No one’s immune from a good government job. Even your favorite barbarian brute squad. But what Tanner “Griz” Grisholm is after isn’t your typical government contractor . . . even for a government contractor barbarian brute squad.
Cover by Patrick PiazzalungaWritten by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Patrick Piazzalunga
Colored by Marco Brakko
Lettered by Jim CampbellFrom the co-creator of The Sixth Gun and Harrow County comes a new action horror comedy! Meet Tanner “Griz” Grisholm. Along with a shrewd necromancer who wants him dead and a chainsaw-wielding koala bear named Cuddles, as he wages a bloody war against nightmares from beyond time and space. It’s thankless work, but someone has to do it. And when a group of government contractors go missing in the nightmare landscape of the Flooded Zone, Griz stumbles into a mystery he may not be able to carve his way out of. His old biker pals, the Howling Gargoyles, are up to no good, and the memories might be too much for Griz to handle.
I have to start this off with a confession/apology of sorts: one of the main reasons I picked this book was the title character’s nickname of “Griz” is similar to that of one of my other friends. So Evan, should you ever read this, sorry. (Or maybe not? Consider yourself inspiration for. . . something.)
Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s go from Grizz my North Carolina soccer pal to the tale of one Tanner “Griz” Grisholm, a necromancer, the government, and a chainsaw wielding koala bear. (Bet you didn’t have that on your 2024 bingo card.) Griz is your typical brute squad vigilante, protecting his post-apocalyptic world from all kinds of otherworldly creatures. It doesn’t pay the greatest but it keeps the lights on, the chicken and dumplings flowing, and his sidekick Hilary with plenty of subjects for research.
Which is when the government comes calling for a job to rescue some of their employees, Griz suits up and takes the check, no questions asked. You can only take payment in chicken and dumplings for so long before you’re past due on the rent, after all. But there’s going to be a lot of questions, and a lot of tested loyalties—costs that government check might not be able to cover. Griz is a man that operates alone, but this might just be one time he wishes he listened to Hilary and told the government, thanks but no thanks.
My previous exposure to Cullen Bunn has been through traditional horror, so (in the other reason I was keen to pick up this book), I wanted to see how well he balances humor and horror. How he does this in the first issue is by letting the art carry some of that humor. Patrick Piazzalunga’s art plays up Griz’s physicality, particularly in how he uses the lack of color to highlight his muscular stature. With the right applications of highlight on his arms, you can almost feel the pectorals burst off the page. In contrast, Griz’s partner Hilary is drawn in a much simpler style, a little less texture and highlighting (but just enough to give a three dimensional look), and basic shapes for composition. When placed side by side, you can clearly tell which one is destined to be the comic relief and which one is the straight man (woman).
Clever use of perspective, along with Jim Campbell’s letters, also do well to set the tone of the job Griz faces. They are the stars of the opening sequence of this book, a fight between Griz and a rather large sphincter monster that makes the Dune Part II popcorn buckets (you know the ones) look innocent in comparison.
But Bunn does get to have some fun within his script, letting the teddy bear on the inside of Griz come out in warm character moments that make you smile and chuckle, from witty banter with Jenkins to his affection for chicken and dumplings. I hope that future issues really allow Bunn to let loose with the comedy, but with the worldbuilding that needs to be done in this debut, letting the script take a step back in the comedy department is a good thing. The main role of script in this issue, then, is narration to set the scene for the environment Griz and Hilary reside in, how they got to this particular point in their lives. It’s not an overwhelming text dump, and like with characterization, art helps to set the stage. This is a creative team who knows how to work in sync, and do so effectively.
Continued belowOf course, this wouldn’t be a horror story without just a little bit of mystery that keeps you wondering. Here, it’s Hilary. We know she’s a necromancer (and a nasty one at that, based on one interrogation that might have scared a few customers away), but just how dark can she get? And why has she promised Griz’s soul to her gods (whomever they may be)? It leaves you wondering whose side she’s on, and if the true danger Griz faces is much closer to home than he thinks.
If you enjoyed any of the Count Crawley series (also at Dark Horse) or prefer the goofy interstitials of Svengoolie over the horror films he shows, this just might be the book for you. At least someone will be enjoying Griz’s adventure. . . because I’m not so sure he might be.
Final Verdict: 7.2 – Working for the government never looked or sounded so good. . . or bad.
