Puffed – The Unauthorized Puffed Movie Adaptation (IDW Publishing; Trade Paperback; B&W)
Creators: John Layman (Writer) and Dave Crossland (Artist)

Synopsis (taken from the book’s back cover): Think your job sucks? Aaron Owens has it worse. He’s the poor chump you make fun of at the amusement park, the guy who’s stuffed into a sweltering funny-animal costume, and abused his entire shift by a legion of snot-nosed brats. Not only that, but he can’t get out of the costume on his own, which makes it exceedingly difficult when he neds to take a bathroom break-or when the psychotic park janitor beats Aaron up and dumps him in “The ‘Hood”.

Review: This trade paperback, which is a compilation of the original three issue mini-series and a one-shot that was originally published through Image Comics, is an out-and-out fun read. Layman does a fine job of turning a possible bad SNL skit about some poor schlub stuck in a funny character suit for a night into a decent comedic story. The story’s pacing is pretty solid, the dialogue is witty and there are some funny scenes as Aaron tries in vain to get out of suit before his bowels explode. If there is one thing that seemed amiss in the story was the prevalent use of traditional stereotypes throughout “The ‘Hood” like the thug life gangstas all blinged out, the local rummy at the end of the bar with the perfect sad story that moves the plot along, or the functioning alcoholic limo driver for the “mystery celebrity” who thinks that Aaron is his hallucination. All that was missing was the hooker with a heart of gold and her macked out, cane strutting, fur jacket wearing pimp. But over the course of the entire book, it doesn’t detract from the story; it just seems more like a crutch.

As for the art, Crossland is in top form with this book. His style looks like a mixture of Indie composition around animation-style thick lines peppered with an underground hip-hop sheen. The book’s layout is very easy on the eyes and the characters look more like funky caricatures than actual people. But what really shines are his detailed backgrounds from the manic/chaotic Storybook Amusement Park down to the graffiti art on a burned out building in “The ‘Hood”. His art not only helps sell the story but it actually raises the book to a new level of goodness. I really can’t praise it enough.

So, to all of you who missed out the first time around, IDW has graciously done you a big favor with this new “Director’s Cut” book. Don’t miss out on one of the funnier books out there right now.

Extras: A couple of extra scenes, a brand new, never published story called “Mo’ Puffed”, a great pin-up gallery featuring artists like Frank Quitely, John Cassaday, Sam Keith, Ashley Wood, Jim Mahfood, Scott Morse plus a host of others and a character sketch section with notes by both of the creators.

You can buy the book review by clicking on the Amazon link below or from the IDW Publishing Store.

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