Maintenance

Who cleans up after Dr. Sivana?

The Maintenance guys, that's who.

I received a preview pack of the first two issues of Oni's Maintenance, by Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez. It's one of the perks of being a blogger: people send you stuff that you never would have bought otherwise, and you like it. I'm not much of a sitcom watcher - I think the last sitcom I watched was The Office on BBC America - and Maintenance is nothing if not sitcom. In an underground lab for scientists who are both evil and mad, Doug and Manny are the janitorial crew, cleaning up fetid piles of shit and freeing zombie kittens from the inside of vending machines.

It's funny, it's charming, and it has a wit that moves past pop-culture reference pretty quickly. I laughed out loud reading it, and immediately grew attached to the characters. Rodriguez lays out the pages well, and tackles all the weird creations the script throws his way.

The one big drawback here can probably be chalked up to the ol' comics bogeyman know as "economics". Maintenance is published in black and white with grey tones, but really sreams for a full-color treatment. The mad lab of scientists, aliens and sharkmen just doesn't have the visual punch it ought to. I understand that color's expensive ... but how many more copies does Maintenance sell if it's in full color, allowing it to become the mad Adult Swim title it is at heart?

The second issue hits stores tomorrow (February 7th), and is another solid lark: cavemen, Segways, and time travel.