Monday, March 10, 2014

The Wild #1

 photo TheWild-1-Thumbnail_zps910e4423.jpg

Wild and crazy cyborg animals.




50 comments:

Adam said...

Spelling and grammar typos aside, this book had a lot of silly potential. It has the cheesy action movie feel where it tries to be serious but comes off even more goofy in its attempt. I would actually pay good money to see this continue in some way; if only to see a comic version of the text prologue on how this world came to be.

The concept of a giant, muscle-bound, pink rabbit alone is the kind of awesome idiocy I can get behind. He looked like a 90s Image version of the Easter Bunny. The only things missing would be a gun that fires carrot-shaped bullets and colored egg grenades.

Someone needs to track down the creators behind this and demand more of The Wild. Hell, I'd toss in a few bucks if this was on Kickstarter right now.

Unknown said...

"I'm really sad there weren't more issues to see if they could keep up the insanity".
Never have I agreed with you more Linkara. This comic combines to things I love. Furries and ultra-muscular Liefeldian nonsense. The rational part of my mind is screaming that this would be boring as hell if these were human characters is drowned out by the fact the I'm seeing steroid abusing cyborg ducks with lazer guns.
I' half tempted to try to make a fan continuation of it.
I'd imagine that "Redhair" was probably bullied at school for his pink "It's not pink, my mu says it's red" fur. Took to the gym (and probably other less legal things) so he could beat up the bullies. And became the wonderful freak of nature we see today.
Also I think Maverick's design looked ace. (He looked more like a rat than a weasel to me but you have spent longer looking at the comic than I did).

It was nice seeing you really harp on this comic's typos. What with Gameboy, US-1 and The A-team recently you've been a bit too nice recently. Hopefully Kamandi at Earth's End will fix that >:D

Good review Lewis. May the Horse by with you.

(Also Redhair looks pretty much like the characters you see in gay furry porn. And he's the only one in his group not wearing clothes. Makes me wonder......)

CMWaters said...

Duck empire?

Man, the prequel to Duck Tales was DARK.

Doug Puthoff said...

Was the Duck Empire related to Duck Dynasty?

But seriously ,this reminds me of a whole bunch concepts. The "Animals take over the world" idea reminds me of the classic MGM cartoon "Peace on Earth." The cover reminds me of cross between YOUNGBLOOD and THE A-TEAM. Was the minotaur supposed to be George Peppard? Maybe Redhair was B.A. The visual presentation and the story's tone reminded me of early 2000 A.D. The lettering reminds of Tom Frame's on JUDGE DREDD, for example. And, since I'm a Parrothead, the landsharks reminded me of Jimmy Buffett. It's the "Willow" of early '90s comics, rehashing a boatload of other comics, only not as good.

Anonymous said...

A Future World where Anthromorphic Animals Rule? We sure this isn’t the original team for Kamandi?

Although, I just burst out laughing when they said; “Duck Empire”.
This has to be Tongue-In-Cheek, shouldn’t it?

Also, Shouldn’t the point that Omani is Human work more as a Plot Twist, instead of just spelling it out for the reader?

With the Cochi case, Sort of reminds me of Simba from Lio King. Simba is the Swahili word for Lion…So, the Lead Lion…is called Lion…
Although, does make me question how long they intended this comic to be, considering they take down two of it’s cover characters in under two or three pages!

WOOT! New Ad Bumper! Your Trainer Outfit looks really good! =3

I noticed that about the spacing too, it all looks like one long word, which can be confusing at some points.

I get peeved about some Comics that do that, or even some Movies or Shows.
I can forgive some minor cases, but if you have to tell everyone everything about the story in Tie-In rather than the actual movie, than I will deduct points for story-telling.
I’m surprised that BEAAAAAAAAR!!! Didn’t show up, when mentioning the Bears rise to Power.

Still, Nice Review, Linkara.
Looking forward to seeing more from you. ;3

Lostshadows said...

I'm not bothered by the pig's name, but I grew up watching The Muppet Show. Miss Piggy isn't really the most original name either.

Toby'c said...

