Iso Heppu ja Rusty robottipoika

The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot #1-2

by Frank Miller (Story), Geof Darrow (Artist), Claude Legris (Colorist)

Godzillan rankempi isoveli nousee Tokionlahdesta heittämään niljakkaan varjonsa nousevan auringon maan ylle. Kun Tokio joutuu rankemman päälle remonttiin, Nipponin pojat heittävät kehiin salaisen aseensa: RUSTY ROBOTTIPOJAN. Robottipoika pistää kaiken, ja sitten vähän päälle peliin, mutta kun rahkeet eivät riitä, apuun on kutsuttava amerikan ihme: ISO HEPPU! Mureneeko Tokio tuhannen pirstaleeksi, vai pystyvätkö kolmimetrinen peltiukko ja vaahtosammuttimen kokoinen robopoika pelastamaan ihmiskunnan?

Tee elintestamenttisi ja koe Frank Millerin supersankarit henkiin herättävä teksti ja Geof Darrowin mikroskooppisen tarkka piirosjälki! Ultraväkivaltaisen supersankarisarjakuvan uudelle tasolle Hard Boiledillaan kohottaneen parivaljakon Frank Miller – Geof Darrow uusi vavisuttava luomus.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Robots, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

65 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collaboration between Frank Miller and hyper-texturising (not a word) artist Geoff Darrow. Miller goes more for a 30s/40s pulp voice, and it mostly works, it made me laugh regularly.

All existing stories are collected here, and that's also where I become critical - overall the sequence feels unfinished, we're left hanging. It becomes even more annoying because this edition includes mock comic covers for non-existing stories.. oh, what could've been!

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Drew ‘Brick’ Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny story, the real reason to show up is for the Geoff Darrow artwork. Miller gives him the plot ammunition to draw the things he loves. They story is essentially a science experiment gone wrong spawns a kaiju that starts to destroy a Japanese city. The Japanese send in their Astro-Boy style hero Rusty! But he needs help, so the Japanese reluctantly call in the American hero The Big Guy!

The Kaiju is very interesting. Great design. It's more of an HP Lovecraft influence than a radiation-style Godzilla. The design is sweet. Darrow's art is on full display as he chomps through a living breathing city, you see the monster swallow, eat, and spit and destroy. It's wonderful.

Miller brings some crisp dialogue and narrative to the story, but it does feel like wasted space. Just step out of the way and let Darrow do his thing! I wasn't a big fan of The Big Guy or Rusty as characters. It's alright, but could be much better.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to watch the cartoon every Saturday morning as a kid. I think I got around to seeing every single episode... wondering why it ended so suddenly, and all that. Why are they doing re-runs? There's still one Ex Machina guy to hunt! I loved that shit.

The comic was still good but not quite as. Good to see Frank Miller unleash his wackier side for once... but it's hard to say how much of all the American patriotic fervor, the uselessness of everything Japan threw at the thing, is just over-the-top parody rather than genuinely what Frank feels. He's like that sometimes.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[7/10]

Robots to the rescue!
Tokyo is once again threatened by a gigantic monster that escapes from some sort of nuclear research facility. The Godzilla clone is indestructible and extremely hungry, threatening not only to level the skyscrapers but also to turn humans into zombie clones of itself.



After the army fails to stop the carnage, the government sends its secret weapon into the fray: a tiny red-headed boy made of metal and powered by some sort of protonic reactor.
Rusty the Boy Robot is raring to have a go at the mountain of mutating flesh, but he is literally squashed like a tiny bug by the monster. Luckily, the tiny boy’s metal frame is indestructible. It’s time for the Big Guy to be sent over from an American carrier: this other guy packs enough weaponry for galactic warfare, but even he has a tough job in Tokyo.

