Atta Boy
(A/W/C/L) Tony McMillen
Attaboy is an action-adventure comic disguised as an illustrated instructional booklet for a video game. The “byte”-sized hero is forced to avenge the destruction of his father and creator, Dr. Atta, by the sinister rebellious mechazoid Motherboard. However, the turn of each page unravels a much deeper story of pixelated thoughts, real world references, and heartbreaking truths.
Attaboy is an action-adventure comic disguised as an illustrated instructional booklet for a video game. The “byte”-sized hero is forced to avenge the destruction of his father and creator, Dr. Atta, by the sinister rebellious mechazoid Motherboard. However, the turn of each page unravels a much deeper story of pixelated thoughts, real world references, and heartbreaking truths. Attaboy is a unique comic experience that feels part trippy spiral and part cathartic release.
Written by and art by Tony McMillen, Attaboy is an intriguing graphic novel. It’s a rabbit hole of a read, starting off as a story about a video game that no one remembers and then ending as something completely else.
What begins as a mystery about an existence of a video game morphs into a mystery about life and family. The end result is a read that feels more like a cathartic journal where the creator is exploring their own home life. This is addressed a bit in an afterword but overall, it’s a read that will leave you wanting to discuss it with others.
The world McMillen creates feels mined from nostalgia, which makes sense considering the underling teases of what the story is truly about. With an inspiration from Mega Man, McMillen’s art is interesting, dynamic, kinetic, and angry at times, with doses of humor. It’s a unique style and look that I’d fully expect to be on display at Small Press Expo, a look that’d suck me in to want to find out more.
Attaboy is an interesting read with art that’ll leave you lingering on the pages. You’ll ponder the deeper meaning as the story progresses and reveals new levels and bosses to battle.
Story: Tony McMillen Art: Tony McMillen
Story: 7.5 Art: 8.0 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read
Mad Cave Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Kindle
Atta Boy
(A/W/C/L) Tony McMillen
Attaboy is an action-adventure comic disguised as an illustrated instructional booklet for a video game. The “byte”-sized hero is forced to avenge the destruction of his father and creator, Dr. Atta, by the sinister rebellious mechazoid Motherboard. However, the turn of each page unravels a much deeper story of pixelated thoughts, real world references, and heartbreaking truths.
Dave Baker is the writer and an illustrator behind Action Hospital. For the past two years he’s been working on the comic which he describes as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Men in Black.”
Action Hospital: Half-Light Bleeds is the story of Joan Michelle Basquiat as she attempts to defend the eponymous Action Hospital against cave-dudes from the distant past, time traveling gondolier-themed assassins, a human-shark clone of Abraham Lincoln, and a demon with 9 and 3/4th heads.
Baker is currently running a Kickstarter to pay for printing of the nearly 300 page project. The project met its initial funding goal in 4 hours. And now it has raised almost 4x the original goal.
The original collection was published for San Diego Comic-Con 2016 and features 18 interconnected short stories. The whole project took four and a half years to make.
On top of the work by Baker, artists contributing pin ups are: Andrew Maclean, Te’shawn Dwyer, Kevin Woody, Buster Moody, Erwin Papa, Jonathan La Mantia, Daniel Arruda Massa, Ernie Najera, Bob Q, Daniel Whitfield, Mike Macropoulos, Jackie Crofts, Christian J Meesey, Scott Drummond, Tony Brown, Matthew Goodall, Daniel White, Tony McMillen, Sam Grinberg, Maciej Palka, Joey Navarra Jr., Walter Ostlie, and Jim Mahfood.
The comic is written, penciled, inked, and lettered. The funds raised go towards printing the project.
We’ve been hooked up with a 30 page preview of the comic and you can contribute and get your copy today. The Kickstarter runs until February 14.
