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Lobo
Lobo: Highway to Hell
Heavy Metal icon Scott Ian makes his comic debut in a Lobo story like nothing you've seen before! You can imagine that when you live life the way the Main Man lives life -- loud, loose, and ludicrously violent -- you might pick up an enemy or two along the way. An enemy like, say, Satan himself. And Satan, my friends, does not play around. Hell's iron-fisted ruler has a serious grudge against the last Czarnian, and he's gonna hit Lobo right in his blackened, scabrous heart. So Lobo's just gonna have to hit him harder. Repeatedly.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 2, 2021
I was not a fan of this one. I wanted to like it. At the very least, I figured I would enjoy the Sam Kieth artwork but man does it feel like he phoned this one in. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I am not really a Lobo fan, but I just didn't enjoy the story much. I know Lobo is supposed to be a humorous character, but all of the "comedy" in this fell pretty flat for me. Not a suggested reading.
October 5, 2010
I 've read countless comics during my time on this earth and there are a small number of them that made their way onto my short list of "worst ever." When I say worst ever, I mean a comic that contains little or no entertainment value and more often than not displays a level of craftsmanship that is well below my very flexible standards. A truly bad comic also must stand out from the mere run-of-the-mill product that gluts comics shop shelves nationwide, the generic avalanche of monthly fodder that keeps the wheels of the companies churning and satisfies the undemanding comics-zombies who will buy anything. With that explanation out of the way, allow me to add Lobo: Highway to Hell to that short list.
Lobo has never done much for me as a character, basically being a one-note super-tough guy who's more than a little bit of a parody of the archetype most readily embodied by Wolverine, and I've always felt that a little of him goes a very long way, wearing out his welcome and becoming tiresome after a few pages. There have been exceptions to the rule, specifically the Lobo/Hitman crossover, "Lobo's Paramilitary Christmas Special" "Un-American Gladiators" and "Lobo's Guide to Chicks," but mostly any story featuring him can be summed up as a blending of a few now rote elements:
-references to heavy metal music
-silly pseudo-profanity
-much macho bluster
-over-the-top and utterly ridiculous fight scenes, often featuring gore that would have been wholly unacceptable if not employed within a comedic context
-Lobo's bitchin' space-bike
-Lobo's warm and squishy love of dolphins, be they of the terrestrial or extra-terrestrial varieties
So what we have here is a character who appeals to adolescent males and arrested adolescents like few others can since he's tailor-made to appeal to their interests. Maybe I would have liked him if I fit that demographic, but then again maybe not. And this particular Lobo story seems especially aimed at a sophomoric taste base.
For whatever reason, DC Comics approached well-known metal guitarist Scott Ian (of Stormtroopers of Death and Anthrax) to write a two issue Lobo story and the results display his utter lack of qualifications for the gig. Coupled with his amateurishness is the artwork of Sam Keith, a onetime "hot" artist who, if you ask me, has done little or nothing of note since his work on Epicurus the Sage some twenty years ago. This time around, Keith's work is incredibly slapdash and inconsistent, varying from page after page of full-page illustrations in lieu of panels to conventionally-paneled pages that frequently look unfinished or rushed, like he knocked the whole project out over a long weekend.
The "story," such as it is involves Lobo going to Hell to kick the Devil's ass for supposedly killing a space-dolphin. That's basically all there is to it, only that flimsy setup is stretched out over 144 virtually humor-free pages. God knows the creators tried to craft a humor piece, but what resulted simply is not amusing at all and is painfully forced.
The overall aesthetic feel of the piece is reminiscent of late-1960's/early-1970's underground comics, and by that I mean the lesser examples of that genre. In fact, it specifically reminds me of a story from an old issue of Yellow Dog called "Mickey Rat-On Visits the Disneelund," an occasionally funny re-imagining of Mickey, Donald and Goofy as horny, drugged-out hippies who go to Disneyland and wreak havoc. That story was very obviously the unedited creation of someone completely out of his mind on any number of questionable pharmaceuticals. I found that story's cursing, sleazy sex and general anarchy to be hilarious when I first read it at age fourteen, but looking at it now I'm amazed by its incoherent and seemingly endless rambling narrative. I have not read that story since at least 1983, yet I was strongly reminded of it while I read this Lobo book and found the Lobo story to be of far less entertainment value.
