Review by Ian Keogh

Skullkickers began enthusiastically from two unknown creators and overcame teething problems to develop into a smart, funny character-led series with very good art, and it reaches its peak with the two volumes combined in this Compact Attack Edition (or Treasure Trove Vol. 3 if you buy the hardcover).

The series concerns the unlikely alliance of Rex, a big guy with a big gun, and Rolf, a hot-tempered dwarf with a big axe, latterly joined by the elf Kusia. In the previous Compact Attack Edition Jim Zub revealed Rex’s backstory, and this volume opens with everyone evicted from a tavern to what’s revealed as Rolf’s homeland. There’s been a reason he left, and he’s not happy to be back, but the unfinished business leads to an extremely funny fantasy adventure accompanied by the history of dwarves. In slimmer paperback it was published as A Dozen Cousins and a Crumpled Crown.

By this final portion of Skullkickers Edwin Huang is delivering one astounding character-packed spread after another, composed for maximum effect without anyone getting lost. When the series becomes seriously weird toward the end, Huang ensures there’s a smooth progression and everything can be understood over even more impressive pages.

The final story, Infinite Icons of the Endless Epic, is pretty well four chapters of a bar brawl, but despite Zub joking in-story about disappointing expectations, he knows what he’s doing and it’s the series highlight, which is what you want from a finale. It’s where he really gets into the idea of exploring what stories are, and considering archetypes. In practice that means assorted alternatives of Rex and Rolf turning up, some of whom were previously introduced, all with different personalities. Huang really impresses with a couple of pages of Rex and Rolf touring alternate dimensions and becoming those alternatives. Kusia is also given some background making her character and motives relatable.

Whether Zub plotted Skullkickers from the start or later conceived ways of integrating people and aspects of the earliest stories is up for debate, but either way returning so many folk and referencing so many events for the finale is a hell of an achievement. It’s even more noteworthy for being incorporated so naturally as the madness plays out.

A series feature has been the short ‘Tavern Tales’, in which other creators briefly acquire the cast, and with this selection those involved have more recognisable names. Jeff Cruz is noteworthy for drawing three tales, each well, and each in a different style.

Funny, thought-provoking and so well drawn, this is the best of the three Skullkickers Compact Attack Editions.