In a near-future America, Wyatt—an innocent 13-year old accused of shoplifting—is pursued by murderous robot police dogs. But an accident transforms one of his terrifying pursuers into a tame, docile, and affectionate robodog who tries to bond with and protect Wyatt! A touching tale of a terrifying future, Death Dog #1 takes “man’s best friend” and turns them into a robotic nightmare.

When it comes to publishers I can trust to skewer society, AHOY Comics is up there. Its releases have regularly poked at the world, making fun, and twisting it for our enjoyment. Death Dog #1 continues that with a list of targets for its twisted humor.

Written by Bryce Ingman, Death Dog #1 takes us to a feature where dogs are no longer around but their personalities have been transferred into robot versions. And with all technology, it’s then abused by corporations, twisted to meet whatever profit driven goal they have. So, what was a nice robotic companion are now death machines attacking criminals and biting off the hands of perceived shoplifters no matter their guilt or innocence.

Death Dog #1 delivers laughs in a “holy shit I can’t believe they went there” sort of way making readers wonder where it’ll go next. It also teases a society that has become happy in bloodlust and cheering on punishments usually reserved for religious fanaticism. And that’s likely a point of it all.

That bloodlust is brought visually by Alan Robinson who is joined by Paul Little on color and lettering by Rob Steen. The art does a great job of nailing the visual jokes delivering the punchlines at unexpected moments and with art that finds the humor in the rather gory situations. Arms are ripped off and hands threatened to as robots go all in on doing their job. The world is an interesting one looking like our current one, but slightly off. There’s something about it all that screams futuristic but I couldn’t pinpoint why.

As with all AHOY releases, there’s extras from James Finn Garner and Joe Orsak and Ingman and AR Sullivan. These all add to the experience and are nice additions to a comic that’s already worth checking out. It adds to the 22 page story giving a little extra for the price.

Death Dog #1 is twist and fun with a reality that’s probably coming to ours at some point. There’s a chuckle about it all that goes away when that point hits. Where it all goes should be interesting, but if it can deliver this commentary through the rest of the series, it’s one to definitely check out.

Story: Bryce Ingman, James Finn Garner Art: Alan Robinson, Joe Orsak, AR Sullivan
Color: Paul Little Letterer: Rob Steen
Story: 8.0 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.9 Recommendation: Read

AHOY Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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