>>><<<>>><<<



Older readers like me, who grew up on a diet of monster and sci-fi movies from the 1950s’, will be in nostalgic and familiar territory with the plot. Whatever it may lack in originality is more than compensated by the showcase of Geoff Darrow’s talent: the artwork being main reason I picked up the comic.
His amazingly detailed panels are a joy to the eye of the comics fan who will most probably don’t mind that more than a third of the album has no story at all, being simply a collection of retro posters of fictional issues of the series or a pin-up gallery for the two robots.
Frank Miller’s penchant for violence is still a big part of the story, but it is toned down here as the book is aimed at a younger audience. The two robots are always fighting to save the earth from some sort of huge monster or mutant creature.
The Darrow covers are so gorgeous and so funny in their over-the-top promises that I am left at the end of the visit with a sense of regret that the premise didn’t really catch on and that there are no corresponding stories for these covers.



I guess I will have to start on the Shaolin Cowboy series for my next Geoff Darrow fix, although I confess I don’t look forward to the extremely violent content of those albums.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty pictures do not a great comic make

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

An experiment goes wrong and an unstoppable force is unleashed in the form of a giant orange iguana with fire breathing abilities and shape shifting powers. Rusty the Boy Robot to the rescue! Only the Japanese Boy Robot can't save the day - enter the American Big Guy! Action and fighting ensues, etc etc.

The cover might make the book seem like a kid's comic but I assure you it isn't. Geof Darrow's incredible artwork is extremely graphic, especially in the fight scenes. Frank Miller's script is alright but reads a lot like a pastiche of 50s/60s comics propaganda than a true representation of his own abilities (for Miller's best see Dark Knight Returns and the Sin City series).

More troubling is the insinuation of Japanese weakness and American superiority. Rusty is the best the Japanese can offer in terms of fighting and he is a comical figure, insecure, weak, and completely ineffectual. It takes the might of the Americans to come in and destroy the threat. The Big Guy is just that, a big robot that kicks ass and does what the Japanese boy robot can't. Big Guy's own reaction to Rusty is similar to that of Batman's to Robin in "All Star Batman" so it's a similarly interesting relationship where the Big Guy is clearly the hero. Either way I wasn't particularly fond of Miller's depiction of the ineptness of Japanese military power. It seemed unnecessarily jingoistic.

As for the book? A bit tedious in a way because it's the simple comic book hero story of hero fights monster, monster loses, blah blah blah. For a better collaboration between Miller and Darrow, check out "Hard Boiled", a much more interesting comic book. "Big Guy and Rusty" is, well, kind of rusty.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

So there's a few things going on here, and from reading the other reviews I'm feeling that not everybody's getting it. The artwork is amazing, which most people can agree on; there's this great juxtaposition with the incredible detail that Geoffrey Darrow puts in and the surreal subject matter and big picture stuff, which kinda leaves you in either a dissociative state or leads you into willing suspension of disbelief, or, in fact, belief.

The main issue people seem to have with this is the writing, the logic of which is a bit convoluted to be fair. Maybe they understand and still don't like it? Anyway. Firstly you have to know that while first published in 1995 it's designed to be, all at once, a comic of the style of 50s/60s America, mixed in with government propaganda, and a send-up of that entertainment/public service announcement *while at the same time not breaking the format of said faux 50s/60s comic.* I admit this is just my reading of it and maybe I'm reading too much into something or maybe I'm just plain wrong?

Reading it through that lens, which I admit, took me a couple of minutes to sort out, I really enjoyed this book, albeit with a bit of a time delay at times as the story and details filtered through to me. I do think it's a shame that there are only two issues/one story; I guess the show will have to be enough.

As for the idea that Frank's political opinions should preclude us from enjoying his comic book: No.

