Nantucket Brown Roasters: The First of Many Great Things

(House of Usher, 2002)
™ and © 2002 Jason Asala

Okay, you thought the Doom Patrol were the World’s Strangest Super-Heroes. Now, writer-artist Jason Arsala has unleashed the Nantucket Brown Roasters in this two-issue, black-and-white limited series, and the world will never be the same. Who are the Nantucket Brown Roasters? Why, Ahab, whose real name is Jerome Smith; Khufu, a six-thousand-year-old Egyptian pharaoh whose spirit resides in a talking fish—a bluegill, to be specific; and Daisy Red Buttons, a little girl trapped in the body of a now-living doll. If that lineup doesn’t get your attention, it’s hard to imagine what could. This is fun, if surreal, stuff from a true talent.

— Thomas Moudry

Let’s put the rumors to rest. This isn’t a mini-series about a rural Little League baseball team, and it isn’t a 32-page recipe for roasted almonds. No, this is the latest effort from creator Jason Asala, who’s best known for his long-running (by indy standards) series Poe, published by Sirius Comics until Asala ended it a couple of years ago.

Nevertheless, the story does mention a simple recipe for grilling fish and it does feature a team — of sorts. This team, as it were, consists of talking doll Daisy Red Buttons, a lackey and chef extraordinaire who grudgingly goes by the name Ahab, and leader Khufu, a 6,000-year-old deity whose time is near an end. And from a tiny shack on the shores of a lake in Wisconsin, Khufu plans the overthrow of the entire United States.

And, as skeptical as he is, Ahab goes along, for who can resist the demands of a god, even a dying one? Asala tells a pretty loopy tale, but, for all its weirdness, it’s pretty captivating — and, by the time the issue concludes the team’s origin, it’s even downright satisfying. Asala’s Mignola-like linework and paint-by-number-style graytones don’t exactly evoke a sense of beauty, but, then, it’s not exactly a beautiful story. It’s entertaining, nonetheless.

— House of Usher

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Notes

Writer

Artist

#1

November, 2002
Cover Price: $2.00
1 copy available for $2.99

Jason Asala

#2

Cover Price: $2.00
1 copy available for $2.99

Jason Asala