It’s generally expected that any kind of soldier should be sober during any kind of mission. That idea gets turned on its head in “Ahoy Comics” newest series “Highball” by Stuart Moore with art by Fred Harper and Lee Loughridge.
The story is about an ace fighter pilot with the call sign Highball. For some strange reason, the drunker he gets, the better at the job he becomes. He receives an assignment where he has to investigate an alien artifact that is interfering with his ship’s communications and scanners. What he finds there is a weapon held over from the last war and a member of an evil alien bird race called the Q’k’q’rr’kkk. The story is about as silly as it comes, even down to the name of the last war (the Big Dumb War.) This is one of those stories that are so silly you have no choice but to shut off your brain and laugh at every ridiculous thing.
The artwork also can’t be taken too seriously. It fits the over-the-top silliness of the story with the characters having weird haircuts, wearing weird “futuristic” suits and the main alien, the Mentok, look like giant blobs with pig faces and big white eyes.
The one-page pros story “My Superpowers Are Science Based, and I Hate it” by James Finn Garner is about a superhero complaining about how he doesn’t quite understand how the whole science based powers works. All he knows is that he can do the things he can do. It’s a rant made to look like a story, so take it how you will. It does add depth to certain superheroes that may exist but, again, take it for what you make of it.
The first issue of “Highball” shows off a silly story with silly art that, if you taken like that, is enjoyable. Expecting anything better than what’s given is foley since “Ahoy Comics” has made its living printing nonsense meant to make people laugh and not think.
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