Thursday, March 09, 2017

Single Issue Voter - AmeriKarate #1


By Corey Kalman, Brockton McKinney, and Devin Roth, et al.
$3.99 USD

With an impressive crotch bulge and an American flag belt buckle, Sam the karate master and his legless, armless brother Rick come to the troubled town of Baconville - the town that hates karate - and their lives will never be the same. 

So, yeah, the biggest weakness I think in naming your comic AmeriKarate, is that it is perhaps the greatest title of anything ever in living memory, meaning you will have a lot to live up to. 

You get exactly what you'd have to expect from a comic called AmeriKarate: humor that's as merciless as its ridiculous violence, absurd parodying of all things Chuck Norris, lampooning all those eighties action movie tropes, and - sure - boobs.

I'm not completely sold on AmeriKarate, but I'm not giving up on it just yet either. Most of us, myself included, are saturated in the ironic, mature, cartoon parodies and satires that fill our pop culture landscape. Without Archer and Family Guy, AmeriKarate's job would be a lot easier.

(though to be fair, it probably wouldn't exist, either) 

There seems to be a marriage between Roth's art and Kalman/McKinney's writing that just isn't there yet. Stuff that should be funny isn't. You just kind of go, "Ha, yes, that is provocative and very much like how the movies do things but slightly funnier. No, I said slightly." 

I was convinced this would be my last issue of AmeriKarate, but a well delivered line toward the end of the issue reeled me back in. I'll give it a few more issues, at least. There is potential here. And, as was noted, possibly the greatest title of anything ever. 



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