Edit: I meant to say this earlier and minor spoilers, but part of the reason I was disappointed that there weren't more issues was because Rusty didn't have much of a presence.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10
Interesting weird object this one.
An oversized Kaiju comics, which is first and foremost an artistic tour de force. Infinitesimal details compose the urban landscape of the story, every bit of the page vibrating with life and destruction. An over-stereotyped Tokyo, packed with pop references, shop signs and neon lights. (Can anybody draw neon tubes better than this man?) Bold view angles highlight the intensity of the fight against the monster. Geof Darrow puts an insane amount of work in this sixty-something pages, and the result is impressive to me.
Frank Miller seems to parody himself here, as well as old school propaganda rhetorics. Even if I am not totally sure, to be honest. The third person narrator, the monster, the two robot heroes: to say that all of their monologues are over the top would be an understatement. The implied idea of Japan happily bending the knee to the American saviour (which saves Japan with an atomic bomb, no less!) could be questionable, at least in taste. I like how stereotypically 'Japanese' and 'American' the moral and self-deprecating dilemmas of Rusty and Big Guy, respectively, are. Considering the lighthearted content and tone of the story, it would all seem done on purpose, with irony, to have fun. But this is 1995 Frank Miller that we are talking about, so you never know where the self-aware amusement ends and the actual fascism may begin. Anyhow, you can read it however you want in the end. I would have sucked ten more of these stories.

[Rocio Voncina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Titulo: Big Guy y Rusty el chico robot
Autor: Geof Darrow
Motivo de lectura: -
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Físico / Electrónico: Electrónico
Mi edición: —
Puntuación: 1/5

Japón sufre un ataque en manos de monstruos (los cuales la ilustración es fantástica), el gobierno Japonés deposita todas sus esperanzas en Rusty, un niño robot creado por los propios Japoneses con tecnología avanzada, pero Rusty falla en la misión.

Y es acá donde comienza mi problema con el cómic, porque el héroe que salvará el día será Big Guy, un robot que envían los de USA para salvar a Japón.

Mi problema? Siento que es una burla para con Japón.
USA es un país que arrojó dos bombas nucleares, matando a cientos de miles de civiles en Japón y jamás pidieron disculpas (tampoco lo van a hacer).
Que uno de los personajes se llame "Big guy" (una de las bombas fue bautizada como "Fat Man", la similitud de nombre me llamó la atención), además, la otra bomba arrojada fue bautizada como "Little Boy", siendo que el otro personaje, Rusty, es un niño pequeño robot.

No me gusta cuando a USA se los presenta como salvadores innatos del mundo, como si fueran el regalo de Dios a la humanidad.

Asi que un enorme no de mi parte, la verdad que no..

[The Comic Book Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this for a while, and I'm glad that I did. It's only two chapters, and the first chapter starts a little bit slow, but it gets better, especially in the second part. After reading it, it put a smile on my face. It made me want to read another adventure with those two characters.
It's all around weird, silly, kinda funny and cool at the same time.
Frank and Jeff knew what they were doing.

7/10

(Really wish there was a way to give it an extra half star)

[Josephus FromPlacitas]

This kind of ultra-detailed fantasy romp would be wonderful and fun and zoom bang pow, if only Frank Miller hadn't come out as an authentic fascist during the grim Bush years. (Side note: apparently only the Germans are the only ones to have figured this out, if Google's autofill results are to be believed: "frank miller faschismus." And, Jesus, if it's the Germans who are calling you fascist...)

Geoff Darrow's work, of course, is brain-breaking. It's completely unclear how a human being does what he does with his hands. Fields of giant monster scales, city blocks exploding as all the humans within it morph into monster minions, every wrinkle and crinkle and chunk of debris rendered with just ludicrous detail, every crumple of metal, every bullet shell, all in ridiculous copious amounts -- it's a steroidal pleasure for anyone who loves comic art, especially in this oversized edition.

But the nostalgia for mid-century design and over-the-top American go-getter dialogue becomes instantly suspect in the shadow of drek like 300. That pall forces a reader to go back to other Miller work and question all its alleged merits. You revisit Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and ask whether all the self-consciousness and layered ideas about the limits of superhero morality weren't the reader's imposition, whether the author wasn't more sincere and less ambiguous than we thought he was. You think about Commissioner Gordon's monologue about how FDR was "strong and sure," but that he may have known Pearl Harbor was coming, and that FDR was "too big" to question or doubt. Zoiks.

