The comic Bucko begins with Rich Richardson, dubbed Bucko by the woman whose couch he’s passed out on, rushing through the streets of Portland on his bicycle as he tries to get to his job interview. Remembering he almost had a threesome with the woman, Gyp, and her roommate before he passed out destroys just about all the confidence he has, and then the post-drinking diarrhea that strikes mid-interview is about the worst thing that can happen… until he finds the dead body in the men’s restroom. What follows is a mystery, although the objective of it does end up different. The city of Portland seems weirder than the Wonderful Land of Oz as Bucko and Gyp, his almost hook-up, stumble on oddity after oddity encountering Juggalo queens, ghost bicycles , and a candle-making Suicide Girl.

Bucko is complete as of January 2012, and has been bound up by Dark Horse Comics in one volume. The artist and writing duties are split between Erika Moen and Jeff Parker respectively. The story call itself a comical murder mystery, and while it is comical, there is a murder, and there is a mystery, the three are not exactly interconnected.  It’s a very offbeat and winding love poem to the city of Portland and the people who’ve chosen to live there and make it so darn odd. It’s also riotously funny. This comic gave me more than a few stitches in my side! I don’t feel I can say much more, or feature more images, as I don’t want to be one of those movie trailers that spoils all the jokes.

The Authors and Their Other Works:

Jeff Parker has an illustrious comics writing resume including many  Hulk titles, Agents of Atlas, X-Men: First Class and Underground. Erika Moen is a cartoonist, well known for her always honest and often raunchy autobiographical webcomic Dar! which I find incredibly inspiring. It’s worth watching her for the incredibl print work she does, which I regularly covet and mug little old ladies to acquire. Well,  not quite mug. More like work in exchange for wages to acquire, but old ladies are involved. Both of them work out of the freelance hive Periscope Studio in Portland, where I’m sure brilliant cartoonists are cultivated in tanks.