NOT THAT AMUSING: A review of OBJECTS OF AMUSEMENT #1

OBJECTS OF AMUSEMENT follows the wacky hijinks of the Gas House Gorillas, a band whose members are full of half-witty comments and not that many brain cells. The book has its moments, but they are crowded out by the really lame stuff. The creators (they don’t say who does what on the book, so we’ll have to settle for just “the creators”), Donovan Klingel, Kyle Lawler, and Donny Hills, have a few interesting observations about certain kinds of bands on the first page, but it all goes to hell with stupid vaudeville-type routines on the next page.



They regain some ground on the third page when they go into an honest appraisal of their appreciation of women who might be a little too young, but they lose out again on page four when they go into a drawn-out bit just so they can say, “Thank you for the punch, Mr. Donkey.” Yeah, right. After that, it seems like a cheap shot to bring up the lame Escalade/Escalader joke on page five.


Needless to say, the crap outweighs the good shit here, although the art seems to match the material pretty well. It has just the right kind of indie look to it. However, the key part of an indie book is actually having witty insight into what it’s like to be young, brilliant, and marginal to society. This book has none of this.


Although it does have a nice ball-gag joke. And Dex’s pick-up lines do rate a chuckle. (All right, one of them gets a downright belly laugh: “So, are you illegal or just frowned upon?”) And there is a scene where Broady goes to a poetry night and reads heart-felt limericks to the crowd, which would be really awesome if someone actually did that.


But the end sucks soooooo badly.


Ultimately, the book’s not a total loss, but at $5, you’d be better off giving it a pass.


OBJECTS OF AMUSEMENT #1
Creators: Donovan Kingel, Kyle Lawler, and Donny Hills
14 pages
$5