Bottom line: this is a complete and utter waste of trees that I'm amazed was let out of the DC offices without some serious retooling, and I can't believe they have the nerve to ask $19.99 for this.
Lobo has never done much for me as a character, basically being a one-note super-tough guy who's more than a little bit of a parody of the archetype most readily embodied by Wolverine, and I've always felt that a little of him goes a very long way, wearing out his welcome and becoming tiresome after a few pages. There have been exceptions to the rule, specifically the Lobo/Hitman crossover, "Lobo's Paramilitary Christmas Special" "Un-American Gladiators" and "Lobo's Guide to Chicks," but mostly any story featuring him can be summed up as a blending of a few now rote elements:
-references to heavy metal music
-silly pseudo-profanity
-much macho bluster
-over-the-top and utterly ridiculous fight scenes, often featuring gore that would have been wholly unacceptable if not employed within a comedic context
-Lobo's bitchin' space-bike
-Lobo's warm and squishy love of dolphins, be they of the terrestrial or extra-terrestrial varieties
So what we have here is a character who appeals to adolescent males and arrested adolescents like few others can since he's tailor-made to appeal to their interests. Maybe I would have liked him if I fit that demographic, but then again maybe not. And this particular Lobo story seems especially aimed at a sophomoric taste base.
For whatever reason, DC Comics approached well-known metal guitarist Scott Ian (of Stormtroopers of Death and Anthrax) to write a two issue Lobo story and the results display his utter lack of qualifications for the gig. Coupled with his amateurishness is the artwork of Sam Keith, a onetime "hot" artist who, if you ask me, has done little or nothing of note since his work on Epicurus the Sage some twenty years ago. This time around, Keith's work is incredibly slapdash and inconsistent, varying from page after page of full-page illustrations in lieu of panels to conventionally-paneled pages that frequently look unfinished or rushed, like he knocked the whole project out over a long weekend.
The "story," such as it is involves Lobo going to Hell to kick the Devil's ass for supposedly killing a space-dolphin. That's basically all there is to it, only that flimsy setup is stretched out over 144 virtually humor-free pages. God knows the creators tried to craft a humor piece, but what resulted simply is not amusing at all and is painfully forced.
The overall aesthetic feel of the piece is reminiscent of late-1960's/early-1970's underground comics, and by that I mean the lesser examples of that genre. In fact, it specifically reminds me of a story from an old issue of Yellow Dog called "Mickey Rat-On Visits the Disneelund," an occasionally funny re-imagining of Mickey, Donald and Goofy as horny, drugged-out hippies who go to Disneyland and wreak havoc. That story was very obviously the unedited creation of someone completely out of his mind on any number of questionable pharmaceuticals. I found that story's cursing, sleazy sex and general anarchy to be hilarious when I first read it at age fourteen, but looking at it now I'm amazed by its incoherent and seemingly endless rambling narrative. I have not read that story since at least 1983, yet I was strongly reminded of it while I read this Lobo book and found the Lobo story to be of far less entertainment value.
Bottom line: this is a complete and utter waste of trees that I'm amazed was let out of the DC offices without some serious retooling, and I can't believe they have the nerve to ask $19.99 for this.
July 22, 2012
Crass, sacrilegious, rude, crude and absolutely perfect for Lobo fans. Too bad I'm not one.
March 4, 2017
While I missed Lobo's debut in the pages of The Omega Men (which, as far as I know, never made it to Sweden outside of the pages of New Teen Titans), I did first encounter and enjoy his presence in DeMatteis, Giffen and Maguire's humourous take on the Justice League back in the '80s; and while I missed out on his follow-up gig in L.E.G.I.O.N., I was there to pick up his early limited series, Lobo: The Last Czarnian, and special, Lobo: Paramilitary Christmas Special, by the unbeatable team of writers Alan Grant and Keith Giffen and artist Simon Bisley (all doing some of their finest work), as well as the two closest follow-ups (Lobo's Back by Giffen and Bisley, and Lobo: Infanticide by Grant and Giffen). After that, as the character gained an ongoing title (alongside more limited series), I kind of lost track of him a little, partly because of where I was heading in my comics reading habits at the time, but also, because nothing seemed to top the combined trio of Grant, Giffen and Bisley (not even fully the duo variations of that trio mentioned above).
