Monster hunting is tough work, but in the Floodlands, it does not pay well. The government, on the other hand, does pay in cash. But is there a catch? Find out in Monsters Are My Business #1 from Dark Horse!

MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS #1

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Patrick Piazzalunga
Colorist: Marco Brakko
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Review
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 10, 2024

Previously in Monsters Are My Business: A funny thing happened three years ago. The Eastern seaboard was hit with acid rain, high waters, and an influx of ancient, unearthly monsters. Now Tanner “Griz” Grisholm works as a sort of detective, finding missing people in the Flooded Zone along with Cuddles, the chainsaw-wielding koala, and Hillary, a necromancer.

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

Monsters Are My Business #1 starts in the middle of the action as Hillary and Griz speed around a corner on two wheels, fleeing a big monster with huge teeth. Hillary is just interested in getting away, but the monster got Cuddles and Griz wants payback. He pops up through the sunroof, gun in hand, and takes aim. He shoots it. It hits the car. Griz jumps out, ready to take it out mano a mano. Using a chainsaw axe, he severs a tentacle. It grabs him with another tentacle. Amidst the fountains of blood, there is another rumbling noise, and Cuddles, the chainsaw-wielding koala, jumps out, covered in blood and really cranky. They make quick work of the monster.

Hillary walks up to them and asks Griz if he happens to have remembered the informant that they were looking for. Griz and Cuddles exchange glances of, “Oh, yeah, informant…” before Griz retrieves what remains of him. Fortunately, Hillary is a necromancer.

As they drive back home, we get a flashback to how the world ended up here, flooded and swarming with monsters. A group called the Howling Gargoyles, made up of power-hungry extremely wealthy people and headed by a woman calling herself Mama Torment, started it all. Most people fled to higher, drier ground, but Griz decided to stay.

It is another typical day in the office. Griz takes jobs and payments for jobs, which are unfortunately more likely to be food rather than cash, against the background noise of Hillary interrogating the corpse. Said corpse claims he doesn’t know anything and never saw anyone.

Then a clean-cut blond man in an immaculate dark suit steps in. Griz recognizes him as Owen Jenkin, a government man. Jenkin has a job for him. Griz has taken jobs from him before, and they do not tend to go well. On the other hand, Jenkin does pay in cash. The job is also the extraction of a team that got themselves into trouble. Griz agrees to take it. Hillary feels it could be too risky. She promises his soul to someone and does not want him dying early.

Griz and Cuddles go down to the docks. The trail leads to a bikers’ clubhouse, that of The Howling Gargoyles. This does not look good. The Floodlands draw a different sort of person, and living here can mess with their minds. This could be a heck of a fight.

BLOOD, GUTS, AND TENTACLES

There is a fair amount of humor in Monsters Are My Business #1. Admittedly, some of it is dark, but there is a delightful goofiness as well which the art captures for us. Griz is a big, muscular guy. Hillary’s car is quite tiny. To see him looming out the sunroof borders on the ridiculous, but this is terrific in juxtaposition to the monsters. There is plenty of gore to be had, with buckets of blood and gobs of gore, not to mention half-digested corpses, But even tentacled monsters with weird eyes can look nonplussed when Griz stands up to them. Admittedly, it probably feels weird to have a koala chainsawing his way out of one’s stomach at the time.

Opening with a big monster fight sets up the contrast between Griz’s job and his office work. He is still a large man dressed like a biker and smoking constantly. The world is damp and dystopian. Yet his office is tidy and looks like it is set up in a house. His prospective clients wait their turns patiently. They’re calm even when the horrible vocalizations from Hillary’s necromancy drift over from her work area. Then Jenkin arrives, as stereotypically clean-cut as a G-man from the 1950’s. Little incongruities can go a long way to emphasize humor.

BOTTOM LINE: OFF TO A RIP-ROARING START

Monsters Are My Business #1 starts out big and rolls right on through the end, gathering up speed as it goes. Already things do not look good, and it looks like they will get worse, but it also looks like it will be a good time finding out what happens next.

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