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adelaidemetzger_robotprophet's review
4.0
Dragon or Pandas?
Why can’t I just have both? If Jason Dube and company know how to do anything, it’s create adorable little creatures that stick with me longer than the actual cast ensemble.
The concept of Caffeine Poisoned intrigued me much more than the plot and characters of Dube’s Panda Days. Jason (the main protagonist) suffers from a rare curse where he can’t sleep—ever. Because of this his dreams are turned into reality and the only way to get rid of them is to douse them in coffee. When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, well, he’s kidnapped with her during the attempted rescue and their past is slowly revealed.
I feel like I connected much more with the story and characters of Caffeine Poisoned simply because there was some pathos within the lines of the characters’ back stories. Because Panda Days relied more on its strange humor and nerd culture in the middle of a confusing plot I didn’t naturally feel attached or interested in the characters. Dube’s perverted humor is still present in Caffeine Poisoned but is much more focused on the story which I appreciated.
The art, done primarily by Breadon Kuts, is great for this kind of story. I love the design of Dragon and the other characters and would like to see more of her art in throughout Scattered Comics.
Another thing that’s pretty creative and awesome is volume 1 of Caffeine Poisoned comes with a soundtrack. Various artists of different genres came together after being inspired by the comic and a soundtrack was born. Dube also got voice actors to read little snippets of dialogue from the comic and put them in between chronological tracks on the album. This reminded me so much of Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf which also had script-read scenes throughout its own soundtrack. I would like to see more books and/or comics use this not only to promote their material, but also to help enhance readers’ experience because it really helps them see what the author sees.
Jason Dube is such a nice guy and I really enjoyed reading this volume. I’m hoping to get more of his material when the ‘con comes around.
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