[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 11)

SCUD: THE DISPOSABLE ASSASSIN (1994-1998, 2008)

I guess the whole of this entry could really be the 90's indie comic revolution, but out of the many titles that emerged from this era I've decided to focus on Scud: The Disposable Assassin. One of those weird little comics that came out that really appealed to me. It was a simple black and white comic about a world where you could hire an assassin robot from a vending machine, have it go off and do what you needed to do, and when the target was eliminated the robot would self-destruct.

Scud realises that if he takes out the strange creature that is his target, Jeff, then he'll explode. So he decides that if he just wounds him - a lot - and leaves him on life support, he can keep existing. The only trouble is, those hospital bills for keeping Jeff in a coma are mounting up and Scud takes on extra assassination jobs to pay for the fees.

The writer/artist, Rob Schrab, worked with Dan Harmon (who wrote the Scud spin off about the robot mafia, La Costa Nostroid) and Schrab would go off to Hollywood and end up working on series like Community (with series creator Harmon) and the huge Rick and Morty (again, with Harmon and their friend Justin Roiland). [Sidenote, Scud is the inspiration for Mr Meeseeks from R&M)

Scud was one of those things were the cool art, the simplicity of the style, and the ease of production was an encouragement to try to produce something like this myself. Especially as there was a video game, and talk of a movie produced by Oliver Stone. Heck, if Scud can become huge, I gotta try!

Another great comic that really inspired me along the same lines was Mister Blank, by Christopher J Hicks. A story of an everyman who discovers a terrorist plot to destroy his workplace. Super simple art, really stylised, and really cool. Well worth looking at the complete collection. The Exhaustive Edition collects all 14-15 issues of it in one volume.

It was a slippery slope to reading loads of black and white indies as inspiration. Lead me to British titles like Strangehaven, Sleaze Castle, Strange Weather Lately, Kane, and more. All created by awesome and incredibly friendly indie folk who were really helpful when I started working towards doing one of my own.

Typically, by the time I got onto the scene (just as 2000 was hitting) the indie scene was in a minor decline. I'd missed the boat. But that's another story...