P.U.N.C.H. #1 is a comic written by Keith Champagne with art by Rich Stahnke. A group of heroic animals battle against notable cryptids led by Bigfoot. This is science fiction supernatural fantasy comic that has heavy violence, messy drama, and a large cast. The members of the Pubescent Undercover Neuro-Diverse Cryptid Hunters are: Crackers the luchadora ape, Apples the very muscular female emperor tamarin, Flapjack the ringtail with a robotic arm and a tic, Kibble/Sushi the creature with a shark’s head on a dog’s body that goes between two personalities, Marshmallow the cat with large claws, and Chestnut the squirrel with a visor that serves as the leader in the field. Their commander is an elephant with a metal trunk named Doctor Coconuts and they have a human doctor named Doctor Jakito. Some of the cryptids we’ll see are Krampus, the Jersey Devil, and a chupacabra. This story begins with notable cryptids meeting in the woods for apparently the first time in a long time. This meeting was called by the Jersey Devil who has word from Bigfoot, he says that cryptids are being killed by an unknown group. This meeting is interrupted by an attack from Marshmallow. This takes place in world full of anthropomorphic animals, fictional creatures, supernatural creatures, and mythical beings. The violence here is bloody, very gruesome, and extremely gory. The pacing here is a tad bit slower than average as the text in the bubbles can significantly change depending on the character with it sometimes being harder to read. The tone is like that of an action thriller and the intensity is high for dramatic, violent, and suspenseful reasons. The dialogue is generally conversational and very aggressive with a variety of talking styles. There aren’t any word-heavy pages but the lettering can make things read longer. This is an exciting debut issue that tells an intriguing story using a large cast full of personality that aren’t afraid to get extremely violent.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed, lightly cartoonish, lightly gritty, modern style. The color range is decently wide though you won’t see anything too bright or vibrant. For scenery there are thick tree-filled forests, a lake in the Florida Everglades, and snowy mountains in Asia. The locations change frequently with indoor scenes in labs, homes and caves being interspersed between the outdoor ones. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings which make the different scenes hit a little bit harder. The expression level here is high as these characters change their looks frequently. The emotions here are all over the place from anger, confusion, happiness, rage, annoyance, sadness, and shock. The faces are detailed but usually animal-like so on rare occasions it can be hard to decipher their expression. Most of the animals here are anthropomorphic and much larger than their real-life counterpart. Weapon use is rare as most of the violence is delivered physically. There are many gruesome attacks and battles here that lead to blood, maiming, and heavy gore. The action scenes come in lengthy bursts and can feature a high amount of panels with an overall unconfusing flow. Most of the female characters have large breasts but their outfits tend to fit the situation.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like science fiction supernatural fantasy stories with a large generally anthropomorphic animal cast and that features heavy violence, thick drama, and substantial gore then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Perhaps someday soon I could also eat your corpse.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/newpain/punch-1/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 47

Violent Pages: 20, for 43% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 2% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”