Just Read: The Mighty Skullboy Army by Jacob Chabot

I thought Chabot's "Mighty Skullboy Army" strip was the best thing in the 2004 Dark Horse compilation (of strips from their website) Strip Search, so I was happy to see him get his own book (even if it did take three years). Come to think of it, Skullboy got the cover of Strip Search, so he was probably the DH favorite to begin with.

Skullboy is this kid who runs an evil corporation but also is stuck in elementary school (because, as I said, he's a kid). He also, as his name implies, looks like a skull for no obvious reason. His army consists of Unit 1, a blue robot who seems to have come from a '50s toy shelf, and Unit 2, a talking, supposedly super-intelligent monkey. As is traditional for humorous strips like this, Skullboy's plans never work out, but they always fail in an amusing manner.

This is a nice all-ages comic; I haven't decided yet if I'll keep it for myself or pass it on to my kids, but it could go either way. It's also only $9.95, which is really cheap for a trade paperback, so you might as well buy it, next time you're in a comics shop -- assuming you do like humor about world-conquering villains and their unhelpful henchmen.

(Final Note, part one: these strips all seem to be dated 2002 or 2003, so I wonder if Chabot has moved on from this character. I also wonder why it took this long to collect them.)

(Final Note, part B: I think that cover above is a preliminary one; the book I have in front of me has the title in a different font, no red border (though there is a thin blue-and-grey border on the left side), Chabot's name at the lower right, and no skulls.)