delivery of the goods… to which he has no clue about. They put him in their car and drive donuts around the parking lot before dumping him out with the book and warning him to get their money. Meanwhile the woman who was arguing about her car with Garth calls the ninjas and tells them they screwed up the drop and that she’s not paying. They show up with swords and she pulls out two handguns and starts shooting off ears and kicking dudes in the face.

This is basically a case of mistaken identity and really there’s nothing new to the plot there. The charm of the story comes from the humor and just the awkward comedy that the story has. There’s definitely something more to Garth as his involvement in the story becomes voluntary which was one of the few differences to the plot to the normal mistaken identity stories. It’s never really explained why he continues to be involved or if these types of instances are commonplace for him to deal with. Overall though the writing was good and the pacing for the story was solid. The humor was decent, but I can see some people not getting it. It was very Adult Swim inspired in my opinion.

The art is also solid. I wouldn’t say that it carries the story on its own, but it definitely supports the narrative. I can’t really tell if the artist had input on the story at all or wasn’t really allowed to put their flair into the story, if they did I couldn’t really tell. The style definitely looks familiar, but the line work is basically made up of thick lines and heavy shadows. It works for the story though.

Overall this was an entertaining one-shot that tells a quirky story with some comedic moments. I’m interested to see what the rest of Garth’s adventures are like and think that there could be some success for the series if it continued to do similar one-shots.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Sal Crivelli Artist: Viktor Bogdanovic Publisher: Little House Comics Price: $2.99 Comixology Link