Review: REGULAR SHOW: A CLASH OF CONSOLES

Mordecai, a blue jay, and Rigby, a raccoon, are the poster boys for millennials lacking direction and money in a world still reeling from the Great Recession. “Regular Show” misadventures are aired on Cartoon Network back-to-back with similarly loopy “Adventure Time.” If you are looking for a snapshot of where we are today, a third of young people (18-31) are reported to be living with their parents according to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center. And a lot of millennials are watching “Adventure Time” and “Regular Show.” They are also reading comic books, published by BOOM! Studios, based on these shows. One current title that sums it all up quite well is a new original graphic novel, REGULAR SHOW: A CLASH OF CONSOLES.

This is a story about two regular guys going against the system. The quality of Mordecai and Rigby’s leisure time is at stake when the big three video game companies release all new consoles on the very same day making all previous games obsolete. In the heat of the chaos that ensues, our heroes find themselves on opposing sides of an all-out gaming war. This book is written by Robert Luckett and Rachel Connor with artwork by Zé Burnay. The story and art are a lot of loopy fun appropriate for all ages. The dialogue is snappy, the pace is upbeat, and, if you sense there is more going on, there is! This is a not too thinly veiled tale of corporate greed. Corporations are fighting an all-out war for dominance and they are more than happy to have their customers be the foot soldiers. Puckett and Connor’s script raises this fact to a hilarious level of the absurd. So, in this case, we the readers win.

REGULAR SHOW: A CLASH OF CONSOLES is a 144-page trade paperback available as of May 31, 2016, published by KaBOOM!, an imprint of Boom! Studios. You can find this title at Amazon here.