Mauled! True Tales of Tragedy At Sea #3

Mauled! True Tales of Tragedy At Sea #3 / $4.50 / :15 / 64M / http://www.manualcomics.com / brian@manualcomics.com /

This is a compilation zine that has a bevy of comics, as one can probably guess, about tragedies at sea. A number of them feel as if the artists just went and grabbed something for the AP newswire and then just put pen to paper – specifically “One More Reason to Hate Staten Island” and “Turtle Soup”. A equal number of the comics in Mauled! really have a feeling of incompleteness – I’m not sure if previous installments were present in past Mauled! but for the reader that just picked up this issue, some of the comics seem a little useless. Other pieces are at the stylistic frontier in the use of two very different styles; the gritty feel of the beginning of “Black Tuesday” gradually gives way to the Mission Hill/Eightball style that predominates the later section of the comic. The punny nature of “Turtle Soup”, which was criticized earlier by the lack of an original story, has humor enough to cover over that minor lack of originality; one just needs to see a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for the comic to be made. The differences in artistic styles through Mauled! is enough that one will never tire of the zine; while the quality of writing does fluctuate depending on the writer, the rich images that fill this issue make it nearly worth $4.50. The rest of the worth of this comic comes in the incredibly funny chock-full-of-testicle “Peanut-Sized Jellyfish Kills Englishman”, where some hot testicle lovin’ becomes a recipe for disaster.

Rating: 6.3/10

Sargeant

John Sargeant, writing on NeuFutur as Sargeant, is the founder and editor-in-chief of NeuFutur Magazine, where he has covered independent music, PC hardware, consumer tech, and gaming culture since 1998. With over 25 years of continuous digital publishing experience, he has written thousands of hands-on game and record reviews, conducted in-depth hardware field testing, and analyzed digital media monetization trends. His work prioritizes first-hand evaluation and long-term product testing.

Beats: Independent Music, PC Gaming & Peripherals, Consumer Tech, Webmaster Tools

Testing & Ethics: All hardware, software, and media reviews are conducted through hands-on evaluation in accordance with NeuFutur’s editorial independence standards; sponsored consideration is strictly excluded from editorial ratings.

Contact: editor@neufutur.com