I was hoping/expecting to see a Futurama joke towards the end there. From "The Late Philip J. Fry":

Fry: [Sees the ruins of the Statue of Liberty] No! They did it! They blew it up!
[Camera pans to ape version of Statue of Liberty]
Fry: And then the apes blew up their society! How could this have happened?
[camera pans to other Statues of Liberty]
Fry: And then the birds took over and ruined their society! And then the cows, and then... I don't know, is that a slug, maybe? Noooo!

Anonymous said...

Why didn't you make a "Street Sharks" joke? You could have even used 90s Kid in that bit as well.

Also, how about a "Bucky O' Hare" joke for the animal commandos?

Or Gizmo Duck from "Darkwing Duck"?

Andrew Bull said...

7:14 - because they stayed information... I mean "IN" formation.

Anonymous said...

Really? No "March of the Sinister Ducks"? Guess you've never heard the song, or the joke was too obvious.

Megan said...

The only thing I could think of when the Landsharks showed up was that skit from SNL. "Candygram!"

I gotta say, this comic does sound stupidly awesome. The idea of animals taking over after mankind dies off is an interesting one, and if done right, could potentially also be quite cool. Buuutt...The Wild doesn't really do much with the idea. I agree with Linkara-I'd much rather read about the Rise of the Animals rather than just be dropped in the middle of the Duck Regime. (Started by Scrooge, no doubt)

Why "Omani"? Why not make up a word rather than use one that already exists? An Omani is a native of the Sultanate of Oman. It's like calling mankind "Americans." Granted, most people might not know that it's a real word, but still-have *some* imagination.

So are the ducks' headquarters at the Dells? :P


ShadowWing Tronix said...

There ARE a few other comics you could try. I remember one called Animax, produced by Star Comics but I never read it. They you have Bucky O'Hare and Street Sharks.

KingOfDoma said...

Headcanon: this is the gritty world that emerged from Disney's The Mighty Ducks (the cartoon, not the movie). Duke L'Orange was a cyborg too, for crying out loud! It's all there!

MaX said...

I feel sad.

At first, I was like "Oh God, this is gonna be another Youngblood...", but surprisingly, I found it actually quite interesting. The problem is it leaves TOO MUCH to be desired.

And while Youngblood revealed a ton of characters, none of which I ever cared about, The Wild actually did make me a bit sad when I saw the characters die.

I wanted to know more about these guys.

Like who was that rabbit's friend that they turned into a cyborg?What's the story behind that?

What's gonna happen next?

How will they escape?

How is the world after so many years?

Do Pokemon exist now?

And so many many more questions.

Too bad it doesn't seem they ever continued this.

Unknown said...

Was surprised by the number of typos, but I still wanted to see what was going to happen, and what was up with the duck empire.

Sirkenz17 said...

So you have a comic where there's a world ruled by talking ducks and you didn't make a single Ducktales or Darkwing Duck joke? For shame....

Doresh said...

Man, those rabbit ears look like knives (or a futuristic anti-air laser turret) on the first page. And what's with the eyelashes o_O

And DUCK empire? Of course, the post-apocalyptic future with its mutated animals can only be ruled by the most deadly and ruthless species of them all... ducks!

So they use unnecessary, stupid sounding words for the sake of making the setting more cryptic? Is this a mindless 90s action comic or Vampire: The Masquerade o_O

And why do they need to get a "fix" on them before firing? The screen clearly shows they know their approximate location. I don't think you need to aim that precise with your ship's laser batteries.

Cyberduck reminds me of Cyborg Commando. Why does this comic make me think of roleplaying games? Must be the rogue/ranger of the team.

My father writes like that XD

I hope the penciler made art for Gamma World. It has almost the same setting, just with humans, sentient plants and nazi rabbits.

Daemian Lucifer said...

You shouldnt sneer,ducks are serious bussines:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_J._Kwak

Though not as bad as hitler crows:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_J._Kwak#Dolf

John Richard Ellis said...

I cannot help but feel just a teensy bit of love for a book where the basic premise is "X-Men Days of Future Past by Way of REDWALL." *g*

zuviel said...

Militaristic ducks.
The pig is named Pig.
A rat. (You say weasel, looks like a rat to me.)
Isolationist zen goats.


