This is honestly going to be a hard book for me to review. I’ve enjoyed Lukasz Kowalczuk’s past work on Vreckless Vrestlers and some of his other short story comics. Violent Skate Bulldogs should be for me because it’s a little big Ninja Turtles and a lot of Punk rock. The thing is… we’ve had plenty of versions of the Ninja Turtles. Hell, there’s been things like Biker Mice from Mars and countless others that have followed the TMNT formula to varying degrees of success. In that regard, it’s no longer enough to just follow the formula and add your own spice. It’s a stew that’s had too much added, but you remember what it tastes like so you tell yourself it’s okay.
The gist of the story is that these three mutated bulldogs are going to save the city/world. I don’t know why they have to specifically because the story doesn’t tell us. We mostly see them fight with cops and occasionally other people… via a moshpit. That’s really all there is to the story.
There’s entertaining elements of the story for sure and I enjoyed those parts. The story, or rather the collection of short stories, don’t blend together as a whole. There is and isn’t a larger story being created here and that’s frustrating because in the end, it’s just TMNT with Punk rock and nothing else. There’s no real sense of the world and the characters are one-dimensional.
Kowalczuk’s artwork is always very strong. It’s not a style that everyone is going to love that’s for sure, but I enjoy it. There’s a free flowing feel to the art and often times it looks like a band poster. The action isn’t given enough panels making for huge leaps of visuals, but other than that, it gives the story all of its personality.
It’s not that I disliked the book, it’s that it didn’t go deep enough. It didn’t offer the genre anything new. It relied on shock and awe and having read a lot of comics, I felt neither. It might be more enjoyable for someone else, but like I said, just using the TMNT formula isn’t enough anymore.
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