Still, being a fan of cartoonist Sam Keith (from early The Sandman and Epicurus the Sage to the fantastically weird The Maxx ), this volume written by Scott Ian (from the Thrash Metal band Anthrax) caught my interest, and when I discovered that my local library, I kind of figured, "what the heck." In retrospect, I am very glad I went down the library path on this one.
To start, Ian's plot and script does little for me. While the parody of dark and gritty '80s superheroes out of the Wolverine and Batman-post-Dark Knight Returns mould inherent in the character admittedly centres on ultra-violence and excess, the aforementioned works written by Grant and Giffen are nevertheless irreverent, clever and witty in their execution. This is regardless of if it stems from the basic intrigue of Lobo needing to deliver his old school teacher (supposedly dead already, along with all the other Czarnians but Lobo), whom he hates, safely somewhere; being offered a contract on Santa by a consortium of other Holiday Creatures; or tackling the afterlife in a fashion which can only really end the way that particular plot ends (if we really think about it). Ian, on the other hand, lacks the same sensibility. His plot is essentially mysteriously killed dolphins (because we know Lobo is a dolphin lover) sets the Main Man off on a mission of vengeance to confront Satan. A plot which is clumsy in its execution because the confrontation never really yields anything but the surface layers of the character's potential (and to boot, really does not appear to have grasped the outcome of Lobo's Back at all).
So, Sam Keith would be the potential saviour of the volume then, right? That is, to the extent that good art can ever entirely save a comic with plot and narrative issues. Well, in this case, actually no. As stated above, I am a huge fan of some of Keith's earlier oeuvre, but here his art falls short for me. There are glimmers, to be sure - and they likely play a huge part in my not settling for a single star on this comic - but on the whole, Keith's art comes across as uneven and ultimately seems more like an unfulfilled promise. Some images and pages are undeniably very good, and shows us what a Kieth Lobo could potentially be, if consistently delivered.
Also, even then, a better plot and a better script would be necessary. Ian writes in his introduction: "I just started writing Lobo as me. It was my voice he needed, not some made-up trying-to-be-Lobo voice, but my voice. Just like writing lyrics, it had to be internal, not external." I find this puts the finger on what is perhaps the main problem with the Main Man in this volume: the fact that his voice is not his voice, but Scott Ian's. And regardless of what Ian writes, and while I ultimately agree that the character does not need "some made-up trying-to-be-Lobo voice," Lobo needs his own voice. Period. Both Grant and Giffen managed and developed that voice well. Ian veers off and ultimately delivers a metal head Lobo-wannabe who goes on a trip to Hell, because ... well, because metal (kind of - and I write this as someone invested in that musical genre).
Still, being a fan of cartoonist Sam Keith (from early The Sandman and Epicurus the Sage to the fantastically weird The Maxx ), this volume written by Scott Ian (from the Thrash Metal band Anthrax) caught my interest, and when I discovered that my local library, I kind of figured, "what the heck." In retrospect, I am very glad I went down the library path on this one.
To start, Ian's plot and script does little for me. While the parody of dark and gritty '80s superheroes out of the Wolverine and Batman-post-Dark Knight Returns mould inherent in the character admittedly centres on ultra-violence and excess, the aforementioned works written by Grant and Giffen are nevertheless irreverent, clever and witty in their execution. This is regardless of if it stems from the basic intrigue of Lobo needing to deliver his old school teacher (supposedly dead already, along with all the other Czarnians but Lobo), whom he hates, safely somewhere; being offered a contract on Santa by a consortium of other Holiday Creatures; or tackling the afterlife in a fashion which can only really end the way that particular plot ends (if we really think about it). Ian, on the other hand, lacks the same sensibility. His plot is essentially mysteriously killed dolphins (because we know Lobo is a dolphin lover) sets the Main Man off on a mission of vengeance to confront Satan. A plot which is clumsy in its execution because the confrontation never really yields anything but the surface layers of the character's potential (and to boot, really does not appear to have grasped the outcome of Lobo's Back at all).
