I had an odd reading arc at the end of 2023. I found some not overly happy books. One was a book about Palestine and Gaza, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, and two books about the apocalypse. Not to mention the teen novel about a “camp” to train teenage assassins. However, there was humor in the two apocalypse books.
In Your Pal Fred Volume One, Michael Rex made a character that is from the past. He wakes up in the seriously dystopian world of the future that would be if Mad Max ran into Pee Wee Herman and robots. Fred is a robot that was programmed to be your friend (and give stickers that zip out of his finger). He is programmed to love, be happy, positive and make friends. His least odd quirk is he draws this odd shape on everything. Of course, our pal Fred is clueless. I mean he’s so clueless he couldn’t buy a clue if money was still a thing! Yet, Fred might be the smartest odd looking, goggle wearing, heart-drawing weirdo out there. The art is a combination of Cartoon Network meets Nickelodeon. They are goofy, bizarre, not detailed, very simplistic, and colorful. The slime flies around the panel and almost off the page. Everything is that typical 8 to 10 year old boy humor.
Same with Doom’s Day Camp V02 The Story Eater, which as of this review posting, I have not finished. However, I can say that Doom 2 is not as strong (so far) as Doom 1 was. There was a good amount of build up in one, but that was needed. I started this volume, got to around a couple dozen pages in, and put it down. There was more build up that did not seem to be needed, but that could change as I finish (which I hope to do soon). I am hopeful as there is a clue to where the grownups have gone (in book one we lose all our adults so the kids are in charge of this post-apocalyptic world where “normies” are the weird ones). There is the great humor of science-fiction-meets-eight-to-ten-year-old-boy-humor, there is a smidge of romance being hinted at, and there is potential for a good series. You will like Joshua Hauke if you like goofy, off kilter reading.