Rough Trade Friday: Fear Agent

Greetings, my fellow gamers! It is I, your own little little boy lost from the future. Having just returned from a trip home to the Land of Tomorrow, this week's Rough Trade Friday will have us viewing comic interpretations of the future. For this weekend's reading assignment, I'm going to have you check out the superbly comedic Fear Agent, written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Tony Moore (who also draws The Walking Dead).
Fear Agent is one of those comics which contains the look of the old pulp sci-fi comics, complete with retro space suits, weird aliens (including giant brains), and plot lines straight out of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. The books follow the adventures of the last Fear Agent around, an alcoholic badass by the name of Heath Huston, who manages to find himself traveling around the cosmos and exterminating alien pests in order to keep up a steady supply of alcohol (for him) and fuel (for his ship). The plotlines emphasize action and adventure, along with absurd plot twists, over any semblance of realism or actual science.
The series, strangely enough, started out with Image Comics in 2005 and then switched over to Dark Horse in 2006, but readers shouldn't have any problem finding a copy in the local comic shops because Dark Horse has reprinted the trade paperbacks. Were the comic done by a lesser creative team, the book would fall flat on its face. However, the bright colors and stylish penciling of Moore coupled with the hysterical dialogue provided by Remender makes for a winning combination. However, don't just pick up the first volume, since it ends on a cliffhanger... so that means you have twice as much to read this weekend.






Boy Meets Hero by Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia