The Perhapanauts: First Blood
- Posted by Johanna on December 2, 2006 at 3:31 pm
- Category: Graphic Novel Reviews
- CREDITS: written by Todd Dezago; art by Craig Rousseau
- PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Books, $15.95 US
The Perhapanauts are a motley group of monster hunters who are themselves imaginary creatures. First Blood, written by Todd Dezago and drawn by Craig Rousseau, introduces them through a fight with a murderous shape-shifter.
The Bureau of Extra-Dimensional Liabilities and Management (BEDLAM) has as its mission to investigate the creepy and paranormal. Their agents consist of a psychic, a ghost, a sasquatch, a mystery man, and Choopie, a partially evolved Chupacabras (goat-blood-sucker). When battling, their struggles reveal the team members’ makeup: psychic Arisia’s reluctant leadership, phantom Molly’s youth and inexperience, furry Big’s courage and strength, MG’s quiet intelligence, and Choopie’s exuberance and adhesive tongue.
There’s plenty of action, but applied with smarts, and they’re only able to save the day by using teamwork. Later missions send them against Karl, a Mothman teammate whose fear-causing ability goes out of control, and a legendary Filipino vampire. The book ends on a new case’s cliffhanger, hopefully whetting the reader’s appetite for more. In addition to the stories, this volume includes character profiles, two bonus flashback stories, and pinups by other artists.
Take Mike Mignola’s BPRD, lighten up on the oppressive atmosphere, add more straightforward adventure and character-based comedy, and you’ll come close to this. In a less competitive field, more readers would be paying attention to this well-done slice of imagination — the series certainly deserves it.
This volume collects the first four-issue miniseries. The book’s website has a sample issue and character profiles.
December 2, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I really enjoyed the first mini-series of The Perhapanauts, especially since they featured the Filipino Aswang. Being Filipino American myself, I always thought that would be a cool character to feature in comic books. So, hats off to Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau for putting it in this series.
December 3, 2006 at 8:45 am
What a neat perspective — thanks for sharing!
January 1, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[…] From Dark Horse, I’m more interested in the second Perhapanauts collection (JAN07 0078, $15.95), even if I do have to wait until May for it. That’ll also give them time to finish the four-issue miniseries it reprints, since only two of the issues are out so far. […]
June 16, 2007 at 8:35 am
[…] was happy to see Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau, who signed my copy of Perhapanauts: First Blood. (And Todd is another great inspiration, especially when con-going becomes overwhelming — […]
July 27, 2007 at 6:41 am
[…] hadn’t realized how much I’d missed these characters (previously seen in First Blood) until I picked up this new collection of their adventures, which I […]
November 4, 2007 at 4:47 pm
[…] this first volume ends on a cliffhanger, which is a pretty lousy way to treat new readers. Johanna Draper Carlson likes the series more than I do, I just thought it was pretty […]
April 29, 2008 at 8:20 am
[…] you enjoy this, look for the Annual and the collections of the first two series. The website has character profiles for more on specific team members. A […]