Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: February 1995
Cover Price: $2.95
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Mike Kazaleh
This special an all-new framing sequence of Mr. Yak channel-surfing on Christmas Eve – flicking back and forth between Ren & Stimy “reruns”, the Muddy Mudskipper show and It’s A Wonderful Christmas Carol, Santa. The first story is reprinted from the Ren & Stimpy Show #3: In the spirit of Christmas, Ren starts working a bunch of jobs in order to save up enough money to buy Stimpy the Log he’s always wanted for Christmas. But, when he’s finally able to buy the prized Log – it’s quickly eaten by Mr. Horse! Will our duo be able to put this aside and spend a peaceful evening enjoying the things that really matter? Of course not! The second story is reprinted from the Ren & Stimpy Show #15. In this tale, Ren discovers that he’s on Santa’s dreaded naughty list! And, he’s quickly driven insane with paranoia that Santa is watching him at all times. In the final story, also from the Ren & Stimpy Show #15, our boys dress up as North Pole elves in order to get a sneak peek at all of the new Christmas toys. Too bad for them that their charade doesn’t pan out – and they soon find themselves under attack from a gun-toting, commando-ized Rudolph! They manage to get away and happen upon Santa’s Record Room. Always one to capitalize on other’s mistakes, Ren steals the files that Santa keeps on everyone and uses them for blackmail. Powdered Toast Man caught eating a competitor’s cereal! Mr. Horse in a rubber walrus protector! And you won’t believe what Ren’s got on Santa himself!
If you enjoy the madcap, lunacy of the Ren & Stimpy cartoons then you’ll surely be please with this issue – and any issue done by Dan Slott and Mike Kazaleh. Kazaleh is a perfect pick for this book – the only thing missing is a zoomed in gross-out painting – but we’ll let that slide. And, as for the writing – Slott is amazing! He captures the voices perfectly and writes them so you can easily picture cartoon voices in your head! His Ren & Stimpy stories are so good – and so similar in tone to the cartoons that it’s surprising to me that he wasn’t a writer on the show. If you’re a fan of the show – you really should read this special (and the other issues written by Slott). If you’re not … then this’ll probably just read bunch of weird nonsense.
On Ebay: Ren & Stimpy | Dan Slott | Mike Kazaleh
On AtomicAvenue: Ren & Stimpy