Vinegar Teeth

Vinegar Teeth #1-4

by Damon Gentry, Troy Nixey (Illustrator), Guy Major (Illustrator)

As a human being, Artie Buckle is a grade-A schmuck. But he's a pretty damn fine cop. Good thing, because Brick City is under siege from its citizenry and only an unlikely partnership with a mysterious, tentacled, extra-dimensional being can put an end to the escalating crime problem. But across space and time lies a far greater threat, not only to Brick City, but to the world! Can the two get past their differences and save the planet?

Collects issues #1-#4 of the Dark Horse Comics series Vinegar Teeth .

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Humor, Crime

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2018

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

An eldritch horror that looks like a giant scrotum is hired as a cop after he eats a criminal. He is given the name Vinegar Teeth since that is what his breath smells like. Vinegar Teeth can't help but eat suspects while arresting them with his hothead partner Artie Buckle. Eventually Vinegar Teeth's daddy shows up to eat the world and must be stopped. The art is really gross. It's nonstop vomiting and partially digested body parts. I'd give this a pass.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're in a 1920s/30s Canada (I think..?), and vice cop Arthur is paired with a cosmic horror that can't remember its name, so they choose Vinegar Teeth on account of the smell.



Arthur doesn't like this situation, as Vinegar Teeth has the unfortunate urge to eat just arrested perps, which is especially sad because Vinegar Teeth may look like an oddly formed blob of mucus, he's actually a thoroughly nice guy who just wants to help people (and Arthur).



In the background, there also seems to be another cosmic horror trying to take 0ver the population.



I really enjoyed this series, it made me laugh on several occassions. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, and hits the exact right tone for me. I've seen some reviews saying the art is messy (which it is) and confusing - that I disagree with. It all reminds me of Chris Cooper, in a good way.



I only dock it points for sometimes going meta, especially towards the end, which I think isn't very funny, and more there to mask spotty writing.

4,5 stars! Recommended!

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artie Buckle is your stereotypical literary cop, a drunken loudmouth with unconventional ways and (maybe?) a heart of gold. He's in the middle of a bust when a creepy tentacled horror that he dubs Vinegar Teeth appears and eats one of the perps. The mayor, desperate to improve her polling numbers in an election year, makes Vinegar Teeth a police officer, and it's just Artie's luck that they're assigned to be partners, when all he wants to do is drink his booze and listen to his favorite songs.

If you like a comic with a strong sense of the absurd, this may be a good choice for you. This story is riddled with sarcastic comments and strange situations, and it very rarely takes anything about its story seriously. Which is as it should be. The sheer ridiculousness of this story is definitely one of its appeals. Vinegar Teeth, for all his monstrosity, is a silly creature. Artie's yelling is unending and humorous. The other characters are little more than caricatures of a role. If it went on much longer than it did, it would be annoying, but with a short story like this, it worked pretty well.

In terms of the artwork, it was intense. It feels really old-school, which is not very much to my taste, and there's lots of blood, guts, and puke. In short, it's pretty gross. The best thing I can say about it is that I was grateful for the coloring of the speech bubbles. That made it so I could generally have a good idea of who was speaking. Without that, I probably would have had a very hard time following the action of this. There are just only so many tentacles you can have in a scene without it becoming confusing. Since almost every scene has tentacles, I think you can see where I'm going with this...

I was also surprised to find this story had a bit of heart, despite its strangeness. The power of music, Artie's sordid past... Those made the ending more satisfying than I expected it to be, which I appreciated. In all, this was a fun read, but probably not particularly memorable for me, so three stars it is.

[Doctor Action · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably cool if it's your kind of thing. The art is energetic, weird and effective. The plot is dull and the absurdity didn't make me smile, unfortunately. It makes no sense visually or otherwise and much of the dialogue is shouting and screaming.

If the same team were to create a somewhat straighter cop thing based in the same period, I might enjoy that. As this was, I dumped it halfway through.

[Geordie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like absurd humor and Lovecraftian horror; they might not be my favorite genres, but I've enjoyed a lot of them. Mashing them together, as in 'Vinegar Teeth', is not really a combination that works for very long. Honestly, at the end of this collection of the four comic series is the super short original comic the series is based on. That short is at least as funny as (if not funnier than) the rest of the book, and tells the main punchline in only four pages. The rest is just fluff. Not much happens for the whole story, then there's an interdimensional invasion that is repelled in a manner that feels like it was stolen from 'Mars Attacks'. If this niche genre appeals to you, you might like 'Vinegar Teeth', but I am convinced that it would have turned out better as a single comic, or a series of short vignettes.

[Maciej · Rating 3 out of 5]

PL
Dziwny to komiks z bardzo surrealistycznymi rysunkami, które mi nie do końca podeszły. Fabuła jest bardzo dobra ale niestety ta dziwna istota będąca partnerem głupiego gliniarza nie do końca przypadła mi do gustu.
EN
This is strange comic book with very surreal drawings that did not quite come to my mind. The plot is very good, but unfortunately this strange creature who is a partner of a stupid cop wasn't funny at all.

[Adam Rodgers · Rating 2 out of 5]

With an interesting concept (1920s cop teams up with a Lovecraftian extra dimensional being to fight crime!) the storyline suffers from being conflated and jumps around too much making it hard to follow. Characters are inconsistent, one even physically completely changing midway through the story. The art is stylistically consistent, if not to my taste. It's a shame as it's clearly aiming for a sort of comedic Mignola Hellboy vibe, which would be great - but it falls well below this.

[Bo · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I describe this thing as other than odd, plain ol odd.
I feel a lot of the humor might have worked better if it had been an animated short movie or something because as it is, some panels just drown with text, sound effects and little details flying around.

[Carl Siggins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Knew I wasn’t going to like it after page 2... so in that way I guess it didn’t disappoint. Art style is sloppy and lazy, no characters are likeable and the storyline is just boring.

[David Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the fuck did I just read? Basically it's a buddy cop story, but one of the cops is a Lovecraftian monster. Sounds like it could be good, right? Nope. It turned out mostly boring.

[Highland G · Rating 1 out of 5]

A cop reluctantly teams up with a demon/creature to try and stop a crime wave. Its very adult pulp story, and is not always easy to follow. The art, while well drawn, has an almost ugly feel to it.