I'm pretty sure this is what Pearls Before Swine is leading up to.

Rob S said...

One goofy-ass low-budget production of a comic... yeah, it'd be nice if there were more.

Hey! New commercial bump! And it's got the new logo! Now, about that old logo on top of the page...

On a side note, since it's the franchise's 50th anniversary this year, are you going to be taking a look at a G.I. Joe comic at all this year?

Weirdo of Weirdos said...

Is "pigs... From a gun!" the new "bees, my god"?

FugueforFrog said...

Seriously I thought the ducks taking over the world had something to do with not being a fan of Carl Banks. But hey, the fact its a rabbit and a duck fighting each other...that makes sense too.

This was hilariously awesome that I can't help but laugh even with all the bizarre typos. It may feel Lifeldian but it is just done in a way that feels like a parody of the tropes instead of just riding on the wave, right down to the cigar chomping of the pink rabbit. I do sort of wish we knew what happened to some of the others...like the Squirrels, I sort of just imagine them running around trees and whatnot stealing from everyone. Or the dolphins, if to bring Brute Force back into the equation.

And yes, I'd be scared for what the heck humanity was doing if Hanson was all you can find of its existence.

Unknown said...

Awesome video Linkara, really top stuff, hopefully there's more wackyness to come?

Jeff Jacobson said...

It would have been hilarious if you would have read the Ducks' dialog in a Donald Duck voice.

I wonder if the "Duck Empire" won the war and it became "Duck World" from the Howard the Duck movie.

Lordofthesuplex said...

Waitaminute, four-armed ducks with cyborg implants. Oh my god, this comic answers a question I never wanted to consider: What would happen if Rob Liefeld was handed the rights to Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars?!

Unknown said...

I second the mention of the 'Candygram' bit from SNL. I was curious if you left it out because you didn't know/didn't think of it or how you like to screw with expectations.

The whole concept for this comic sounds like the kinds of conversations one has at conventions. It's 3am, no one wants to go back to their room, everyone is a little slap-happy from the lack of sleep and someone randomly says 'I wonder if ducks could ever rule the world'.

@dragons_dusk

Cory said...

Darin Calhoun is actually a pretty solid artist if it's the same one I'm aware of. I don't think he's ever done anything of note, but his stuff all looks great.

Andy said...

thanks, now I can't stop listening to MMMBop.

Ruesch said...

yeah, new "We'll be right back" segments. I like the old ones, but I definitely would love some more variety now. I hope there's one of the little foam lizard, Dr. Linksano, and ENSIGN MUN...no, wait...LIEUTENANT MUNRO!

The comic itself was pretty awesome, but not quite to the same level as Brute Force. I actually expected you to make a joke in regards to the steroid-abusing pink bunny being the Engergizer Bunny. I guess those batteries just couldn't keep him going, and going and going.

And Maverick did pull out his lazer-sword. It was on the panel where he was shooting a gun in the 90's style, side-to-side motion (with the shots all coming out in midair) and he held the lazer-sword in his other hand. Although holding it is a lot different than using it, I'm afraid.

Unknown said...

Oh cats, that was a hilariously stupid comic! Though I'm annoyed by all of those spelling and grammar mistakes made in one comic. I mean, I'll be the first to say that my grammar sucks, but if your grammar is even worse than mine, then that's just terrible. x.|.x

. . . And the sad part is that my first name is Daren. >.|.>;;

Unknown said...

A new ad break segment (and it had Pikachu X3), cute. Will Lil' Petti will ever make an appearance in them?

With that being said, on to the review:

While the premise of the story seems interesting, it is unfortunate that the readers are just dumped into the story's universe without at least a decent starting point. We know nothing of the heroes or the Duck Empire (were they supposed to be the Fire Nation or Dark Legionnaires of the animal world)? Why did Redhare (or more appropriately, Pinky Bunny) and his entourage go searching for human ruins in the first place? Alas, we will probably never know.

I don't mean to be nitpicky but you missed a typo on one of the comic's featured pages (can'nt).

Stay awesome!

Anonymous said...

I'm disappointed in you Lewis

you had a comic with ducks on spaceships, and you did not use "Crazy Duck in Space" as you'r theme

Allan Olley said...

