By Hunter T. Patrick

Such a fun time. Rocko’s Modern Life #5 does something very hard to do, it both holds the legacy of its past but also embraces the future (our present). Rock gets a cell phone, never having one before. This occurrence has something all too familiar to most people as he gets addicted to his phone and thus comes the humor. Rocko quickly becomes a success online with help from his dog. Rocko being mixed with everything has a lot of great laughs. Rocko fans will be happy with this comic, but maybe not the easily forgettable back-up included. Read this and expect fun similar to the television series.

The writing is enjoyable and nicely reminiscent of the TV show this is based on. The humor is strong and lets the reader enjoy a memorable ride with it. The humor sticks and with themes of cell phone and social media being oh so common now, seeing Rocko mixed with it makes for an interesting twist. The pacing feels right with the story lets specific parts grow naturally and does not feel rushed. The whole comic feels just like a full episode with the story structure which they excelled at. A downside is it is revealed that this has a to be continued at the end, with a story that does not look to be as good as this sadly, following up on some lesser points of the comic. The back-up provides far lesser if any jokes. The quality of the comic drops due to it.

The artwork looks great and true to the TV show. For a comic based around a cartoon, being faithful is what is needed for the art, and it is faithful. It keeps cartoon elements and has fun with specific scenes and over-emotional moments. Sadly, the back-up is noticeably drastically worse than the main story for the art. It looks dry and unstable in the worse sense ever. It overpowers the writing and makes nothing funny as a result. The back-up washes away the good art over the previous and leaves the readers with a bad taste in their mouth, as opposed to ending with the main story. If the back-up were gone, then the comic would be much better and not destroy the good writing and art.

This comic, if it did not have the back-up, would be so much better than what it is, but sadly it is still included. Rocko fans would be happy to have this comic and should most definitely buy it for a collection, or read it, a much better option. Truthfully, they should pretend there is nothing after the main story, but they will still notice it. Readers of this review will know there is something and more likely you will want to read it with all this attention to it. Go ahead, read that first and hopefully do not spot the last page of the primary. Read the primary after and you should forget the backup and the comic will be much more enjoyable and high, just as it should be.

Score: 3/5

Rocko's Modern Life #5
Kaboom!