Krash Bastards

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Axel #13

Joe Casey is a pretty interesting writer. He can handle mainstream comics, but is best known for playing with genre conventions and trying new things in a manner that is respectful of what has gone before. The perfect example for this is Gødland, his post-modern Kirby on steroids series.

With Krash Bastards, Casey has created a post-modern English language manga comic. The Bastards are a group of celebrity superheroes (a recurring theme in his work - see Youngblood or Final Crisis Aftermath Dance, which is basically the same series) in some future world. They have been together for a while, and fit the usual archetypes for Japanese comics and films like this. There is the good looking leader, his girlfriend, some annoying kid character (his little brother), the mysterious spooky character (female in this case), and some older guy who takes on a mentor role.

They fight against a 'Giant Gekko God-Being', a bunch of S&M leather bad guys, some Minotaur-type, and eventually the main Bastard fights some Shogun Baron Karza figure named Kau Death. None of it makes much sense, but it does move quickly, which I think might have been the goal here from the beginning. Axel #13's art works in this setting, but is nothing too spectacular.

This is a fun read, but the story only takes up half the book, while the remainder consists of script pages and sketches. When one attempts to ape manga, one should at least create as meaty a reading experience...