Review by Frank Plowright

Alan Grant’s funny dialogue accompanying Keith Giffen’s madcap plots took Lobo a very long way in the 1990s, but from 1993 Giffen left the regular series to Grant, only dipping back into Lobo’s world every now and then, so this collection covers a thirteen year span. None of it has previously seen print in book form.

‘Infanticide’ predates the regular Lobo series, and despite Lobo’s claim of always using a condom in Volume 1, he sure has spawned a lot of children, several hundred in fact, and they’re not very happy with him. He’s not very happy at having to do compulsory military training. Giffen’s excessively noodled art is the defining characteristic, as if he’s been looking at Philippe Druillet and decided to experiment with a cartoon version. Technically it’s impressive, and may be the ultimate excess, but it sure obscures any story. Not that there’s a great deal beyond what’s explained above. Lobo is expected to die in a combat zone, but of course revels in the slaughter. The best sequence is a flashback drawn Archie-style by Dan DeCarlo.

Lobo’s bounty hunting activities are facilitated by Ramona, and just as her partner clears out her bank account she’s hit with a massive tax demand and only seven days to pay. Her one chance is that Lobo owes her a favour… It’s three-quarters great. Giffen’s plot and Grant’s dialogue keep the jokes coming, and Alex Horley’s art delivers Bisley levels of excess. A look behind the scenes at the tax office supplies an even greater lack of humanity than you’d expect, and you’ll be glad to see Lobo let loose on them in the final chapter. That’s a little more padded than necessary to allow for the righteous vengeance.

The single chapter ‘Ars Longa, Vita Fraggis’ has Giffen in full Jack Kirby homage mode as a djinn able to possess anyone other than Lobo escapes. It looks good, but it’s not Giffen’s finest hour as it leaps from place to place and eventually only seems designed as a method of removing a striking visual accessory. Why?

Two encounters with the Authority follow, the first featuring Simon Bisley’s return to Lobo after fifteen years. It’s not great, but that’s not down to Bisley, it’s down to the repetitive jokes and very little plot. The infant Jenny Sparks discovers an old Lobo comic in which he kills Santa (see Volume 1), and demands the Authority make him pay. They figure doing that will let them get back to their assorted sexual activities quicker than not doing it. That’s about the level of the humour, and it’s not very funny.

The second Authority and Lobo encounter being titled ‘Spring Break Massacre’ doesn’t hold great promise, but it’s better, with Bisley inked by Henry Flint resulting in some astonishingly wild pages. It’s Giffen and Grant’s version of a Warner Brothers cartoon ramped up for maximum violence as Lobo goes after the Easter Bunny for money due.

Despite the return of an on-form Bisley, this is may be a wilder collection than the first, but overall it’s plain nowhere as good.