Broken Frontier

The Universe’s #1 Game Show hinges on the misadventures of a cybernetic kid and the ridiculous stunts he is forced to endure.

As the cosmos’ most popular game show returns from commercial, our hapless hero, Bio Boy, is battling his way through the galleon of a band of she-demon pirates called the Latifahs. Back in the studio, contestants—a granny, a bug-monster, and a talking monkey among them—offer the daredevil youth new challenges and try to accurately predict how his luck will fare. Things do not look good as a giant robo-squid attacks and Bio Boy’s sometime sidekick/cybernetic arm, N-16, betrays him.

I was not entirely certain what to make of this comic. It was unquestionably funny with its off-the-wall antics, goofy characters, hip hop slang-speaking robots, and ludicrous subtitles translating alien speech. However, much about it left me confused. Who is Bio Boy and why does he subject himself to such treatment? Is N-16 simply a troublemaker or is he genuinely trying to sabotage our hero? Who are these people in Bio Boy’s support team? The reader is more or less thrown into the thick of things with little explanation or background. That said, the issue shows a lot of creativity and humor. Sal Cipriano is certainly not afraid to try something different with the comic book format, offering title pages that look like DVD displays and one page commercial breaks between the two featured stories. And, as mentioned, the laughs come fast and furious.

On their respective stories, Andy MacDonald and Chris Brimacombe both bring a frenetic sense of energy and cartoonish charm to Bio Boy’s travails. I found Brimacombe’s style to be a little smoother and more assured but both match the absurdity and tone of the story well. The artists are fairly successful at combining futuristic technology with easily recognizable objects from our own world, such as turntables, game show sets, and pirate ships. They also populate the comic with crazy-looking characters and suitably freaky aliens. Also amusing is the body language of N-16, a playa trapped in a robot’s body.

If Cipriano takes a little more time to develop his wonderfully nutty concepts in future issues, Bio Boy may turn out to be quite the offbeat pleasure to read.