It's pretty difficult to assign innocence to a guy who aligned himself with the neocons when the time for thoughtful moral stances were here. It's difficult to think of the infantalized Japanese relying on the Americans as just goofy or cute, to think of the big patriotic proclamations by the bomb-wielding super-patriot robot as self-aware. You feel a need to keep a bigoted thug further and further away from kids and kids' genres and the dialogue loses any ironic charm it might have had.

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darrow's art is probably the only thing I liked about this. It saved how I look at the story totally, I even started to like it in the end, but the writing is really bad and boring and almost half of the time I wanted to put the book down and never read it again. Fortunately, as I said, the art saved it.

[Dakota · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Art is spectacular as you would expect from Geof Darrow. The book is short but Frank Miller was still able to do some interesting things with the story. The long focus on the Godzilla archetypual villain was different and made that part of the story better by doing so.

[Peter Looles · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot" by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow

In Tokyo, an experiment goes wrong and a gigantic dinosaur-like monster is created. The Japanese government sends Rusty the boy robot to fight it, but he's unable to defeat it. When the situation seems hopeless, they ask for the help of (the American) Big Guy who does whatever he can to defeat the monster.
This was an alright comic. There were many things I didn't like about it, but there were also some things that I liked. Frank Miller's writing is ok. The dialogues and the monologues the characters have feel unrealistic and there's nothing more than action, but at least said action is very enjoyable. Although, it certainly did bother me that there was nothing deeper going on and it was just action. Another thing that bothered me is the unoriginality of the comic. It's an adaptation of a cartoon, so it's already not very original, but even the monster the characters fight isn't original. To create this giant lizard with the atomic breath, it's obvious that Frank Miller was at least very inspired from Godzilla. Furthermore, there seems to be something really wrong with this comic that not many people notice. It's very racist. The Japanese try as hard as they can to defeat the monster they created, but they fail miserably and they can't do anything until the Americans save them. Japan here is presented as an extremely week country who can't help its own self without the help of the "great Americans". Maybe I'm just reading into it more than I should and Frank never intended to be racist, but it (at least) makes you think, especially when you take into consideration some of Frank's later, obviously racist works, like "Holy Terror". Other than that, the characters feel very bland and one dimensional and other than the very well written and exciting action there's really nothing good in the writing.
What is good tho is Geof Darrow's incredible artwork. It's so good that it makes you forget about the mediocre writing. His artwork is extremely detailed, but it's not realistic. He has a kind of cartoony style which works perfectly with this story. What really impresses me tho whenever I read a comic with artwork by Darrow is the amount of details. In a panel with a huge fight seen, when most artists wouldn't even draw a background, he draws very carefully with every detail all the buildings and objects that surround the characters. Someone would think that that would be distracting, but he does it in such a way that it really doesn't destruct you at all from the characters, instead it really makes the reading process easier because you get a better idea of where the characters are in relation to one another.
Overall, this is an ok comic. I think that I'd give it 6.5/10. I really didn't enjoy the story and the all the action bored me after a while, but the artwork is so amazing that I'm willing to forget about some of the comic's flaws.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was the first "comic" book keith showed me at the strand. and, in my typical manipulative manner, during those tenuous days before keith had decided to let me get him naked, i professed eager interest in it and bought a copy.

i think the pictures were cool...

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one a lot more than Hard Boiled. Geof Darrow’s art is seriously impressive, but the story in this one didn’t really do anything big for me. If you’ve ever wondered what a battle scene would look like across 70+ pages though, check this one out!

[Anne Mey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un vrai hommage aux monstres japonais et au petit robot également. Le dessin foisonne de détails et si l'histoire n'est pas incroyable ça reste un bel objet.

