Bento Review: Thrud The Barbarian

Just because a character can be considered a “titan” doesn’t mean the character has to be in any way benevolent or even intelligent.

Thrud the Barbarian is neither of those things.

Thrud is the creation of writer/artist Carl Critchlow.  Originally just a single page comic character, Thrud is large of muscle but small of head, like a Rob Liefeld creation except Critchlow does this on purpose.  Thrud is easily angered, especially if something happens to his beer, isn’t very bright, and sometimes just doesn’t know his own strength.  Decapitated heads are a must around Thrud, though they don’t always come off thanks to his swinging battle-ax.

Critchlow managed to put together five individual issues through Titan Comics, and the adventures are more or less what it sounds like.  Thrud goes somewhere, or already is somewhere, and then  through a series of bad decisions on the part of somebody or just dumb luck, he inevitably starts killing things, breaking things, and generally making things worse.  There isn’t much in the way of continuity.  All you need to know is Thrud will probably cause problems no matter where he is, and probably be oblivious to what he’s done the entire time.  Just make sure nothing happens to his beer, and you’ll probably be OK.

The series was OK, but nothing overtly special.  Perhaps being a fan of the sort of sword-and-sorcery books Thrud is parodying would help.  In the meantime, I am giving this one seven out of ten talking jaguars.

NEXT BOOK:  Well, it seems Oni once put out a series about a prison for giant monsters.  I don’t know what to make of that yet.  Be back soon for Kaijumax.