Dork Tower #28

Quick Rating: Good
Title: That GRRRL!

When Matt’s relationship with Kayleigh hits another rocky patch, Igor decides to help. This is not good news…

Writers: John Kovalic, Alex Robinson & Greg Hyland
Art: John Kovalic, Liz Rathke, Alex Robinson, Christopher Jones & Greg Hyland
Cover Art: Chynna Clugston-Major
Publisher: Dork Storm Press

Matt and Kayleigh have only been back together for a few issues, but he’s already feeling the horrible mistake he made when he went back to her instead of going after Gilly. She hates his hobbies, belittles gaming and torments him for how he spends his time, and his resentment of her is beginning to creep into his life with his friends. Igor, good-hearted lug that he is, comes up with a plan to smooth things out between the two of them, and naturally makes things much, much worse in the process.

One of the most amusing things about Dork Tower is that the same plotlines could be applied to a cheesy soap opera, but Kovalic manages to make a hysterical comedy out of them. One of the downsides, though, is that the plot progresses really, really slowly. There is some plot progression here, but not until the last few pages. It jolts the story ahead significantly when it happens, but it does sometimes feel like it takes too long to get there.

Following the main story we get several short Dork Tower strips, touching on such sensitive subjects as gaming snacks, Games Magazine’s 200th issue and the inherent dangers when a gamer begins dating a woman who’s better at games than he is.

Next up is a Snapdragons short by Kovalic and Liz Rathke. I haven’t read the Snapdragons comic, but I do enjoy the shorts in this title – our Dork Tower heroes try to introduce children to the wonderful world of gaming. This time around, Matt winds up showing his age.

Alex Robinson (of Box Office Poison fame) follows this with a very amusing, if offbeat, one-pager. In “Romanticlicks,” he apparently skews the click-game trend (games like Heroclix, for instance) with a parody of a dating click-game. Cracked me up.

Kovalic and Jones contribute two Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink shorts, including the funniest one I’ve read yet. Ever wondered how superheroes make sure they don’t choose names that are already taken? It isn’t easy.

And finally, Greg Hyland’s Lethargic Lad returns in “Poison Uma: Jumpsuit Samurai,” where he goes up against a criminal that seems to be a strange amalgam of Uma Thurman’s characters from Batman and Robin, Kill Bill and other films. The Lethargic Lad strips usually aren’t my favorites in this title – Hyland has a good sense of humor, but he doesn’t have the same loving parody that you find everywhere else in this comic book. Too often, he gets acerbic, and that’s not as funny to me.

A solid issue, but not one of Kovalic’s best. However, he seems to have set things up quite nicely, and I expect he’ll have major progression in the story in the next two issues. Plus, it’s just funny. Check this one out.

Rating: 7/10

Dork Tower #29

November 24, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good

Matt’s love life hits critical mass, and everything changes!

Writer: John Kovalic
Art: John Kovalic
Snapdragon Back-up: John Kovalic & Liz Rathke
Dr. Blink Back-up: John Kovalic & Christopher Golden
Lethargic Lad Back-up: Greg Hyland
Cover Art: John Kovalic
Publisher: Dork Storm

Everything John Kovalic has been building to over the first 28 issues of this title finally comes together. His bitter girlfriend Kayleigh has seen the artwork from Matt’s comic strip – starring a girl who just happens to look just like Gilly, the real girl of his dreams, who he doesn’t know is flying off to London to go to grad school. Matt finally drinks himself to a point where his muse appears (in the person of a foul-mouthed pixie named Jim) and spurs him to do something he should have done a long time ago. But will it be too late?

It sounds like a soap opera, but it’s more like a sitcom, right down to the race against an airplane to stop the girl of your dreams from flying away. Kovalic surprises with a nice twist to the ending, however, that nicely sets up a new status quo for a title that’s ostensibly about gamers and dorks, but is really about love and friendship when you get right down to it. This book surprises on many levels, including some surprising characterization for Kayleigh (you mean she really does care about Matt? Who knew?).

There aren’t any Dork Tower back-up strips this time, but we do get a few others. There’s a great Snapdragon two-pager about Ken taking some kids to the latest Harry Potter movie – basically an extended joke strip, but with a great punchline. There’s a three-page Dr. Blink story, although the doctor never actually shows up, it’s really about the requisite Batman knock-off denying some much-needed medical attention. Cute, but not great. Finally, there’s Greg Hyland’s Lethargic Lad, in which an arch-villain sets up a nefarious scheme. As far as superhero parodies go, this strip has never really clicked for me – it treads on material too well-worn and parodied better.

This is a real shocker of an issue, to be honest, but a very satisfying one. Kovalic says he’s got the comic plotted out to issue 50 (which, let’s face it, could take 10 years on this publishing schedule), which makes me hope these cool, clever and heartfelt stories will come at us for some time to come.

Rating: 8/10

(As it turned out, this book wasn’t long for the world. After a few more issues, Kovalic went strictly webcomic with this series. I still read the webcomic, but I miss the longer stories.)