[Michele Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a modern (for the 90s) Tokyo, scientists, foolish with power, successfully recreate primordial ooze, only to discover it’s the perfect host body for an evil, Cthulhu-like (in mindset and motive at least) creature who breaks free and follows the trend of giant monsters rampaging on Tokyo. What’s worse, citizens discover after they’ve thrown everything at it from missiles and tanks to helicopters and super (prototype) boy robots, the creature isn’t just out to destroy humanity, it can infect them, turning them into mutant dinosaur creatures that can further spread the disease, destruction and chaos. In a last ditch effort commanders beg for help from the good old U.S.A. and from the sea comes the Iron-Giant-ish hero, The Big Guy.

All American, a true blue hero, the Big Guy is determined to defeat the evil creature, save the innocents mutated into monsters and uphold decency standards all the while. The prose is a bit pretentious at times, and a bit old fashioned other times, but both reinforce the character of the Big Guy and heroic feel of the tale.

The only bad thing to say is that this two part series went nowhere as a comic, introducing dynamic characters but going no further, and, while the Fox Kids TV show (a mere 26 episodes) was a hilarious, spot on blend of tongue-in-cheek jabs at mechs, robotechnology, speculations on the future, Godzilla-inspired disasters and superhero comics, reading this book is a reminder that the Big Guy and Rusty still hasn’t seen DVD release. Oh well, there’s Youtube.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I continue to adore Geof Darrow. Frank Miller aint bad neither, but the highlight of this is the art. So incredibly intricate and perfect! Our two titular heroes try and stop a monster which is invading Tokyo and trying to destroy the earth. Its sort of like the sleeping spirit of a dinosaur god, very much like a wrathful Old One in abilities and intent. The dialogue is actually pretty funny. Rusty and the Big Guy both speak like caricatures of children's superhero comic from the 50s. They are so into the upbeat, life affirming, innocent defending, pro-consumer capitalist American values. I love it. It also creates an interesting juxtaposition with the wanton destruction and truly psychologically horrific monster. But again, the art hogs the spotlight and even drives most of the storytelling. the detail on those monsters, the every minor cranny of an exploding car, or smashed building. Everything is unnecessarily complex in Geof's mind with tubes and twists and knobs and bolts and and cracks and scratches each one of which he renders. It wasn't as intense as Hard Boiled, but still great fun.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd heard good things about the series, and after finding out you can watch it free, online, I figured I'd check out the comic. Darrow's art is, as ever, delightful, impressive, grotesque, and a masterful show of draughtsmanship.

I was curious to see what Miller would do with a story that didn't revolve around murder and whores. It's alright, but nothing memorable, just a frame for running amok in the Japanese monster genre. Ellis does a better Atomic Monster send-up in Planetary, but this one's worth a read, if only for Darrow.

My Suggested Reading In Comics

[Blindzider · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was originally published in two, oversized "comics", with card-stock covers which is what I read these on.

The big "draw" (ahem) here is Darrow's art. The amount of detail and minutia he puts into each panel is simply astonishing. However, there's not much story here: man awakens/creates a giant monster and both Japan and the US send one of their "weapons" to fight it. The dialogue is straight-forward, over-the-top, superhero/anime. In other words, lots of exposition and nobody talks that way anymore. There's a little bit of commentary on man creating or playing as "God" without a second thought to the ramifications. There may also be a slight indication that to America and the whole "might makes right" in the 80's/90's, with the US coming out stronger and the real heroes above other countries.

But it's best to ignore all that and just look at the art.

[furious · Rating 4 out of 5]

i used to like Frank Miller. then, i found out that it wasn't cool to like Frank Miller. & it was, in fact, cool to hate Frank Miller. since then, i love Frank Miller.

it's always been cool to love Geoff Darrow, & it probably always will be, because he is unarguably awesome. it's just too bad he spells his name wrong.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Millar takes the idea of 'What if Astroboy and Gigantor fought Godzilla' gives it a bit of a twist and then gives it to the brilliant and bizarre Geoff Darrow to draw.

