Scud: The Whole Shebang

By Rob Schrab, Mondy Carter, Dan Harmon

Book Overview

In the world of Scud, bullets are cheaper than human life. Corner vending machines provide any weapon you might need. The most popular weapons are Scud disposable assassins: Robot hitmen that self-destruct when they kill their target. This volume follows Scud 1373, assigned to take out a hideous female man-eater named Jeff. While fighting the indestructible Jeff, Scud discovers his infamous warning panel in a bathroom mirror. Realizing that to kill Jeff is to kill himself, Scud blows off her arms and legs and hospitalizes her. Her life support bills will have to be paid, and Scud will have to find more work to stay alive.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582406855
• ISBN13: 9781582406855
• Release Date: March 2018
• Publisher: Image Comics
• Length: 786 Pages
• Weight: 3.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.7" x 9.9"
• Age Range: 13 to 16 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 11

Customer Reviews

an insane story for an insane world

rob schrab is an amazing storyteller. his comic, scud: the disposable assassin, tells the story of a vending machine robot killer hired to assassinate a weird creature inhabiting the bowels of a manequin factory. during his quest the scud discovers that as part of the heartbreaker series he will self-destruct upon termination of his target. with a hearty "screw this!" scud instead chooses only to incapacitate his heavily murderous prey and takes it to a hospital. now scud has to find a way to pay the life support bills so he can keep on lving, so why not go with your strengths? taking on a new job for the mob, scud heads off on a series of adventures that include mutant hank gritt cultists, werewolves and the demon-worshiping resurrected benjamin franklin; and that's just the beginning! in the end, scud will have to make a choice that effects the entire world. scud: the whole shebang does a very nice thing by collecting rob schrab's rare works into one collection which includes the last 4 issues that were released just this year (10 years between issues is a long time to wait). not even ebay has every issue of this series up for sale. the one thing i will say about this collection that was disappointing is that it scraps a very important page from each issue, that being the "suggested voice talents" page, which sets out a star studded cast of hollywood favorites to listen to in your head as you read each different character's speech bubbles. this cast includes john malchovich as scud, gweneth paltrow as sussudio (the love interest) even tommy lee jones, bruce campbell and a host of other noteworthy voices. but considering you'd be hard pressed to find the original issues, this collection is still worth having. the special edition even has a cloth bookmark tassle, like the bible! only better! for anyone who loves comic book action, comedy and drama, scud has it all.

Goes out with a shebang

NOTE I had no intention of writing a review for this, until I saw how diminutive the other is (there's only one at the time of this writing). ABOUT SCUD What can one say about Scud? Scud is one of the more eclectic, bizarre comics out there. Oddball pop-culture references wrapped in a macabre, twisted sense of humor abound. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, think of it as a mix of The Tick (Edlund's version), and Lobo. The story itself follows the adventures of a disposable robot whose duty it is to dispose of a target and then self-destruct. Through an accident of fate, Scud realizes the catch-22 of his charge, and compromises by permanently (he thinks) incapacitating his target, doing assassination side-work to cover the life-support bills. As the storyline progresses, the reader becomes aware that "Jeff", his initial target, is in fact an instrument of biblical prophesy, and his actions have resulted in his now being firmly enmeshed in a titanic struggle between heaven, hell, psychotic robots, and the lunatic fringe of civilian society. ABOUT THIS BOOK (EDITION) This is a truly strange, yet uncannily satisfying series, but, like the original Tick comics, are almost entirely out of print. Thus, this edition, the Whole Shebang, a graphic novel encompassing ALL of the issues released (plus a few bonuses more) is fully worth it. There won't be any more, and, with as peculiar of a demographic as this book targets, even it won't be around long, most likely. This book contains the whole run of the series, including the four-part resolution, published after Scud's ten-year hiatus (the author, Rob Schrab, had decided he wished to focus on other projects, leaving his readership hanging with a decade-long cliffhanger). It further contains Drywall: Unzipped (the tale of Scud's unlikely sidekick and pretty much a necessity to understanding the oddball plot) and Black Octopus: Sexy Genius (a functionally unrelated but still amusing mini-book). The book itself is HUGE (almost 800 pages), and mostly black-and-white. It makes for a great coffee table book as long as you don't have kids, or gift to a comic lover. At 20 bucks, it's worth it (I read ridiculously fast. Comics aren't worth it to me in most cases, as I can burn through a book in minutes. This one's mammoth enough to be able to actually site down and READ). All in all, buy this book. If you've never heard of Scud, it's amusing, and a great deal for the price. Give it a shot. If you're already a fan, definitely get it, it's everything in one place, and for a lot less than you paid for the individual books, even at newsstand price.

