Rowdy Roddy Piper Monster Killer
by
Ian Edginton
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
There was no way I was not going to try this book out! A book written and drawn by the exceptionally talented Ian Edginton, starring a fictional version of the iconic and legendary wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper as a monster hunter? I’m there!
I saw this and had to pre-order it (which I did) and when it arrived in 2015, I was super excited and it was every bit the entertaining time I had expected. Recently re-read it for fun and decided a review was in order.
It’s not a stretch to get the story – Rowdy is a tough-as-nails bad-ass who is a lone wolf roaming the land and fighting monsters. There’s more layers added for flavour, like him being the last of his clan as mankind believed in monsters less as we modernised and his people were treated as kooks and so the hunters dwindled, leaving now just him… or not! There’s a son he walked away from for his own safety and in this story, things are coming to a head as the boy is now hitting adulthood and the forces of darkness want to eliminate father and son and then roam free!
It’s not an overly complex story and most of the story beats and ideas are fairly well-worn to anyone familiar with genre stories of this ilk. The story hits the ground running and shillelagh swinging. with Piper kicking ass – because presumably, he’s all out of bubble-gum! The story follows the usual expected direction from there. What works in its favour though, is that it’s like many comics, tv shows and movies today – we’ve mostly seen it all and yes, most every type of story to tell has been told, BUT it’s all in the telling and this book knows not to waste time or take itself too seriously. The hero looks heroic and is just the right balance of gruff and grumpy loner and likeable hero (which is actually a perfect persona fit for Rowdy Roddy Piper himself in general), the action is dynamic and fun to look at and the monsters are suitably gruesome and nicely varied from the start of the story til the end.
Things are not too grotesque, the violence is just this side of too-violent yet violent enough and the banter and character interaction also toes a nice line between a bit serious but mostly light and breezy. Overall I found the comic to be exactly what is what advertised to be (which is rare in marketing in my experience) and it’s all put together with a clear start and finish in mind and the story is never rushed yet maintains a brisk pace.
Simply put: It’s Rowdy Roddy Piper in what could just as easily have been another excellent entry into his cult favourite retro action movie turns like They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown which are just daft but great fun to watch, especially with friends. If that’s the kind of thing you might enjoy, I would happily recommend giving this done-in-one action romp a try.
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