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Husbands: The comic

by Brad Bell, Jane Espenson, Ron Chan, Natalie Nourigat, M. S. Corley, Benjamin Dewey and Tania del Rio

reviewed by Larry Duplechan for Gutterfags

Per its own cover blurb, Husbands: The Comic is based on the “hit sitcom” of the same name; which raises the question of what currently constitutes a “hit sitcom” (apparently, a web series of 11 episodes released over three years will do). The assumption that the reader is familiar with Husbands the web series is the tragic flaw of Husbands the graphic novel: the six short comics that make up the book use the series as a jumping-off point, taking its three main characters through six fantasy stories. The recently-married “husbands” of the title (“athlete Brady Kelly and tabloid darling Cheeks” – again, from the back of the book) and their diminutive blonde gal-pal, Haley, by means of a magic book mixed in with the guys’ wedding gifts, find themselves tossed and driven through time, space and comic book genres, including Disney-esque fairy tale, sci-fi, murder mystery, and the long-lived and recently hip again Archie series. I imagine it seemed like a good idea at the time; but the resulting book is less a coherent, satisfying entertainment than a mildly interesting (for the reader, anyway) exercise for the artists involved – a more involved version of the "art challenges" occasionally presented by comic book writer Dale Lazarov ("create a homoerotic version of a Marvel superhero/a Disney prince/a Smurf").

Herein, again, lies the problem: unless you have watched the web series, you open the book knowing nothing about the three main (and recurring) characters other than what can be discerned from the book cover (the names and recent marital status of the boys – the girl is referred to as “their tiny drunken friend” – I got the name “Haley” from IMDB); and the rest of the book is no help, at all. Imagine if the debut episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation had been one of Jean-Luc Picard’s holodeck adventures as a 1930s film noir gumshoe. It’s possible that might have been entertaining in a way; but it’s almost certain that it would have been head-scratching, WTF confusing. And somewhat less than satisfying. The “musical” episode, the “parody of another show” episode and the “crazy, but it turns out to be a dream” episode, is usually attempted well into the life of a series, when the audience can safely be assumed to know the characters, inside and out; otherwise, the humor is likely to flat-line.

All six of the stories in Husbands spring from the same two writers, ensuring a consistency of tone (light and fluffy as meringue) and plot (boy meets boy-boy quips with boy-boys end story in a lover's clinch); wise-cracking, self-referential dialogue; and the general sense that the reader is assumed to be in on the joke they’re making (Fourth wall? What's that?). The art ranges from okay (Tania del Rio’s loose, loopy Archie take-off looks a bit hurried) to eye-popping (Ron Chan’s candy-colored takes on 1950s superheroes and 60s secret agents; Ben Dewey’s dark, finely detailed “Star Trek” parody). So, it isn't that  Husbands is bad – it isn't bad, exactly. But what it also isn’t is particularly involving. Because – again – it’s difficult to get involved with characters, even in an entertainment form as loose as comics -- even with writing and art as expertly executed as it, mostly, is in Husbands -- when you don’t know who the characters are.

 

- About the reviewer -

Larry Duplechan is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Blackbird, Got 'til It's Gone, and three others. His other hobbies include drawing dirty pictures.