Review by Ian Keogh
Three volumes in, Jim Zub finally revealed the backstory for one of his main characters. We learned of Rex and how he acquired his unusually effective gun, which, all things considered, came at a terrible price. Read all about it in Six Shooter on the Seven Seas. That also featured a tragic cliffhanger ending, dutifully dealt with in the opening chapter, but in dark comedic fashion.
Despite Zub enjoying himself with that, there’s surely no experienced reader who thought the red-haired dwarf was dead. He’s not, and there’s a clever reason why, dating back to the opening volume, and while Rolf Copperhead is dealing with the unexpected consequences, Rex and Kusia have their hands full with an advanced ape community on a lonely island.
That also has connections with earlier escapades, indicating that either ways of drawing together threads from his enjoyable comedy fantasy have occurred to Zub or he’s had them planned from the beginning. In terms of the reading experience it doesn’t matter which. In the previous book Zub extended his story over five chapters without enough ideas to fill them, but Eighty Eyes on an Evil Island just keeps throwing out new entertainment, and Zub’s comedy pacing is improving.
Of course, Edwin Huang’s expertise also feeds into that, and a great page illustrates assorted evils all survived, but as that would be a spoiler we’re not showing it. Elsewhere, Huang gets to draw some great great apes, and yet another bar brawl, except this time Zub has quite the meta reason for it.
Eighty Eyes is combined with the previous collection as the second hardcover Skullkickers Treasure Trove or more recently as the second Compact Attack Edition. A Dozen Cousins and a Crumpled Crown is up next.
Before then, though, we have the regular ‘Tavern Tales’ feature in which assorted creators take the characters over for a short story. This time the feature is turned over to better known creators and the quality increases accordingly, raised from a couple of decent shorts to no filler at all. Everyone comes through with an inventive story and great art.
