Go-Boy 7

(Rocket Comics, 2003-2004)
™ and © Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

For a lot of us “Go!” is a magic word, a clarion call to action that will always be associated with ’60s style and the anarchic energy of Saturday morning cartoons—and, if Go Boy 7 is any indication of Dark Horse’s new imprint, Rocket Comics gets that, big time.

Tom Peyer’s story is all rough edges, characters, and conflicts simplistic to the point of crudity, as the reader is introduced to Johnny Zero and the other denizens of Go Base (a secret installation on a tropical island, naturally) and the generically insidious The Cultist. (Tip to kids: You’re not really evil, if you don’t use the definite article in your name.) And Jon Sommariva’s art isn’t so much comics emulating animation as colorized storyboards.

The whole line takes a stripped-down, bare-bones approach to storytelling, taking the calculated risk that kids today are willing to exchange technically fine draftsmanship for the rough, visceral charge that good cartoons and videogames provide. Dark Horse definitely gets points for attempting the unusual.

— S.A. Bennett

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