2008 Woodie Awards
It's a Dirty Job
New DC comic delivers gritty insight into the world of "Exterminators."
Jesus Esquivel
Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: Valley Life
- Page 1 of 1
Dark humor, ultra-violence and pest control plague the pages in Simon Oliver's new DC comic series "The Exterminators."
With art by Eisner-nominated artist Tony Moore and cover work by Philip Bond, this first chapter illustrates the gritty world of professional bug killers in the dark slums and barrios of Los Angeles.
The comic is laced in misogyny, dipped in testosterone, splattered with blood and dried in some sick philosophy that hints at an apocalyptic end for mankind at the hand of mutant roaches saying, "It's a bug's world. We just live in it."
The urban settings are fogged in cigarette smoke, cluttered with trash and caked in moist garbage sludge, the perfect environment for the bugs and the men who kill them for a living.
Henry James, the good-hearted rookie, took the job offered by his new father-in-law, the owner of Bug-Bee-Gone Co., as a means to get his life together and keep his parole officer off his back.
James, the narrator and anti-hero is partnered with A.J., a sadistic preachy beer for breakfast reprobate who swears between every noun.
"To make it as a bug brother you gotta get that primal bug juice on your hands … and deep down you've gotta get off on it," A.J. tells the rookie after an intense encounter with a "King Rat" that ends with its dead red body mounted on his rear view mirror like an air freshener trophy.
Fans of the films "Naked Lunch," "Repo Man" and "Fight Club" will appreciate the odd ball characters like Kevin, who eats cockroaches in the locker room and might have a Karen Carpenter tattoo, and Stretch who has a tall "Roy Rogers meets the Dalai Lama thing going on …"
"The Exterminators" is a great light read that delivers peculiar characters and an intriguing story line accented by vermin, gore, trash talking bug men and mutant cockroaches well worth $2.99 an issue.
With art by Eisner-nominated artist Tony Moore and cover work by Philip Bond, this first chapter illustrates the gritty world of professional bug killers in the dark slums and barrios of Los Angeles.
The comic is laced in misogyny, dipped in testosterone, splattered with blood and dried in some sick philosophy that hints at an apocalyptic end for mankind at the hand of mutant roaches saying, "It's a bug's world. We just live in it."
The urban settings are fogged in cigarette smoke, cluttered with trash and caked in moist garbage sludge, the perfect environment for the bugs and the men who kill them for a living.
Henry James, the good-hearted rookie, took the job offered by his new father-in-law, the owner of Bug-Bee-Gone Co., as a means to get his life together and keep his parole officer off his back.
James, the narrator and anti-hero is partnered with A.J., a sadistic preachy beer for breakfast reprobate who swears between every noun.
"To make it as a bug brother you gotta get that primal bug juice on your hands … and deep down you've gotta get off on it," A.J. tells the rookie after an intense encounter with a "King Rat" that ends with its dead red body mounted on his rear view mirror like an air freshener trophy.
Fans of the films "Naked Lunch," "Repo Man" and "Fight Club" will appreciate the odd ball characters like Kevin, who eats cockroaches in the locker room and might have a Karen Carpenter tattoo, and Stretch who has a tall "Roy Rogers meets the Dalai Lama thing going on …"
"The Exterminators" is a great light read that delivers peculiar characters and an intriguing story line accented by vermin, gore, trash talking bug men and mutant cockroaches well worth $2.99 an issue.
