To listen to the rest of our picks this week, check out episode 66 here on your favorite podcasting platform: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1793148/episodes/16224671
For listeners of the podcast and personal friends of mine, it’s a long established fact that I’m a Stan for Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. When they work together something magical happens. That’s not to say I’m a huge fan of all their work, but more often than not I am. I’m a little late arriving on the Babs bandwagon. I didn’t know much about this comic until my co-host Mike asked me why I’m not reading it.
For those who don’t know, Babs is a jab at the Red Sonja/Conan barbarian archetype. She’s ruthless, deadly and hilarious. The series pokes fun at all of the fantasy tropes we’ve come to know and love (or hate). I love fantasy as much as everyone else, but let’s be honest: it’s a little ridiculous at times. Ennis holds up a mirror to all of the silliness in fantasy and turns it on it’s head. The result is a laugh out loud adventure. I really needed a laugh and some escapism, Babs delivered.
In issue 4 we realize not everything is as it may have appeared with the Elves and their motivations; although maybe we should have seen their plans coming considering this series. It’s Ennis playing with the classic D&D classes and tropes, twisting them around and they all somehow make sense when you really think about it.
Don’t get me wrong: Babs doesn’t rely on laughs, the characters are well developed in that classic Ennis way, and of course Burrows kills it with his artwork and layouts. When these two are on the same page (pun intended) something special happens. What Ennis did with The Boys and superhero’s is what he’s doing with Babs and the fantasy genre. It’s a can’t miss for anyone looking for fantastic characters, bloodshed and a whole lot of laughs.
Find Babs on the Ahoy Comics website: http://comicsahoy.com/contact
