Mr. Puffinopolus #1
Written and Drawn by Christopher Petty
Inked by Cassandra Hall
Lettering by Peter Simeti
Alterna Comics
Cover Price: $3

War has been waging between God and Lucifer for countless millennia ever since God and Man got drunk at Man’s house and didn’t call Lucifer, who’d been cooking dinner all day. Lucifer, in a blinding rage, stormed off to create New Heaven, but he sucked at building, and eventually just called it Hell. The souls of Man have been Lucifer’s target ever since, and even though his unleashing of reality television has been doing a good job in turning Earth into a hedonistic paradise, that meddlesome Jesus has been getting junkies and heavy metal bands to defect to God left and right.

In a brilliant scheming idea, Lucifer decides that the only way to collect the souls of Man is to go after the children. In order to do this, he calls upon his top war monger, General Vordrex. Lucifer’s idea is to send Vordrex to Earth, disguised as a toy, where he will begin his operation. But in a twisted turn of a joke, Lucifer sends him not as a cool action figure, but as a cute stuffed teddy bear to little Davey on his birthday. Davey dubs him Mr. Puffinopolus, unaware that his very soul is about to become a battlefield!

Hey kids! You like Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, Invader Zim), right? You like Roman Dirge (Lenore)? Well, here is a new name to remember in the world of cute evil and demented dark humor — Christopher Petty. Petty comes out of the gates here running, with a 39-page tomb from the young indie publishers at Alterna Comics, that sets out to rewrite the Old Testament, paint God as a drunken sprite that made Man just so he’d have someone to laugh with at his creations of camels and flying squirrels, and Lucifer as a stressed-out snazzy-suit-wearing CEO.

Petty breaks down issue 1 of Mr. Puffinopolus into three fun-sized chapters. First up is the The Story Of Creation, which will have CCD students running in terror and clutching onto their O’Reilly Factor For Kids survival guide for solace! Next up, is the bulk of the story, which introduces Lucifer, Vordrex, a host of dim-witted demons that look like those stuffed Ugly Dolls, and that little hopping Ninji guy from Super Mario Brothers 2. Finally, We have the introduction of the tiny tot Davey, and Vordrex’s newest form, that of Mr. Puffinopolus, who is just slightly less scary than Teddy Ruxpin.

Petty’s verbal wit and jokes here sadly lose their full potential within his artwork. While the twisted set ups and payoffs, throwaway one-liners, pop culture references, and cute “sound effects” are spot on and will surely induce an loud guffaw or two, his black and white artwork is just above that of the high school photocopied “comix” that the cool guy in the back of the class would hand out. His non-humans are quite cute and cartoony, allowing for a range of over-the-top expressions that definitely work within the context of this non-threatening Hell, but it all comes crashing down once the humans are introduced at the end of the story.

Mr. Puffinopolus certainly falls into the “don’t judge a book by its cover” category. Here, Petty’s choice of cover doesn’t begin to convey what the reader will find within, and may even turn off potential readers browsing through the racks. Ignore the drawing, or at least just focus on only the lovely and anarchic title styling. The opening splash page, however, does convey exactly what you’re going to find within — an impish joyous and decidedly unwrathful God “creating the Heavens and Earth in a day or so… give or take.”

Available at the Alterna Comic Shop.