A review by gmvader
Resident Mad Scientist by Howard Tayler

5.0

Somewhere between The Tub of Happiness and Resident Mad Scientist Howard Taylor learned how to tell a powerful science fiction story that gets resolved satisfactorily, makes sense, doesn’t have any Deus Ex Machina (except the ones he’s telling a joke about) and will make you laugh even while you are gasping in shock.

Having read the online comic I can say that he only gets better from here. His artwork has improved significantly form the first books but if you are looking for the kind of intricate details that modern comic books have then you’re out of luck. This is more of a daily newspaper comic style of artwork rather than the intricate detailed inking of a comic book. That’s about all I can say about the artwork as I’m hardly a critic of such things. The drawings are good enough to not be confusing and not be painful to look at.

What I am chiefly interested in is the writing and with this book I am starting to see the power of story telling that Howard Taylor is capable of. Most importantly it is stirred heavily with enough humor and satirism to make a nice fudge swirl of laughter in a carmel ice cream of solemn character moments.

If you haven’t read any of Howard Taylor’s Schlock Mercenary comic you really should. All of them are free on his website, but once you start you will long for more.