Art by Jason Loo and Meaghan Carter
I've been reading the Pitiful Human-Lizard's adventures in a few different formats over the last few years. First, I bought some of the self-published comics directly from Jason Loo at TCAF, and then when the book was picked up by Chapterhouse Comics, I enjoyed getting them from my local comics store. After Chapterhouse hit some difficulties, the series moved online, and I lost track of it, because I hate reading comics on the computer. Recently, I saw that Chapterhouse had pulled things together a little, and were releasing most of their catalogue in trade, including this Season Four trade which physically collects the issues that were only published online. I got the trade direct from Loo (taking things full circle) at a show recently, which is why I'm talking about it before it's actually officially published.
The Pitiful Human-Lizard tells the story of Lucas Barrett, an amateur superhero with the ability to regenerate from any injury. When we last saw him (in the monthly comic, I'm not counting the special that Loo made to end the title that I got at TCAF last year), Lucas was in space helping Mother Wonder deal with some cosmic stuff.
Now he's back, but he's lost his job, and the girl he was talking to is not interested in pursuing things. Lucas has always been a down-on-his-luck kind of character, and things are starting to look bleak here. His friend The Majestic Rat has moved away from the superhero world since settling down with his boyfriend. He manages to get another friend captured by the company that's been producing, and losing, monsters at a rapid pace.
This book has always had a lot of charm, and that continues here, but these four chapters feel a touch tired compared to the energy of the earlier issues. Lucas is worn out, but also, maybe, is Loo? The characterizations continue to be spot-on, but the collaborations with other creators cause this volume to lose some momentum, and the inclusion of Minuit, a Montreal-based hero, feels very random.
What's missing the most from this volume is the Toronto-centric storytelling that made the first couple of years of this book special to me. Loo, however, is a very strong emerging talent, and I found that his final PH-L book, Some Heart Left, had everything that this volume was missing. I look forward to seeing what Loo's next project (I know he has something online with Chip Zdarsky) is like. I believe he's going to go far.
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