Gorman knows the hell out of these characters, making for a lot of laughs; but, Cannon's art falls a little flat. I have a friend who has been bugging me about how great Rick and Morty is since the show started.  Once I caught up to the hype, I knew he wasn't kidding.  I am a sucker for anything absurd and the contrast of Rick's completely bombastic personality with Morty's humble intelligence makes for an explosion of awkward, hilarious face-palming every episode.

I thought Gorman captured that perfectly with the plot of this issue.  Rick was his usual peer-pressuring, downright demeaning self, and Morty's timidity in the face of it all made for a bunch of great punchlines.  Add in some ridiculous characters like a time cop obsessed with time puns, and you can't help but smile throughout the issue.

The problem with converting Rick and Morty to the spatially juxtaposed realm of static comic pages is that the show thrives on the frantic motion of its plots and characters, both visually and audibly.  Character designs are simple with almost no frills, which doesn't give an artist much to impress us with.  But in spite of the lack of animated-for-television buffoonery, this comic doesn't take advantage of the fact that it's a comic: it's pretty much like reading a storyboard from a cartoon.

Maybe that seems nitpicky to you, but one of the reasons that the Regular Show comic is one of the few things that has been consistently on my pull list is because the page layouts frequently take advantage of the fact that they are comics and not just cartoons in a book.  I need a reason to come back to Rick and Morty rather than just watching the television show.  Especially given the character of this show, I would really like to see the design of these stories push some boundaries.

Score: 3/5

Rick and Morty #1 Writer: Zac Gorman Artist: CJ Cannon Colorist: Ryan Hill Publisher: Oni Press Price: $3.99 Release Date: 4/1/15 Format: Ongoing, Print/Digital

You can also here more about Rick and Morty #1 on this week's CBMFP