Who's Who in the CBU 2009

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

TOZZERS!

By Regie Rigby

Oh bloody hell, this is embarrassing.

I’m a day late again only unlike last time this has nothing to do with my PC. I have been very busy, but this column was written well in advance, so that’s not the reason for the delay either.

Basically I forgot what day it was. Sad but true. The mind is a funny thing. You don’t miss it ‘till it’s gone.

Anyway, in some ways my accidental tardiness is appropriate, since this week’s column is dedicated to a character who took his own sweet time turning up. It was in Bristol, back in 2002, that I first came across a character called Tozzer, who, the banner promised would be “coming soon”. Well he’s a relaxed little fella is our Tozzer, and he didn’t turn up until Bristol the following year. Mind you, when he finally arrived he was with a bunch of Invisible Lap Dancers, so I for one was prepared to let him off.

Back in 2003 I described Tozzer and the Invisible Lap Dancers as “small format, square bound and funny as hell.” and on recent re-reading I have to say I stand by that with bells on! Then, last year I picked up the first part of the mind melting sequel which bore the rather imaginative title of Tozzer 2.

At the end of …Lap Dancers we left our hero as a student of “Boarboils School of Drama” (Boar=Hog, Boils=Warts, do try to keep up). We rejoin him, now an apprentice magician (of the David Blaine, rather than the Harry Potter variety). We rejoin him back on the trailer park he calls home in mortal danger as his foster parents are gearing up to killing him.

Again.

Fortunately his Boarboils friends Rod and Horney arrive in time and whisk him back for the start of the new term. (And yes, that should be sounding like a familiar motif.) But life is never simple at Boarboils, and the new term is going to bring a whole new truckload of threats.

As ever the cast is packed with faces you’re going to almost recognise. Episode I will introduce you to somebody who is in no way Samuel L. Jackson from his “Pulp Fiction” period, now accompanied by a sentence twisting green puppet who bares absolutely no resemblance to a certain 900 year old Jedi master.

Oh, and George Lucas isn’t in it either. Honest.

Then there’s Tozzer’s apparent Nemesis, a pop star known as “Mad Jax” – a crazy guy with a billion dollar face and close relationship with a chimp. Bears no resemblance to a bloke currently appearing on Court TV in the States…

I’m not sure I should tell you the story, although having had a sneak peek of the scripts for issues four and five, (Mattress Revulsions and Hulk Fiction) I can tell you that they the ending is characteristically sharp and funny. Rob Dunlop delivers more laughs per page than any humorist has a right to attempt, I honestly don’t know how he does it. Just trust me, from one who knows – make sure you follow Tozzer 2 all the way to the end because the finale is, how can I put this? Quite rewarding…

(And yes, there’s a pun there, but you won’t get it unless you read the last issue. Then again, it’s a crap pun, so it’s much less of an incentive to buy it that the fact that it’s a good comic…)

You see, although the story that is Tozzer 2 is a good one, and well worth the price of admission, that’s actually not the most important thing about it.

“So what is?” I hear you ask.

“Is it the art?”

Well, I have to say, however impressive the writing of Tozzer 2 is, (and it is) the art, from the pen (or possibly the brush, I can’t always tell) of Peter Lumby matches it stroke for stroke. The neat, angular lines give you perfectly realised caricatures. You know exactly who each character represents without having to deal with anything as tedious as photo-realism. The art on Tozzer 2 is as close to perfect as you could wish to see. The script relies very heavily on the ability of the reader to recognise the figures being caricatured, and Lumby never fails to deliver.

This is no mean feat – attaining a recognisable likeness is impressive enough, but doing so in a style that doesn’t subjugate itself to the simplicity of photo-realism is a delight. There is an energy and vibrancy to his line that manages to look urgent without being rushed. I had worried that the switch from the full colour of …The Invisible Lap Dancers to Tozzer 2’s greyscale, but actually I needn’t have worried. If anything, the loss of pigment allows Lumby to play with shadow and shading rather more, giving Tozzer 2 a rather stylish look. But however impressive the art might be, that isn’t why Tozzer 2 is important.

No, Tozzer 2 is important because of what it represents.

Last week I muttered on at some length about why “event” comics had lost their lustre for me. The mainstream isn’t what matters to me anymore. However much I love comics (and I love them more than almost everything else, sad bastard that I am) the books that we are pleased to call “the mainstream” (you know, the ones that say “MARVEL”, “DC” or “DARK HORSE” on the cover) they aren’t where the spirit of the medium lives.

Comics are wonderful because they can do things that other media cannot. There’s an immediacy, an attitude, as simplicity that film, or TV, or even mass published prose cannot match. Tozzer 2, embodies everything that is great about the medium of comics.

Too great a claim?

Not at all. Oh, I don’t claim that Tozzer 2 is going to change the world. But it does what all good satire does, it makes you think, and it treats everyone with equal disdain. You want an example? Well, like all good lefties I’ve been a fan of corpulent documentary maker Michael Moore for years, ever since a show he did for the BBC called TV Nation when I was still at University.

Well, Moore, or at least a bloated, bearded, baseball cap wearing film maker who answers to Moore’s description is to be found at Boarboils too, and Dunlop does a pretty good job of demonstrating how flawed his allegedly objective techniques are, whilst simultaneously spoofing claustrophobic thriller Phone Booth. For people like me Moore is something of a sacred cow, and I like that these books can puncture the balloon a little.

But the thought provoking edge to the satire is only part of what makes these books so refreshing. The Tozzer series also has the sort of anarchic approach to life and story telling that has been missing from the media in Britain since the cancellation of Spitting Image. (I have no idea whether those of you on the big side of the Atlantic ever had an equivalent show, but if you didn’t you’ll just have to trust me, getting that energy back is A Good Thing.)

No punches are pulled, no flaw left un-picked, no pomposity left un-pricked, no absurdity left unremarked. But this is no juvenile “pointing and laughing” exercise (well, there’s a fair amount of juvenile humour actually, but only in a good way) every joke is aimed with consummate skill and every barb hits its target.

Basically what we have here is five issues of sheer bloody laugh-till-your-lungs-implode genius. Dash down to your comic store and buy it, or, if that seems too much like hard work, click here and check out the website because if you don’t you’re going to regret it eventually.

Go on – you know you want to…