Bad Idea tries something new with a comic available for just 24 hours for just $1. Featuring two stories, it’s definitely worth the price of admission. But…
Is Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe worth a special trip to the comic shop?
Find out!
Story: Robert Venditti, Matt Kindt
Art: David Lapham, Tomas Giorello
Color: Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Bad Idea is a publisher that’s willing to throw out new ideas and see how it sticks. There’s a long list of both good and bad about their latest, a comic available for only 24 hours. It must be paid for today. Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe is just $1 delivering an entertaining enough detective story. Featuring a B-Side (that’s Bad Idea’s version of a backup story), it’s definitely worth the money. Now the question is, is it worth having to go to the store?
Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe introduces us to a detective who must determine who broke into the safe at a pizza joint. The short comic seems to have fun with its genre pulling out various tropes and throwing them at the reader like an interrogation. Writer Robert Venditti seems to take the concept as a good and roles with it. The concept itself is taken seriously which delivers a level of spoof about it.
David Lapham delivers the art with Simon Bowland on lettering. The combo of the two makes the comic feel more like a B-Side since its style in art and pacing is so close to the series of “Hero Trade” stories that have filled the releases so far. Like Venditti, the art too feels like it’s having fun with the concept and story again playing on tropes for the genre and also playing them very straight.
The comic also features the teaser story for Save Now, a riff on the time travel genre. Written by Matt Kindt, the comic features art by Tomas Giorello, color by Diego Rodriguez, and lettering by Dave Sharpe. The concept is straight out of the manga All You Need is Kill (which inspired the film Edge of Tomorrow). A team of heroes features a leader who can go back in time and then let things play out. The only things are he can’t go forward and he does age. But, it allows him to fix mistakes in battle and find the best strategies. I don’t want to ruin the twist and surprise but the teaser comic has me excited to read more with its concept and features some fantastic art.
Is Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe worth it? Sure, the comic is definitely worth the $1 cover price. Now, is it worth making a special trip for? That’s more up in the air. If the comic was available for a week, sure, but for one day only, this is a special trip to the comic shop it’s ok to skip. Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe is for the diehard Bad Idea fans.
Story: Robert Venditti, Matt Kindt Art: David Lapham. Tomas Giorello
Color: Diego Rodriguez Letterer: Simon Bowland, Dave Sharpe
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Buy (if you’re already going to the shop)
Purchase: Zeus Comics
What better way to release an epic tome of pizza-based, neo-noir crime fiction than by putting too many toppings on said pizza!! Bad Idea has revealed that Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe has been upsized. The comic will include a B-Side, Save Now by writer Matt Kindt and art by Tomas Giorello.
But that’s not all… Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe comes with a side of “credits page”, a pin-up to quench your thirst by David Lapham and for dessert, a brand-new entry in the Bad Idea Handbook written by none other than Bad Idea’s, Warren Simons.
Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe will be available for only 24 hours on May 12th. It’s written by Robert Venditti with art by David Lapham. Any unsold copies of the comic will have to be returned to Bad Idea. The comic will be reprinted in one of Bad Idea’s December 2021 releases.
It was April Fools’ day yesterday so Bad Idea made an announcement that seemed like a joke but wasn’t. A new comic, Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe will be released this May 12 for 24 hours only. The 16-page comic from Robert Venditti and David Lapham will be available for $1.
Every Bad Idea Destination Store will be set an amount of copies matching their full original allotment of ENIAC #1 (or Tankers #1 for the Wave 2 stores). The comic will have to be sold in 24 hours on Wednesday, May 12th.
They can sell in-store, off-the-shelf sales, and mail-order (which needs to be mailed the same day), phone order, and pre-orders. It just needs to be done in 24 hours.
Any unsold copies can not be sold once May 13th arrives and all unsold copies have to be returned to Bad Idea using materials they provide.
