For me, short stories are hit or miss. They either come across as an unfinished or rushed ideas or a brilliant piece of work. Rarely do I read a short story and land somewhere in the middle of the review scale. Why? Because short stories need to be incredibly balanced in order to work. It’s why I have a lot of respect for anyone that can tell a good short story. The Swords of the Dreaded Space Punks is short and sweet. It’s about revenge, pure and simple. The story opens at a celebration for the Punk King. He’s surrounded by his followers and they’re all asking to hear stories of his adventures. A stranger asks to hear one tale in particular and the crowd clamors for it, having never heard the tale. This reveals our main character seeking revenge against Punk King, a man known as Fire Speaker.
The story is enjoyable. I wouldn’t say it’s original as I’m pretty sure the core of the story has been taken from a movie and retooled here. But it’s not hiding that. Creator Jonas McCluggage even lists the inspirations at the end of the story. Hell, I even think that an entire line of a dialogue is borrowed from a movie, but the presentation is incredible and more importantly it’s fun.
The artwork is what makes this story. McCluggage’s artwork is what I think of when I think of Oni Press. Which is not the publisher of this short. Space Punks is 100% self-published on the internet, but it looks very professional. Now that I think of it, it’s a bit like what I associate as Oni Press’ style and Jamie Hewlett’s style had a love child that you adopted and never let out of a room so it could continue to draw.
I can’t stress enough just how great the art and coloring on this book is. Even the lettering and the word bubbles are sharp and wonderful. The character designs have a very space punk look to them which is of course appropriate for the story. The art is the best thing about the story and it makes you want to be a part of this world.
I’d give it a read considering its free to do so and it’s an entertaining story. Frankly, I don’t know how this guy isn’t getting job offers considering how great his art style is.
Score: 4/5
Creator: Jonas McCluggage Price: $10.00 Format: One-Shot; Print Website
Hear Dustin and Kevin talk about The Swords of the Dreaded Space Punks on this week's episode of the CBMFP!