C’est Gronk is the random comic review feature at Lost Toast of dubious timing. Much like the title, there is little rhyme or reason to when the reviews show up, how legitimate they are or what length they will be. Try the hummus, it is splendid.

Hazed GN
by Mark Sable, Robbi Rodriguez, Nick Filardi and Kristyn Ferretti

Sharp eyed fans of anything that I do will not know who the shit Mark Sable and Robbi Rodriguez are, because I don’t really think I’ve talked about them before. Let it be known that I am a big fan of both of their work. Sable worked on the great Image minis “Grounded” and (shit, I was just going to type “Hazed” here… stream of conscious review powers… activate!) “Fearless” - one about a normal kid dropped into a school for young heroes, and another about a hero who is fearless when powered, and fear…ful? When not. Great concepts, well executed.

Rodriguez has worked on such minis as “Hero Camp”, and has more recently been drawing the ongoing series “Maintenance” from Oni Press - which I always spell wrong. I want to type “MainTAINance” - but the damn angry red line tells me that I’m retarded, and so I change it. But am I wrong in thinking that “maintainance” is such a better way of spelling that word? I mean, seriously! Its the act of maintaining an appearance, dammit!

So anywhich, Hazed is their collaborative effort in the form of an original graphic novel. It’s a comedy about casual sex, eating disorders and hazing, and features a scene in which a girl, after not getting accepted into a sorority, hurls herself out a window. Below, a fireman cries, while someone attempts to comfort him. “You can’t save them all,” the sympathetic shoulder person explains. Another funny moment involves a can of gasoline, a match, and a body. And if that doesn’t scream “buy me”… you’re probably a very boring person, you silly boring person you.

Terry Moore’s Echo #1 - Interesting. A veer in genre from the guy who brought the world “Strangers in Paradise, moving from the action romance tale, to a more sci-fi action tale. The first issue doesn’t give much information about the major players, but it’s interesting enough to continue with, no doubt about it.

Dynamo 5 #11 - In this issue, there is fisticuffs! And a callback! The best part of any serialized story is when a former story can inform a current one in acceptable and surprising ways - and this book does just that, taking the death of Captain Dynamo, and bringing elements of it back for the end of the titles first publishing year. Grreat jorb.

Teen Titans: Year One #3 - Canada repreSENT! Karl Kerschl is just knowcking out the visuals on this book - somewhere down the line, they need to slap him on a HUGE book - he deserves to be one of those guys people are rabid about.

Nightwing #142 - And then we come to the only Batman book I read anymore. I know that Grant Morrison is gearing up for something crazy and Grant Morrison-y, and that Dini tells dome great single stories, but… they both pale in comparison to the stuff we get here. In each issue, there’s a solid balance of super-heroics and civilian life. And not only that, the relationships in both worlds are just superb. I’m very happy that Tomasi chose to leave the world of editing behind for this, because hot damn, the guy is golden.

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