The Pitiful Human-Lizard Season 4: Setbacks

Written by Jason Loo, Fred Kennedy, and Meaghan Carter
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.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard: Some Heart Left

by Jason Loo

I've been a fan of Jason Loo's Pitiful Human-Lizard since I first sampled it at TCAF four years ago, buying the two issues on offer at that time.  I immediately fell in love with the way Loo portrays Toronto in his comics, and also enjoyed his everyman approach to superheroics.

Lucas has been doing his best to become a hero for our city, despite the fact that he's not really all that good at it.  Loo built a large ensemble cast for this series, including other heroes, villains, and some unique people who became a part of Lucas's life and world.  The book started as a self-published venture, and then got picked up and reprinted by Chapterhouse Comics, before that company apparently went into hiatus.

Now, at this year's TCAF, Loo debuted Some Heart Left, the final Pitiful Human-Lizard comic.  I think there were some digital comics released after Chapterhouse stopped publishing physical ones (I'm still holding out hope for a trade), but really, this is the first that I've seen Lucas and friends in a while.

This self-published comic is mostly made up of short strips of one page or so, which check in on Lucas and some of the other regulars, showing us what's up with them.  Lucas is working for "Food Dash", delivering takeout on his bicycle, and is finding that the costumed business is not as satisfying as it used to be.  His father is starting to decline, and he is not seeing a lot of his friend Kenneth, the Majestic Rat, so much.  Mother Wonder is still off in space.

In a lot of ways, this goodbye to these characters is a sad affair.  It feels like everyone is moving forward except for Lucas, who is a little sadder than normal because his optimism makes him feel a little clueless.  At the same time, this book has a number of high points, such as Lucas facing his fear of heights.

Perhaps my favourite part of this book comes in the form of a folded page tucked into the middle, which shows Lucas visiting Kim's Convenience, a local corner store that is the set of a sitcom on TV (and Netflix).  Loo captures those characters beautifully.

I'm going to miss seeing more Pitiful Human-Lizard, but look forward to seeing where Loo goes next with his career.  It's guaranteed that I'll be buying his next work.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard #1

by Jason Loo

I love my hometown, Toronto, which is a serious comics town.  I am often surprised by the high calibre of local talent in the comics industry, from big-name Big Two stars to quality independent writers, artists, and cartoonists.  For a city that is well-represented behind the scenes in comics, it's not often a a comic showcases the city itself.

Sure, Alpha Flight comes to mind, but even when John Byrne was drawing it, Toronto was never a character.  It was in Scott Pilgrim, though, but now, Toronto has its own superhero, the Human-Lizard (apparently he's a little pitiful).  At TCAF, creator Jason Loo compared this hero to the city's sports teams - lots of good intentions, not very impressive results.

Anyway, this is a very solid debut for this series.  We get to know our hero, who is a Kick-Ass style superhero wannabe with access to his father's excellent glue and gimmicks from his own hero days.  Lucas Barrett has a boring office job, and generally sucks at jiu-jitsu, but really wants to be a hero.  After signing up for a drug company experiment, he gains the ability to recover from any injury, and realizes that perhaps his time to be a hero has come around.

Loo makes Lucas a likeable character, and does a terrific job of incorporating the city into his story.  You don't have to be from Toronto to enjoy this book, but there are lots of Easter Eggs and nods to Torontonians that make reading this even more fun.

My biggest TCAF regret of this year (I always have some) was in not buying the other three issues of this series that are available.  I'm going to have to go look for them, because I want more.

AWOL'd Vol 1: Rogues

by Jason Loo

This is the last of the purchases that I made at TCAF that I hadn't read yet, not because I wasn't interested in reading it right away, but mostly because it was my last purchase of that day...

I remember picking this book up a couple of times during the show, and finally returning to buy it. I couldn't really make up my mind as to whether or not it caught my interest, and I still sort of feel that way about it.

I like the central concept - that some shadowy government agency has been abducting runaway kids, and modifying and training them to serve as completely deniable special forces agents. In this first volume, one group of kids get away, and the rest of the book focuses on their being on the run, and on the particularly nasty government guy that wants to find them.

It's a good set-up and premise. I think my problem with the book came when the kids, on the lam, hook up with some guy who wants to use them to help a government-sponsored motorcycle gang put an end to gang violence in Philadelphia. At that point, it just got to be a little too much.

The art in the book is perfectly fine, but I found the ziptones used for the grays to be distracting. Each chapter started with a pin-up that was properly toned, but the rest of the book is just too, I don't know, dotted.

Loo is a young artist, just starting out. I see a lot of potential in his work, and would be interested in seeing where he goes from here.

Note: This is not the cover to the comic that I bought, but I don't have a scanner, and this is what I kept finding on the internet when I searched for this title.