Fun and brilliant! Like a saturday morning cartoon on acid.
The story is basically one big fight and the art is amazing to look at.

Shame they never did more with this duo.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a while ago, but only now am I getting around to writing a review here. Along with a lot of folks my age, I watched the Big Guy and Rusty cartoon back when I was small and enjoyed it--largely unaware of the source material. I knew there was a comic, best I recall, but had never read it. Now the cartoon program itself has grown rusty (ahem) in my mind, but best I can remember Rusty was the more sophisticated invention, Big Guy was the old guard.

And it was made for kids.

Much like with TMNT, Big Guy was originally NOT made for kids. The comic by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow (astonishingly detailed art by Darrow) is cynical and violent and dark, kind of a Robocop with cuter stylings. There are two stories in this volume, and the first deals with an amorphous, consuming creature along the lines of a kaiju-sized Thing (from that classic 1980s gore-fest sci-fi film) emerges and attacks Japan. This kaiju Thing creates mass violence and tries to take over the world. Rusty (a take-off from Astro Boy) tries to fight the creature but can do nothing much, so America sends Big Guy to take on the threat. The story, which features horrific and disgusting imagery, feels cynical and a bit racist or at any rate... dismissive towards Japan? There is definitely an underlying cynical portrayal of American patriotism, too--Big Guy is an over-the-top blowhard of a good guy, facing down impossible odds. It's a harrowing battle, with more than a little humor, and a lot of jet-black nastiness. The second story, written by Darrow, is barely a story and sees Rusty and Big Guy facing off against a sort of sea-serpenty thing while overweight and tattooed beach bums lethargically look on. The first story is far more exciting and interesting, but both share a really unpleasant view of humanity. I was also surprised at just how little Rusty ever gets to do.

Anyway, for the truly mind-boggling art alone, the book is worth reading. Just be prepared for a bit of unpleasantness.

[Rolando Marono · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estaba entusiasmado por leer esta obra porque había leído Hard Boiled, otro trabajo de Miller y Darrow. Pero esta obra es radicalmente opuesta a Hard Boiled.
El arte de Geoff Darrow sigue siendo impresionante, pero los detalles del fondo en esta obra están menos cuidados. Las escenas no están tan abarrotadas y no están pasando muchas cosas al rededor. Por ejemplo la mayoría de los personajes de fondo están caminando, observando o muriendo, pero no hay muchas acciones más. El color de Stewart es maravilloso y resalta muy bien el arte sin hacer que se sienta saturada.
La parte más débil de la historia es el guión y la trama, esto es culpa de Miller y Darrow porque ambos escriben algunas partes de la historia. Este cómic en realidad no tiene trama, no hay más cosas sucediendo que una pelea entre un robot gigante y un kaiju. Incluso el pequeño Rusty es delegado a unas cuántas páginas y no aporta nada importante. La obra no es precisamente mala, creo que si la hubiera leído cuando era niño me hubiera emocionado mucho por la naturaleza de las imágenes, pero ese es su mayor fuerte, el guión casi no figura en realidad.
Recomendaría esta obra a los niños.

[Nate]

After collaborating on the successful Hard Boiled, Frank Miller and Geof Darrow returned with The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. The plot: during an experiment gone wrong, Japanese scientists unleash a psychic monster dinosaur on the streets of Tokyo. The government sends its new robot weapon Rusty (looking a lot like Astro Boy) to ward off the threat. When Rusty fails, America is called on for use of its good-natured robo, Big Guy. Dinosaurs and robots: awesome, right?

Even though this book is one big fight, it’s a fun fight. Miller fills every page with pulpy, exclamation point-laden dialogue, giving it the feel of 50’s propaganda. Geof Darrow’s art is fantastic; it’s pure eye-candy, and detailed to the extreme. His art is nowhere near as bloody as Hard Boiled, but I wouldn’t say this one is for kids either. I didn’t like how the book not-so-subtly proclaims American superiority. It felt awkward and misguided to say the least.

