Rip Haywire and the Curse of Tangaroa
A Rip Haywire graphic novel
Dan Thompson
IDW Publishing
Fiction, YA? Action/Graphic Novel/Humor
Themes: Canids, Curses, Ghosts and Spirits, Lost Worlds, Pirates, Retro Tales
*****
Description
Rip Haywire spent his childhood like most kids, or so he thought. After all, what did the other boys do all day if they weren't helping their mother
take out bad guys and infiltrate top-secret bases? But, even for him, one youthful mission stood out from the rest: a journey to a lost temple to recover
a mysterious artifact known as a "ghost compass." The evil Longbeard escaped, but Rip never forgot the compass.
Now grown, Rip is a soldier of fortune, laughing in the face of death and feasting on fortified danger around the world. Once more, he finds himself on the
trail of the ghost compass, which is tied to an ancient pirate curse... and an unimaginable trove of lost wealth. With his cowardly canine compatriot TNT,
and his double-agent bombshell girlfriend Cobra, Rip sets out to save the day, save his mother, and dish out extra helpings of two-fisted justice, Haywire
style.
Review
Rip Haywire, a hilarious parody comic of classic action/adventure heroics, makes his graphic novel debut in a story that's bigger, longer, and - if possible - even funnier than the daily strips. Hardly a page went by that didn't almost have me laughing out loud. The timeline, as one might expect, appears to be independent of the main comic strip. The characters are still just as funny, with occasional side-trip stories that added to the overall hilarity. The humor, much like that of the daily strips, skews a little toward the grown-up end of the spectrum, not crude but certainly requiring a taste for parody. I keep hoping Dan Thompson will put out a comic collection, but in the meantime this makes a more-than-acceptable substitute. I only hope more graphic novels are in the works. After a long stretch of unimpressive reads, I needed a laugh like this...