So, Sam Keith would be the potential saviour of the volume then, right? That is, to the extent that good art can ever entirely save a comic with plot and narrative issues. Well, in this case, actually no. As stated above, I am a huge fan of some of Keith's earlier oeuvre, but here his art falls short for me. There are glimmers, to be sure - and they likely play a huge part in my not settling for a single star on this comic - but on the whole, Keith's art comes across as uneven and ultimately seems more like an unfulfilled promise. Some images and pages are undeniably very good, and shows us what a Kieth Lobo could potentially be, if consistently delivered.
Also, even then, a better plot and a better script would be necessary. Ian writes in his introduction: "I just started writing Lobo as me. It was my voice he needed, not some made-up trying-to-be-Lobo voice, but my voice. Just like writing lyrics, it had to be internal, not external." I find this puts the finger on what is perhaps the main problem with the Main Man in this volume: the fact that his voice is not his voice, but Scott Ian's. And regardless of what Ian writes, and while I ultimately agree that the character does not need "some made-up trying-to-be-Lobo voice," Lobo needs his own voice. Period. Both Grant and Giffen managed and developed that voice well. Ian veers off and ultimately delivers a metal head Lobo-wannabe who goes on a trip to Hell, because ... well, because metal (kind of - and I write this as someone invested in that musical genre).
May 25, 2021
About as good as one would expect a heavy metal singer to write. Scott Ian, of Anthrax, puts in plenty of weird, but the story is weak. I like Sam Keith, but it's kind of lackluster for him. The Main Man is boring in this book. Frag this and read something better!
January 1, 2021
Solid 3 stars - thoroughly ridiculous, as it should be! Story and art work well together.
April 27, 2024
It's fine and fun.
A good way to spend 15 minutes.
Nothing mindblowing, just a simple, kind of brainless fun book.
I also like the art by Sam Keith a lot.
A good way to spend 15 minutes.
Nothing mindblowing, just a simple, kind of brainless fun book.
I also like the art by Sam Keith a lot.
February 20, 2017
Some good parts but weird ending which lost me
January 8, 2015
Breve nota para un tebeo de Lobo reeditado este mes por ECC, que si no es por la particularidad de que sea guionizado por el guitarrista de Anthrax Scott Ian, se quedarían en destacable por absolutamente nada. Bueno no tanto, pero si no exagerase mis exabruptos no sería yo. La verdad es que el dibujo de Sam Kieth es tan excéntrico y loco que si que está a la altura de una aventura Czarniana por los infiernos para un ajuste de cuentas con el mismísimo señor del averno.
No se puede decir lo mismo de la historia, que no cuenta tampoco gran cosa y se limita a liarse ella sola sin llegar a ninguna parte que no sea el puro disfrute de un tipo que no sabe escribir cómic y que con las referencias al mundo del metal, pretende que sea suficiente. Se lee en un suspiro, entre otras cosas porqué, como he dicho la historia es escasa. Como curiosidad vale y puede que le diera mas nota si no me hubiera costado 16€, pero las cosas son como son, la vida una mierda y el dinero escaso.
No se puede decir lo mismo de la historia, que no cuenta tampoco gran cosa y se limita a liarse ella sola sin llegar a ninguna parte que no sea el puro disfrute de un tipo que no sabe escribir cómic y que con las referencias al mundo del metal, pretende que sea suficiente. Se lee en un suspiro, entre otras cosas porqué, como he dicho la historia es escasa. Como curiosidad vale y puede que le diera mas nota si no me hubiera costado 16€, pero las cosas son como son, la vida una mierda y el dinero escaso.
August 14, 2014
I never liked Sam Keith's art. Sure, there are great pictures and pretty funny moments and details, but mainly to me he is overrated and crap.
I really do like Scott Ian in Anthrax. As he is a comic fan, that does not make him a comic scribe.
I really do like Scott Ian in Anthrax. As he is a comic fan, that does not make him a comic scribe.
November 24, 2012
I don't think the writer captured lobo's charm very well.
December 7, 2016
Not really my cup of tea... Oh well, you live and learn... Still, twenty bucks is twenty bucks I'll never get back.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews