Comical Musings Read more comics. Welcome to the event of the century. We, here at Comical Musings, love our apple pie and ice cream from America! But, we will take comics from anywhere we can get them. Many of you may have read about Scott Deaux’s friend Chris Tresson and some of you may even know about their weird, late night Facebook relationship (Scott Deaux does not understand time zones). What many of you may not know is that through Scott’s great Britain adventures, he picked up another mate by the name of Jimmy Furlong. We wrote up one of Jimmy’s anthologies and were glad to meet him, but he was always telling us about this new thing that he was working on. That new thing was Shit Flingers: Bestiary.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Scott! You don’t usually cuss on the blog…. what are you doin’?” Well, to answer that question, it’s Jimmy’s fault because he made his comic a potty mouth title. If the phrase, “Shit Flingers” offends you, then I am sorry, because it is featured throughout this post. To help make sure that this review didn’t go off the rails, Hal and I did it together (not romance dance) late at night….
Come to think of it, that’s kind of a bad idea….
Anyways, without further adieu, Shit Flingers: Bestiary as reviewed by two cottonheaded ninnymuggins.
Hal: Hey Scott, if you could be any kind of primate what kind would you want to be?
Scott Deaux: Whatever the kind is that looks like it has a wiener on it’s face would be… Which kind is that one?
H: A proboscis monkey?!?
S: No, dude, the one that looks like it’s nose is REAL long and cylindrical? Like a male member?
H: Oh, okay. Terrific. And if you could live in any historical time period, which one would you pick?
S: What is the time period where people wore those big masquerade masks with super long noses?
H: Alright. Well, I think I have a comic you would be really into.
S: Well, that is kind of a bold thing to suggest. Have you seen my profile on here? Under likes, I just
have “monkeys” and the “Catholic church” listed. Do you have something that includes those things?
H: Yes I do. It’s a new comic I’ve been working on called: “Catholic History Monkeys”!
S: Really?!?! That sounds a lot like my friend Jimmy Furlong’s new comic book, “Shit Flingers: Bestiary!”
It is a weird story told throughout the ages that features primates in service of the Holy Roman Catholic
church. Have you read it?
H: Okay, so first of all, how dare you?!
Second, damnit. This already exists? Dick-noses and everything? Tell me more.
S: Shit Flingers: Bestiary is the new anthology graphic novel series co-created by Jimmy Furlong &
Andrew Hartmann. Aided ably by various writers & artists it intends to be a limited series of six books
with a loose arcing narrative, chronicling their collected adventures from 1453 to 1585. All swearwords
aside, For their part in a terrible crime, a group of 15th Century French soldiers are forever cast out from
the world of men, when they are cursed by a powerful witch – each man transformed into a different
species of ape. Captured by The Inquisition, they are smuggled to Rome and coerced into the Bestiary; a
secret organization located deep beneath the Sistine Chapel. Led by their new employer, a young
Thomas De Torquemada, they begin a new life fighting occult monsters, demons and the heretical
enemies of the Church.
H: Oh wait, that was that British comic you told me to read so we could review it?
Is that what’s happening right now? Are we reviewing that comic?
S: Well, we certainly aren’t flingin’ feces!
H: Ha ha. Of course not. Ha. *vigorously wipes hands on pants* So anyway, Shit Flingers. I read it.
S: Me too.
H: It was good. It gave me an idea for a remarkably similar comic with a less vulgar name.
S: Simian Squad 7!?!?! We should totally do that!
H: Yeah, but it probably wouldn’t be as well done, or as British. What was your opinion of Shit Flingers?
S: I thought that the concept was original and well-executed. The artists that they put together to work
on this were quite good and the whole package left me feeling like I was dealing with professionals.
Looking at it now, it is hard to believe that it missed it’s Kickstarter goals on it’s first try. It got new fans
and a lot of attention and here we are now. The artists have an overall Brian Churilla-esque vibe and the
writers are imaginative while giving fan service to each character. What did you think?
