Review by Ian Keogh

There’s a fantastic opening to Off the Hook, as Mango is faced with the choice of saving his partner or a train full of people about to plummet off a mountain track. John Patrick Green’s playing with action movie clichés, although drawn in his deliberately unsophisticated style, and as shown on the sample art, he serves up genuine tension nonetheless.

A matter left hanging over from Take the Plunge’s battle with the combinotron is the missing plumber with a snake attached to his arm. Just as well Mango and Brash don’t know he’s joined forces with their greatest enemy Crackerdile, although Crackerdile isn’t currently at his best, being restricted to a bucket and all.

Green’s taken a remarkably short time to introduce a whole bunch of characters and situations readers will want to see again. The preposterous Science Factory is one, looking more like a mall with each shop instead a specialist lab. The Head Scientist is nuts, the chicken-like Dr Doodledoo can easily take offence at anyone’s eating habits, and it now has the toilet of the future. As regular readers know, jumping down the toilet gives the InvestiGators access to tunnels transporting them around town in a flash. Or a flush. Then there’s Houdino, the triceratops escape artist who’s trapped in jail, the octopus who designs secret agent gadgets and the regular two pages of mildly rude songs.

Somewhere in the middle of all that there’s a plot, which in this case is tracking down Plungerman. Or maybe it’s Hookline and Slinker. Or Snakearmedman. Don’t get too carried away with that, though, as the plot is very much a secondary concern to the funny conversations and silly situations, and Green delivers with those time and again. Bring on Ants in Our P.A.N.T.S.