“Ahoy Comics” is back again with a new comic called “Howl” that any “Ahoy Comics” fan will want to eat up expecting to find a filet mignon but instead find a veggie burger.
“Howl” by Alisa Kwitney and artist Mauricet takes place in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s, college student Ziva fell in love with an up-and-coming science fiction writer Bert. Things start great, but their relationship begins to sour as time goes on. There’s also an alien invasion brewing but we only know about that from the beginning and the end. The rest of the comic is Ziva’s souring relationship. ‘Ahoy Comics” has a great track record with balls-to-the-wall crazy stories that are entertaining but this story is dull. Maybe the story picks up when the invasion happens in the next issues but now it’s a slog. Mauricet’s art is the only noteworthy thing in this comic. The character designs are great, they fit the look of 1950s America and the colors also showcase what the decade looked like.
The first of the two short stories, “Gently Down the Stream,” by Kirk Vanderbeek, is about streamer Acid_Fr33 doing a stream where she’s reading a comic book to herself, and the audience is confused. Maybe to a certain young demographic, this story hits home perfectly, but for others, it comes off as cringy at best.
The other short story is “Life on Mars” by Bryce Ingman. An alien family goes on vacation to “Misk Mars Colony 001” where they only encounter multiple holograms of a human called Egon Misk. This is obviously a spoof of Elon Musk and his idea of colonizing Mars. There’s also mention of the “Woke Mind Virus” and everything Musk loves like video games, break dancing and AC/DC. The best thing about this comic is the message: if aliens ever encounter humans, they will think humans are idiots.
“Howl” is a rare dud from “Ahoy Comics” with two underwhelming stories and one political story that reinforces the stereotype of human=stupid with the art from the comic being the only above-average thing in the entire issue.
