I’m really torn about this book. There are parts of the story I really enjoyed and other parts that I couldn’t fake interest in. The art though, man oh man the art; well Stefano Cardoselli is the jam. If you’re unfamiliar with Cardoselli I would highly encourage you to check out anything of his as it’s all pretty stunning. Even Love Me Like a Psycho Robot which fell a bit short for me. The issue starts off with “Love” which is a Robot looking for his love, smashing a car of hippies with a shark. Great start right? I mean I was pretty much ready to sign the deed over at this point and it was only the first page. We see him fight some more and a monkey flips us off and it’s great. Then it cuts to several pages of “Fat Cats” talking about how they’re trying to root out some tree huggers from some land that they’re squatting on. All attempts have failed and so “Love” is their last chance.
The story isn’t terrible, but it has an agenda. It’s ripe with social commentary and while it’s all valid and hell I even support it… it’s just too much. The “Fat Cats” are all so over the top that it’s painful to deal with them and the message just hits you over the head continuously when all we really want to see is “Love” smash the shit out of things. Eventually he does and it does redeem the story some. In the end “Love” is forced to deal with what he is and all the things he did to find his love and that was actually the best part of the story… other than the shark bashing that is.
Whereas the rest of Cardoselli’s work has been very enjoyable and inspired several readings, Love Me Like A Psycho Robot may have been lost on me. Perhaps the wound in which the social commentary picks is still too fresh, but I didn’t gravitate to this one as much. At least not the story in which Valeriana Cretella either joins or handles on her own.
The real star of the show is as always Cardoselli’s artwork. My only gripe is of course the fact that we spend so much time with the “Fat Cats” and while their character designs are crazy, that wears off quickly. Even still when Cardoselli is on, he’s really on. The action is plenty and the over the top craziness is not to be missed.
I don’t think this is a bad story, in fact I think it was mostly just a miss for me. If you’ve never experienced Cardoselli’s work this is a great piece to check out as it is not so over the top violent as some of his other work, but even if you’re just a fan it’s worth checking out especially at the price.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Valeriana Cretella Artist: Stefano Cardoselli Publisher: Book Maker Comics Price: $7.99 Format: One-Shot Website