I was already going into Hero Hourly a big fan of creator James Patrick‘s work. I had previously read his series, The Monsters of Jimmy Crumb, and it honestly blew me away. It had a perfect blend of dark humor and horror, which I instantly gravitated towards. Even though HH doesn’t keep the horror elements, it’s definitely humorous. That’s one of the first things you’ll notice as you start the comic. Our protagonist, Saul, is getting punched in the face and it’s part of his job to do so. You see, he’s a “hero for hire”. Saul’s making minimum wage with crappy benefits and is punching in and out on a dead end job. At least he gets to wear a costume and fly around as part of it.

Hero-Hourly-Panel-1The first issue really sets up the series in a great way. You get the back story of Saul, a young guy who just finished college with expectations that his degree is going to take him anywhere he wants to go. Reality quickly sets in and he realizes that he’s going to need to take a “normal” 9-5 day job to pay the bills. The humor lies in the fact that his new career choice is getting imbued with superpowers on a daily basis and performing various feats of wonder in order to make the world a better place…for a nominal fee of course.

Amongst the fantastic comedy throughout the book, I really dug the story overall. Saul is fun character with relatable situations that he gets put into. He has bad roommates, isn’t great with women, and even though his new career choice involves stopping bank robberies and rescuing people, it’s still a JOB, and not one that he’s immediately passionate about; but it will pay the bills. I think we can all identify with at least a couple of those things.

Also standing out is the art and line work by Carlos Trigo (Crimson Society) and Alex Sollazzo (Morning Glories). The colors give it that classic superhero feel, while the line work itself is very modern and clean. There’s an energy to the panels that isn’t always present in some of the AAA publishers. You can tell that there’s real PASSION in what’s on the page and I really appreciated looking at the book as much as reading it.

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The first issue is out on November 18th, but if you want to learn more, make sure you head over to the 21 Pulp Facebook page for updates and where you can get your hands on it!