H: It was interesting. The story was engaging. It was like Marvel Apes meets B.P.R.D. I liked when the
monkeys used drugs and killed Jesus. But the story seemed kind-of disjointed (ha ha, pun unintended).
In that one issue they gave us, they jumped between time periods like four times. It was impressive that
they got a different artist for each section, but I had trouble figuring out how the sections were related,
other than the presence of the main characters. It felt like it was a bit much for a single issue.
S: Well, it is an anthology which is a group of stories with different creative teams and a single theme
running through it…so, in that way it was successful. I can see where it felt a little disjointed. I
simultaneously loved the cannabis-dreamscape- assassination scene as it was and could have done with
a smidge more explanation into how that worked as well. All that being said, I have read “PRO” comics
that have made less sense and I ultimately feel that this was a strong showing. The way that it works
with British small press seems to be that you nail a series that you self publish to get attention and
enough of that equals a shot at a career. If there are more stories of this caliber, I could see this
garnering a healthy bit of attention for a couple of semi-pros. I can’t decide if the anthology genre is
helpful or hurtful to Shit Flingers, though.
H: Explain?
S: Well, as an anthology, it’s fun to let your creativity run, unbridled. In an anthology, you will flip the
page and never know what comes next. Yet, that lacks responsibility. I would love to see a 6 issue arc
where we see the origin of the Shit Flingers in issue 1, they get their marching orders in issue 2, and 3-6 is
them taking on a big bad guy. That might be something to build on. I know that the guys have fleshed
this out in their head, but it feels like Shit Flingers: Bestiary is skipping ahead in the series.
H: Oh, okay. I thought “anthology” was just British slang for “comic book.” Like, they’re all anthologies
over there. Anyway, yeah, I would like to see how they earned their title. For my money, there was a
disappointingly low amount of excrement missiles. ***SPOILER*** I’m glad they did unleash their
titular attack on the Cthulhu monster, but it left me wanting more. It’s plural: Shit FlingerS. They only did it
once! Outrageous.
S: Like Jem, it was truly, truly, truly outrageous. Ha! So Jimmy Furlong is a dude that I met through Chris
Tresson. He was trying to show me his handiwork for ages and he is a right jolly old chap. Now that it is
done, I can honestly say that I want more. Not just in a friendly way, but I am curious to see where it
goes. The possibilities are literally endless. Maybe a Grenouille/Jim Morrison team up story (yes, that is
a possibility if you read Shit Flingers: Bestiary) would be sweet. What kind of story would you like to see the Shit Flingers
take on? You know, now that killing Jesus is already off the table…
H: Well, it technically wasn’t Jesus-Jesus. If I remember correctly, it was just some mind-control/reality
warping poofter hiding out in the lake, because Brits always be putting stuff like that in their comics.
(Those are all acceptable words across the pond, right? Scott told me they were.) So they could still kill
actual Jesus. But I would be more interested to see a story arc where they blaspheme the Holy Spirit. I
would also like to see them fight Judge Dredd. Jimmy, if you’re reading this, Scott really just wants more
stories about proboscis monkeys wearing Scaramouch masks.
S: Plague Doctor masks are ok, too. Well, thanks for this. Jimmy thanks you too…unless you steal his
ideas and plagiarize them.
H: No prob, Bob. I’m not that motivated. Jimmy, thanks for all the ape monkeys.
S: Shit Flingers: Bestiary is available in print from Martian Lizard Press/online and although it has a dirty name, we recommend taking a brief jaunt
out of superhero comics to try something new every once in a while and time spent on this comic is time
well spent. I give it 7 out of 10 Cursed, Catholic Monkeys. All kidding aside, this was really well done
and I am proud to know some of the people who did it. I hope that this series brings as much success to
my guy Jimmy as it brought laughter to me and Hal tonight.
H: Now you’re the poofter in the lake…we need to Brexit this review
S: Agreed!
~ Scott Deaux and Hal Mars ~
