NERVE BOMB #0
by James S. Baker
It's said that appearances can be deceiving, and that certainly applies to the heroic team of Rocket Rabbit and The Professor. The former is a short, squat, goofy-looking figure who just happens to possess a great deal of power. The latter is a beautiful, leather-clad female whose primary asset is the genius that enabled her to invent Rocket Rabbit in the first place. (She's no slouch at fisticuffs or using assorted weaponry, either.) Together, the pair call on all their myriad abilities to battle robots, monsters, and any threats to their home city of San Fiasco. In their madcap adventures, there are plenty such threats.

This light-hearted series offers colorful dialogue, wild action sequences, and over-the-top slapstick like something out of an old Mad magazine. Created and drawn by James S. Baker.

NERVE BOMB #0
by James S. Baker
Looking for another "funny book" that isn't the same old stuff. This one should give you some chuckles. These are the adventures of Rocket Rabbit, a small robot with rocket thrusters out the top of his head that look like a bunny's ears, hence the name. His inventor and sexy side kick, the Professor, has to watch over him/it closely because although he is fully armed for crime fighting he is not a rocket scientist by any means when it comes to intelligence. They are often called to handle major problems in the city of San Fiasco by Big Suit, a man in a very large robot shell – like you would see The Brain use in Pinky and the Brain. He heads up The Company and they are agents among such comrades as Seamus Opossum, Cliff Hanger, and Squid Girl.

A lot of the humor in this book has to do with the plethora of characters and their strange appearance and/or abilities. The bad guys in "The Collective", formerly Doom.com and The Co-Op of Evil have their share. Some are not even people like the mesmerist Doctopus and the schizophrenic super genius Smart Ass and his villainous personalities Wise Ass, Dumb Ass and Kick Ass. My favorite is the mistakenly augmented with silicon instead of silicone porn stars Dick Pump and Silicon Valerie who can communicate directly with machines. Their plot is to wipe out Rocket Rabbit and the Professor with the devious Pasta Antipasta Bomb.

This is a rollicking spoof of super hero comics complete with mad villains, doomsday giant robots, witty heroic banter and surprise alien invaders. They even promise talking apes next time, always a fan favorite. The humor is light and clever. The art is accomplished and detailed. On a quarterly schedule it should maintain the quality evident in the first issue. But there is more! There is a six-page back up feature called LOS TROPPO DRONGOS. This is a surrealistic adventure of a midget, a cat and a dog. It is hard to explain there is no dialogue. The ever-shifting terrain and shapes they encounter remind me of the sixties underground comix either drawn by or meant for people on LSD or other mind altering substances. This is not a bad thing as it causes you to scan every inch to catch every detail and try to figure out just what the heck is going on. An interesting style you don't see that often. The book as a whole is very entertaining. I think it is worth looking at to see if it appeals to your tastes.

Nerve Bomb Comix #0
Comics can do and be a lot of things. One of the wonderful things about the medium is its diversity and its ability to tell stories in unique ways. Comics is an art form and deserve to be treated and studied as such. But sometimes comics are just meant to be fun. James Baker realizes this and has created appropriately. His comic is called Nerve Bomb Comix, but that doesn't tell you anything about the contents. It's not so much a spoof of superhero comics as a simple, light-hearted approach to the genre.

Rocket Rabbit is the star of the show. He's a little robot shaped sorta like a rabbit, but with rocket thrusters for ears. He's not too bright. His partner is the much smarter and much prettier Professor. I could go into detail about who these two are and what they do and what they fight, but that would be missing the point of this little comic. The point is to have fun reading it.

And it is fun. After turning down assignments to battle such oddball villains as Thundernerd and The Bludgeonator, Rocket Rabbit and the Professor decide to save the city of San Fiasco from aliens who are using a giant robot in the shape of an old granny to terrorize the citizenry. Along the way, we're introduced to a plethora of humorous good guys and bad guys with names like Beef Jerky (a former pro wrestler), Dick Pump (this isn't exactly an all-ages title, by the way), Smart Ass (a donkey who shares a body with his other personalities Wise Ass, Dumb Ass, Bad Ass and Kick Ass) and Omar Sheriff (a gun-slinging Arab).

Baker has a lot of imagination and a wonderful, cartoony art style that emphasizes the frantic fun of the script. The comic's only flaw is that most of the hilarious characters it introduces are simply throwaway gags that are introduced in one panel and not seen again. It's worth keeping in mind however that this is a zero-issue, an introduction. Hopefully some of these characters will reappear in future issues. And this issue is certainly funny enough to warrant buying future issues. It's not knee-slapping, roll-around-on-the-floor funny, but it's got a great sense of humor and is a refreshing alternative to the 'please-take-us-seriously' comics that are out there.

There's an odd back-up feature called 'Los Troppo Drongos' about a midget who rides around on a dog and the cat that lives in the midget's hat. It's as weird as it sounds, but it's not just weird for the sake of being weird. It's weird for the sake of making you smile or laugh. And that makes it a perfect fit with the rest of Nerve Bomb Comix.