The hardcover edition I read included wonderful mock comic covers by Darrow, plus a sequel short story.

[Askaso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uno de esos cómics con muchos detallitos pero con poca carne.

Parece que es una precuela a una serie animada. Va de dos robots, uno mecha grande y uno pequeño. Los dos con armas hasta debajo de las uñas. Y se las van entendiendo con bichos gigantes tipo Godzilla. El pequeño es japonés, totalmente robótico y tiene problemas que le soluciona el robot gigante, estadounidense y controlado por una persona. Suena patriotero. Probablemente lo sea.

Lo que encontramos al ir pasando páginas son casquillos, cascotes, detallitos, cristales que explotan, cristales que se rompen, edificios demolidos, Tokio arrasado... Todo con minuciosidad psicopática. Lo soprendente es que no resulta recargado, al menos no mucho. Pero como casi todos los cómics recargados se lo gastaron todo en tinta. No hay guión, o al menos, no uno que no haya dictado mi sobrino de 8 años.

Si está en la biblioteca y no tienes que andar mucho para cogerlo no está mal del todo. Si eres completista de Miller pues te falta este. No hace falta leerlo, con mirar detallitos como en un "¿Dónde está Wally?" es suficiente.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The creative duo behind Hard Boiled connect again to deliver another madcap B-movie homage comic. Here, Miller and Darrow deviate from the cyberpunk/Blade Runner setting to opt into a postmodern love letter of sorts to Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. Darrow and Miller deconstruct a lot of '50s/'60s B-movie tropes while taking jabs at contemporary American society in a comic rendered completely with extravagant details provided by Darrow's meticulous lines.

The story opens with "Rusty Fights Alone!", where a genetic experiment in Japan opens a doorway to an ancient terror in the form of a demonic kaiju like being. Only a courageous little boy who happens to be a prototype android stands a chance at stopping the monstrous outpoor from this portal. What follows is a rather nonsensical story involving a mixture of cliched American ingenuity combined with the pluckish charm of Rusty the Boy Robot to save the day.

Enjoy it for the artwork and you'll have a great time; the story is a pretty supplemental affair here.

[Bret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some artists wear their influences with style, and some chefs prefer to work from established recipes. Writer Frank Miller and illustrator Geoff Darrow threw Ishirō Honda's Gojira (1954), early Stan Lee Iron Man comics (1963), Osamu Tesuka's Astro Boy (1952), and Dinosaurs Attack! trading cards (1988) into a blender and strained the resultant concoction so only the awesome bits remain. It's a mix that's unabashedly old-fashioned and unapologetically jingoistic, retrospective but not introspective, a celebration of Japanese national pride and U.S. military might. Miller has devised perhaps the grandest canvas yet for Darrow to showcase his considerable skill: vast cityscapes, doomed crowds, elaborate machinery, and a kaiju of incomprehensible size and malevolence, all rendered in his signature detail. They're a pairing for the ages, and theirs is a dish perfect for those who take their heaps of violence with a helping of hope. The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot might be bad politics, but it's good, good art.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I greatly admire Frank Miller's story telling and I have to say, this is my first experience with G. Darrow's artwork and it is impressive! However I feel a little let down. Please do not misunderstand, this is a fun story with an evil monster, robots and action, lots of action, but it ends just when it is getting really good. This felt like an introduction to a series that would have been a lot of fun, but alas, it was not to be.

So, how do you rate half a story? It is like watching the opening chase scene in a James Bond movie then the curtain comes up. I was ready to go! I wanted to see Rusty and Big Guy set out on adventures with their 1950's morality and kick some evil genius butt! 80 pages is not enough. As a result I will say this, if you want a taste of your childhood imagination where good triumphs over evil, with the aforementioned technology that can take a lickin and keep on tickin, then have a look. Just expect to be wanting more.