Advance Review: Big Guns Stupid Rednecks #1
From Band Of Bards
New from Band Of Bards is a mad comic series that I was lucky enough to have an advanced lookt at - Big Guns Stupid Rednecks #1.
After a string of unexplained disappearances in the southern parts of the United States retired detective Clint searches for his white trash brother. While searching for him he ends up being abducted… by aliens!
He is now in the arena for Big Guns Stupid Rednecks. Intergalactic cable’s newest hit show which puts humans in laser gun gladiatorial combat and his brother is the reigning champion with 27 kills!
Author: Austin Allen Hamblin
Artist: Mariana Meira
I have a slight confession to make.
I dived straight into this review without reading the above blurb. This is not something I usually do, but it was late, and I had heard people talking online about this, so I was eager to dive right in.
I must say it certainly enhanced my reading experience of the comic!
Kicking off a simple investigation, this is surely a comic of two halves. A brother is looking for his missing sibling and he may have escaped the small town, but he needs to get around them all to find his missing brother. His brother isn’t the best of people, but as Dom Torretto may say, ‘it’s all about family’ and his sister has a deciding vote.
Even so, we get a look through the underworld of this redneck town and some of the regular goings on. It doesn’t help that Clint is an ex-detective, as the reaction to him is decidedly frosty.
Then we come to the story's second half, where Clintis reunited with his brother.
Oh! And he has to compete in death-match-style battles with massive alien guns.
Fantastic!
This is a crazy caper of a story, and the mechanism of going from one style to another in two halves is excellent. The slower aspect of the more mundane search is perfect in its mirror image of the second part of the story.
There are some great pop-culture references in here, and some genuine funny cracked me up. Going with the art, from the town's dark shadows to the alien fight scenes, is excellent, and I loved all the little details.
I can’t wait to see how this is dialled up to 11 in the next issue!
