| Tozz up |
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by Kent Farago the Carillon Remember the movie Problem Child about that bratty little orphan who had some major family problems? Of course you do, who could forget the little scamp who filled a lemonade jar with urine and sold it to his crotchety neighbour? Okay, now picture Problem Child in comic book form, only loaded with sharp jabs at pop-culture and way more potty-mouth. That’s pretty much what you get when Rob Dunlop and Peter Lumby come together and create Tozzer 2, a painfully funny comic book mini-series. To call Tozzer 2 irreverent humour would be a major understatement. Tozzer 2 is like the Grand Theft Auto of comic books. It’s crude, it’s brash and it’s an absolute blast to read. It is as if Dunlop and Lumby made it a personal mission to piss off everyone who reads the book at least once. During the first few pages you feel a bit wrong for reading the series but after the first issue you’re already hooked. You want to know what kind of crazy misadventures our blonde-haired hero, Tozzer, and his friends are going to get into. Even after all of the toilet humour you still care for the main characters. There is something strangely endearing about this rag-tag crew of trailer park trash children. These little brats are the type of children that you dread of having. Yet, you still have a fondness for them. Part of this fondness is due to Lumby’s art. The characters are drawn with so much life and vigor that they nearly jump off the page. If reading the series to find out what happens to Tozzer and his pals isn’t your bag, then read Tozzer 2 for its constant spearing of pop-culture. Dunlop wears his love (or is it hatred?) of pop-culture on his sleeve by peppering almost every page with references to what is, or what once was, in style. The references range from a small nudge to a full-effort shove. Plenty of the references, especially the covers which parody movie posters of popular films (Panic Room, Phone Booth) and the lashing of Michael Moore, are spot on and are capable of causing uncontrollable laughter. There are, however, a couple of running gags that fall flat. The biggest clunker is the Michael Jackson-esque character who is obsessed with Tozzer. Jokes about Jackson and his alleged love of little boys have started to wear thin after being run into the ground by late-night television personalities 3 years ago so it is surprising that Dunlop would focus such a large part of his series to them. It’s not to say that some of the Jackson jokes don’t zing, it’s just that more of them would have worked if we hadn’t heard them countless times before. I highly recommend Tozzer 2 for pop-culture junkies; it’s a five-fingered, open-palmed bitch-slap to all the media-faces that we so lovingly adore. |