Books like Scud: The Disposable Assassin Vol. 1 - Heavy 3PO

Scud the Disposable Assassin is one of the strangest comic books I've ever read, an certainly competes for the strangest that I own. In this (the first collection of issues), author Rob Schrab takes a screwy premise and drives it straight off a cliff into Wackyland.The initial premise is simple enough: a "Scud" is a disposable robotic assassin purchased from a vending machine. It is programmed to self-destruct upon completing its mission (to make the hit untraceable). One such Scud is activated and tasked to hunt down a monster (who ends up with the name "Jeff"), but discovers his own mortality by accident. Unwilling to commit suicide by completing his mission, he instead cripples Jeff and is forced to start taking other work as an assassin to keep Jeff's life support bills paid.This setup doesn't even begin to convey how strange the comic is. A better indicator is to describe Jeff itself. Jeff is a 10 foot pastiche of incongruous parts. Its "legs" are large muscular arms (ending in hands) with mouths in the knees. Its body is that of a lanky tiger with a squid strapped to it with leather belts. Its arms end in "hands" composed of an opposable thumb but mousetraps in the place of fingers. Its head is a huge three-prong electrical plug. It speaks entirely in quotes from films.As strange as Jeff is, it's par for the course. As a result, the absurd protagonist (who, we are told by the author on page 2, should be voiced by John Malkovich) plays the straight man to a deranged, dysfunctional world. The results are enthusiastically violent, cleverly referential, and sharply drawn in a distinctive black-and-white style.Scud isn't for everyone. Brimming with irony before irony was cool, Scud will appeal most to people who have seen too many action, sci-fi, and mobster movies but are smart enough to know how schlocky the stuff they enjoy is. In fact, Scud bears some striking thematic resemblances to Kill Bill (which came out a decade later), and would likely appeal to the audience of "people who enjoy the same movies Quentin Tarantino does." As such, expect violence. Scud plays out the way Frank Miller might interpret Looney Toons: with blood, dismemberment, and the occasional pun. It's difficult to call anything as goofy as Scud "gory," but it's certainly graphic.You're unlikely to find anything as wildly inventive and off-the-wall as Scud. While much of its weirdness is weird for its own sake, it's nevertheless a fun trip.