I was trying to think of all the post-apocalypse anthropomorphic animals take over scenarios depicted in fiction (other than this comic), most have already been listed the original Kamandi (which I forgot but have seen depicted in Batman the Brave and the Bold show), Rock and Rule, and Gamma World (which had all kinds of mutant survivors including animals) have all been mentioned. According to a comment by Sychodellica over at tgwtg this comic was actually inspired by a Gamma World campaign.

For me the exemplar of this scenario that springs to mind is the After the Bomb an RPG from Palladium books original spun out from their TMNT RPG, natural mutant animals are main inhabitants of that setting.

On the obscure side, my comics collection includes a self-published comic Mechalibre (by one Marc B. of Montréal) which has a post-apocalyptic world with raccoon people (lots of humans and giant robots mostly giant robots really), which was kind of fun if a bit crude and I think sadly also only made one issue (the gentleman's website circa 2008 no longer exists).

The spacing and centering/positioning of text was bad in The Wild (I mean I think I could have done better in 1995 with MS paint). A point about spacing, writing systems often did not have such luxuries as spaces and other punctuation (as you can see when you see ancient Latin written on the sides of buildings or in some old manuscripts), many of the ones we use were inventions of the medieval period (so don't say they never did anything for civilization). Some writing systems still eschew punctuation and spacing (Chinese?) even if it would make life more convenient. So after reading the Wild I hope you are more thankful for standards of punctuation and spelling.

The Wild did seem like a somewhat fun setting even if it had the most generic story imaginable and an absence of such things as character names. Hope you find that replacement for Brute Force, we need more zaniness in our bad comics.

Jesse said...

I'll join the motion that it's too bad that there wasn't more than the one issue of this to be found. It looks like there might have been a bit of potential to "The Wild". At the same time, though, I get a sense that if there had been a longer run to it, the whole thing would have crashed and burned by the end of the third issue.

Gotta say, too, I'm not sure if the folks behind this one were entirely professional comic book people or just amateurs who managed to get their own independent label when they made this book, but I'm glad to hear that some of them are still getting at least some work. From the looks of things, they were at least proficient enough in what they were doing to make a decent product. A lot of the spelling and grammar errors look like ones I tend to make when I'm rushing to get something done, and I can't help but wonder if some of the odd formatting choices came from being inexperienced with the layout software. I remember making some of those mistakes myself when I took similar classes when I was in school. I'd probably make them all again now, it's been so long since I've even looked at those programs.

Unknown said...

The comic looks like it has potential to be a fun read. It's got the stupid action hero movie quality mixed with the possibility of telling a still interested, but a bit overused plot of Rebels vs the evil empire .
As for the pig's name, I don't mine it. As for the Duck empire thing, at least they didn't use a animal like a crocodile,that could be used as a obvious evil animal ruler.

Anonymous said...

There's this Australian artist on deviantart called kitfox-crimson, and he's currently working on a comic called Legacy (which currently has 23 pages), and it's basically an Australian version of 'The Wild' but instead of cyber-Ducks, it's hyper advanced rats

John Pannozzi said...

The cover art to the Wild strongly resembles the work of John Cleary, who did art for multiple Image books in the 1990s, such as the Savage Dragon spin-off Deadly Duo, and Todd McFarlane's little-known kid-friendly title Boof.

And I can think of plenty early Image team books with better art than this. Particularly the WildStorm and Top Cow stuff.

The Nostalgia Saiyan said...

In another dimension, another time and space,
A parallel universe was fallin' on its face
When out of the chaos, who else could it be
But the animal adventurers from s-p-a-c-e?

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
Mutants and aliens and ducks beware!
You're looking for adventure? Well, this is it,
With Jenny, Deadeye, Blinky, and Willy DuWitt

I said Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
"And now, an update on Bucky O'Hare and the Duck Menace!"

In the battle of the Aniverse, you don't know what's next,
You only know those feathered fiends have made it KOMPLEX!
When you check out your scanner and the sound of terror is loud,
There's only one course of action: Let's roast some fowls!

