Tabloia

(Salt Peter, 2005)
™ and ©

It’s obvious Tabloia’s creators (“True Tales for the Sophisticated Pseudo-Intellectual”) had fun creating this anthology comic book by way of supermarket tabloid. The fun is infectious, although, sadly, none of this issue’s four tales manages to sustain the humor beyond its first few pages.

They get props for the attempts. The Lump starts with an amusing nod to the preface of Universal’s 1931 Frankenstein. “Dick Hammer, Conservative Republican Private Investigator” is not nearly as one-sided as its title suggests, poking fun at the left as well as the right. “Doctor DeBunko” is a droll send-up of naysayers of the supernatural.

My favorite tale is “Spluhh! The Thing Who Burst from an Exploding Volcano!” which draws inspiration from the monsters Jack Kirby used to draw for Tales to Astonish and other pre-Marvel universe titles. They even got Dick Ayers to ink this one.

Add a trio of splendid pin-ups by Mike Allred, Tom Yeats, and Gene Colan to the mix and you have a pleasant comic book which delivers a few laughs and shows promise.

— Tony Isabella

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