I can respect what Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat does both with its story and creatively, but I knew from the first three pages that this wasn’t a comic for me. Creator Andrez Bergen lists his creative influences for the comic in the back of the issue, siting things like Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python, Jack Kirby’s 60s collages and David Aja to name a few. Aside from Aja, I’m not really into the madness that is Gilliam and Kirby’s work. The abstract collage construction of art is not something I’m drawn to or interested in and that is the entire way this comic is laid out.

I give Bergen credit for boldly creating a comic like this and for putting together a narrative that I could follow through the madness. The story follows an agent that has been asked to retrieve someone’s daughter. It’s a pretty straight forward concept that you’ve likely seen or read before. What Bergen does well is narration and description. That part kept my interest and again, walked me through the art design.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much more to say about the book. There is no reason to bash or complain about art that I understand, but don’t personally enjoy and so I simply won’t do that. I am now more curious to read the novel version that Bergen wrote prior to adapting it to the graphic novel. But as a comic… I don’t know if I’ll read more. It’s something you’ll really have to decide for yourself if you’re going to read it or not and I’m sure that people who are fans of the artistic influences will likely really enjoy it. I hate to leave any review with a simple, “check it out for yourself”, but I think this is one of those books that really require you to do just that.

Score: 3/5

Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat #1 Creator: Andrez Bergen Publisher: Project-Nerd Publishing Price: $5.00 Format: Print/Digital Website