Scud The Disposable Assassin-The Whole Shebang

Well, almost 9 days ago I began a 764 page monstrosity called Scud The Disposable Assassin, the Whole Shebang. It was a massive read that turned out to be a whirlwind of a ride. Well more like a tsunami of epic emotion and memorable & momentous hilarity. I went into this knowing it would be an undertaking but I had been dreaming of the day that I could actually sit down and read in totality the WHOLE series. The Whole Shebang reprints issues 1-24 and includes some extras that further explore the mind of Rob Schrab.

It’s a simple premise; assassin robot sent to kill a crazed female mutant named Jeff discovers that upon completion of his mission he will self destruct. That’s where the ‘simple’ ends. Scud realizes he does not want to die, none of us do right? So he does what any life loving self respecting assassin robot would do; he maims Jeff then rushes her to a hospital and places her on a life support system. Now Jeff is alive and so is he. Life support isn’t cheap though, his or hers. So begins the story of Scud and his somewhat strange and ponderous quest to remain among the living.

I was amazed at the sheer amount of ‘art’ in the artwork in this series. Each panel is literally full to the metaphorical hilt and totally stretches and expands on the story itself. I am thrilled to finally find a book that requires you to get involved with the art on a much deeper level to get to the heart of the story. Yes, you could actually just peruse the artwork but eventually you will find yourself lingering over the details in each panel, there’s just too much in those panels to not wonder ‘what’exactly is going on here?  and that’s when you realize the majority of this story is being told not in the words but in the drawings. I give Rob Schrab a big round of applause for his ummmm…execution of Scud.

I have a soft spot for Robots and I admit I seek them out every chance I get. I like to believe they will one day have a place in our society, a ‘real’ place, not just as service devices or pleasure pleasers but a serious place where interaction between human and robot will have more than just trivial meaning. Sure that makes me weird but I’m evidently not the only one out there thinking this thought.  Schrab gave Scud a pretty good range of emotions. I not only laughed but in the end my heart tugged and my eyes leaked and I desperately wanted there to be more, more mayhem more weirdness more stranger than scifi characters and more over the top absurdities than even the creators of Adult Swim could dream up.

Yeah, this book was that strange at times.

Ahhhhh, but there is no more, that’s the evil part. This is it, The Whole Shebang. When you turn that last page it’s all over, no more Scud. I for one find this to be a terrible thing….but so did many other people. A quick seat at the search bar brought up many patrons that were calling for more Scud, loudly calling I might add. I saw a few references to a possible resurrection but nothing that quelled that pine for a newly found newly lost friend. I’m not giving up though and while I wait and hope I’ll just read this tome all over again….once could never be enough.

I recommend getting out your wallet and happily handing over the bucks for this book, it’s more than worth the price and its one of those stories you will find yourself telling your friends and your enemies about. I also suggest buying the book because the single issues are almost impossible to find at a decent price. I’ve combed the internet looking for even a cheap set of these books and have come up empty handed almost every time.  

Of course reading the book did make me want to get my hands on the individual issues even more. Ughhhhhh the horror of comics.

There’s not a lot  of in depth review/ writings out there about Scud. Schrab maintains a website devoted to the character and I found a few other sites that would have pretty much been spoilers had I not read the book. I did learn a few things from these sites that I did not include here – I didn’t want to be the ‘spoiler’. So if you’re just curious but not convinced about the worthiness of this story I suggest visiting a site or two just to see how diehard the supporters are. Spoiled or not I bet you decide you need to actually ‘see’ this book for yourself.

Now, for that second reading.

links worth noting

http://www.robschrab.com/scud/

http://www.urbangeek.net/timelines/scud.html  — trult truly a wild one – go see this just for the sheer shock of it…..massive work went into this.