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
He goes where no ordinary rabbit would dare!
If your Righteous Indignation has suffered a hit
And your photon accelerator's broken a bit
And you're losing your mind, and you're having a fit
Get the funky fresh rabbit who can take care of it!

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
You say Bucky? I said Bucky!
Bucky O'Hare!
Let's roast some ducks!

N. said...

Lewis, would you please comment on the various problematic aspects of this book, which the creators should apologize? For example, I felt there was offensive cultural appropriation of a 侍 (which was not helped by your heavily accented voicing of the character) Additionally, the whole of this book is problematic to otherkin and their allies through its misrepresentation of such individuals as violent vigilantes.

Last, I feel this piece missed the best aspect of Brute Force -- private enterprise. While the book does portray the evils of government, Brute Force succeeds by having capitalism create its heroes to destroy evil collectivism.

Remember, only Anarcho-Capitalism can bring equality!

Anonymous said...

Naming a pig 'Pig' is nothing all that new, but I've never liked that trope, even when I was a kid. Michael Mouse? What were you expecting, a newt? Donald and Daffy Duck? Yeah, of course they're ducks... etc...
Then again, I knew a guy whose last name was 'Mann', so there you go. (Not Manfred Mann, but he counts.)

I kept expecting the rabbit to say "You stole Deacon's eggs!".

When they say 'Move it time's up' and you suggest that Timesup could be a name, it would technically still need that missing comma.

Wait, the dogs took over, then the cats? Would that make it... the Year of the Cat?
(with thanks to Al Stewart).

~ Mik

um cara aí said...

If the story was told by the point of view of the duck empire... it would be called Ducktales 3099?

Ming said...

You know, I never heard of The Wild or Unleashed Comics until you mentioned it on AT4W. There are so many errors all over (probably just as many if not more than Bimbos in Time) but this comic actually had a decent setup for epic silliness and cheesy action.

Unfortunately, they never finished that second issue so I can't say if it would have been just as awesome as Brute Force.

Anyway, good review of this incredibly obscure comic.

Rowan Lefey said...

@ 02:21 - Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies! …Or maybe midgets

@ 02:44 – At least it’s a sign of creativity

@ 03:32 – Lol

@ 03:48 – This comic predicted duck dynasty! What other information do you have oh wise comic book.

@ 05:22 – Your counter is off already. There was the typo on the cover you pointed out which makes it 3.

@ 07:00 – Why is it that anthropomorphic ducks never seem to have wings? Bothersome.

@ 07:50 – because they have the power of “fear quack”

@ 09:00 – Are you kidding? That scene established the villains! And it helped establish their world. We know that the protagonists of this story are going someplace and are therefore on a quest and that the characters we are to invest in are dispensable and not complete morons. They know when they are out classed and retreat. It also leads the reader to believe, based on the character names so far, that the animals are still simpler beings than humans. Could it have been told better, probably.

@ 12:44 – Your apparent obsession with Hanson continues…

TimeTravelerJessica said...

In the nineties, even the Nesquick Bunny wasn't safe from gritty reboots.

Madeleine said...

Actually, it seems like a lot of things in this comic--the duck villains and rabbit protagonist--DO actually reflect the Looney Tunes.

Biggest/oddest giveaway: I still remember one episode where Bugs Bunny outdid Merlin by lighting his thumb like a lighter. (It's called Knight-Mare Hare.
Skip ahead to about 5:30)

Weird, huh?

Madeleine said...

You know, that fire-thumb thing seems familiar...
Aha. (Check at about 5:30)
Guess it IS supposed to be wabbit-season-duck-season!

Ruesch said...

My response to the Duck Empire:
"Well, maybe if you people paid attention to "The Mighty Ducks" trilogy and the animated TV show from the 90's, you wouldn't be having this problem!"

Seriously though, great review and a very interesting concept.

Gaucelm said...

Linkara, your review is very funny, however I don't understand the "So that's what happened to Blake" comment when the bull is saying "Raj? Forgive me..."

What is this a reference to?

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Linkara, your review is very funny, however I don't understand the "So that's what happened to Blake" comment when the bull is saying "Raj? Forgive me..."

What is this a reference to?"

It's a reference of Roj Blake from the sci-fi show "Blake's 7."