Broken Frontier

A lone monster truck roams the countryside, confusing everyone who sees it.

There are two movies that are relevant to Monster Truck: Automobiles, Monsters, and Mayhem. The first one, Rubber, is an independent French film about a tire that rolls about the countryside, killing people. It begins with a character asking "Why?". Not "why is there a tire killing people", but to the audience, pointedly, "why does this exist?" The narrative gives no explanation, and that's the point. There's "no reason" to what is on screen.

The second is The Day the Clown Cried. An unfinished Jerry Lewis film about a circus clown that is forced by Nazis to help Jewish children to the gas chamber. The plot or the actual content of the film has no bearing on this book, but the responses the film garnered can basically be applied to this work. It's a project that exists, and the intent is clear, but you're left with no response.

The plot is maddeningly simple; a monster truck roams the wasteland, filled with monsters, superheroes, race tracks, kaiju, and flying eyeballs, amongst other oddities. That's it. There's no rising arc, no denouement, no climax, no motivation, nothing. That's what makes it so maddening; once you think you've figured the book out (when you see a child playing with a Hot Wheels-modeled race track that dwarfs the titular "character," you assume that the whole narrative is a kid playing with toys… but then, where do you explain the flying eyeballs?).

This is not even a plot; it's a series of sideshow attractions. Here's one thing, here's another. "That thing looks like Doctor Mid-Nite, but he's wearing a business suit, and we couldn't actually make it Doctor Mid-Nite or else DC would sue."

Is there dialogue? Yes. The book has about one or two lines on each page, namely the character commenting on what he's seeing.

Is there art? Yes. Disappointingly one-note in color, while these designs might be great for an Adult Swim show or a CD album cover, in still life for 52 pages, it gets repetitive and weak.

Is this supposed to be some form of a horrific children's book? At first glance, it appears to be such, given the page format we're presented with in our digital review copy. Upon a second look, it appears to be one continuous image, with each page directly connected to the next. Is this the best wallpaper ever for people with 52 monitors (ignoring DC with their former 52 Monitors)? By default, yes.

On another note, this is listed as a recolored and remastered "deluxe" second printing of the Wishbone Studio "classic." Without having read the original, we can't comment on how this recoloring goes, but we can definitely wonder what makes it a "classic."

Is this a thing? It is a thing. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? We're still trying to figure out what we just read.