Predator: Strange Roux

Predator comics

by Brian McDonald, Mitch Byrd (Illustrator)

There's a legend down in Bayou Lafourche of a man turned into a monster. Well, legends aren't always fiction, and monsters aren't always horrible, but something's got to account for the bodies being pulled out of that swamp. And that something's got nothing to do with voodoo.

Genres: Comics

25 pages, Saddle-stitched

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Brian McDonald has taught his story seminar at PIXAR, DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATIION and George Lucas' ILM. His award-winning short film WHITE FACE has run on HBO and Cinemax and is used in corporations nation-wide as a diversity-training tool.

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really know any French. So I looked up the word, roux on Google. Intrigued, I’m wasn’t sure how “Strange ‘Fat’” applied to until the very end.

Here we go.

With an intro that simultaneously recalls both the Ketchup Conversation in Pulp Fiction as well as the animal cruelty in Cannibal Holocaust my mind was already spinning a mere two pages in. With another predictably flayed corpse strung up and on display just another page in, things only continued to make even less sense.

From there on a curiously harsh admixture of unrequited love is swirled in with voodoo and pagan ritual involving animal sacrifice a la its internalized backstory. Hypothesizing encroaches upon a theoretical flashback and this back-tale of revenge and Black Magic is transmogrified into a demented realm highly reminiscent of the original Grimm Fairy Tales (of course, before their Disney Era sanitization).

With an aboriginal fury, the story continues within in its deep-fried Cajun landscape. The mythical Golliwamp is revealed as the titular Predator and thus predictably devolves in peerless violence that ensures across corpses and a contrastingly verdantly moss laden landscape.

Ending in a strangely reduplicated take on Robin of Locksley’s stick battle with Little John, the story ends on a lugubrious note. No brilliant conclusion occurs – but an equally befitting result to comestible violence is the product. Did it end on a Grimms-esque note? With no lesson nor moral imperative to be derived, the conclusion remains as amorphous as it is meaningless.

Another comic sold and other fifteen minutes wasted.

Ka-Ching!

[Benji's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, quick read featuring the Predator in a 1930s swampland setting. The art was decent for a one-shot. Dark Horse Comics generally had some good artwork in the 1990s, no matter the story quality. This story seemed to have a nice blend of good art and a good story. Funny, even.

[✮Octjillery✮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

[My reviews are generally for me/my memory and can therefore contain spoilers. They're typically not here to provide you with a reason to read or not read something.]

Note: I read this via the first massive omnibus (on Kindle). The plan is to review each trade/mini-series/whatever as I finish them, rather than the whole omnibus or every single issue.

Holy shit, that ending.

[James DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the funniest and best shit I read. Predators killing rednecks is awesome but the trap? Lmao too good. Laughed at rhe ending.

[Jimmy Fingers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting setting and background side story around revolving around Voodoo and frogman which lead nowhere unfortunately....Should have been longer than just one shot ,missed opportunity.