Scudlicious

I won't bother telling you how great Scud is, if you've never read it, BUY NOW!! High action, great references, original story and characters, and a story teller that gets you invested in the characters. The panels.. fluid and swift. This is a hard one to set down. The quality is great! I was thrilled when my copy came in. You can't not read it, and everyone should own it!

Rob Schrab is a Hidden Genius!!!!!

For many of you not in the know about Rob Schrab the brilliant mind behind this comic, let me fill you in. He created a failed tv pilot with Dan Harmon for fox starring Jack Black called "Heat Vision and Jack" Started an internet revolution that predated Youtube and funnyordie, called Channel 101 which spawned the internet sensations, House of Cosbys and Yacht Rock. He cowrote Monster House and on top of all those achievements. Cocreated and currently directs and executive produces the Sarah Silverman Program. Whew! Why isnt' this guy super famous yet? I have no idea. But he made this when he was an enthusiastic early twenty year old living in Milwaukee and it's brilliant. This comic proves just how wild a person's imagination can get. There's seriously something in this book for everyone. Robots, Guns, Ultra violence, blood, angels, demons, romance, action, thrills, Ben Franklin, monsters, werewolves, space travel, interdimensional escapades. Geez, you really see a guy totally influenced by so many genres and to put them all into one story centering around a yellow robot you hire to kill someone from a vending machine. I'm surprised Hollywood wasn't all over this from the get go. Maybe they were. But sadly, Hollywood never quite has their finger completely on the pulse of what's cool. This is an underground classic, finally finished, finally all in one go. Get this if you want a story unlike any other that will rock your world turn it upside down and then back upright again. It's one of those reads that's so much to soak in it demands repeat readings to truly soak in the scope of it.

Scud: The Indispensible Comic

The final four issues of Scud came out this year after a 10 year hiatus. That's a long time to wait for the end of a story. Fortunately it was a very satisfying ending, managing to wrap up a number of loose ends that barely seemed connected at first. Who knows what the story would have been had Schrab never decided to shelve Scud for so long, but I don't know if it could have been much better. Scud: The Disposable Assassin was just about the most bada** thing I'd ever read when I picked up my first issue back in the mid-90's. The story takes place in a future so wild and lawless that robot assassins, or Scuds, can be purchased from vending machines (called "venting machines") for pocket change. The main character is one of these assassins. During a violent battle with his target, Scud discovers a warning label on his back that says he'll self-destruct upon elimination of his target. Not wanting to die, Scud critically wounds the target, puts her in the hospital, and begins freelancing to pay the bills. The adventure that follows takes Scud around the planet, into outer space, through multiple dimensions, to the center of Earth, and to Heaven itself. Yeah, it's epic. It's also hilarious. Along the way Scud makes friends with a stuff-collector named Drywall, who has miles of storage space inside his body from which he can pull objects at will (though what exactly he pulls out isn't always predictable). He makes an arch nemesis in Voodoo Ben Franklin (apparently the original Ben Franklin, just more evil). And he falls in love with a mysterious robotophile named Sussudio. If you like stories about zombie dinosaurs, werewolf astronauts, android mafias, things getting all explodey, robot-on-human love, endless amounts of senseless bloodletting and dismemberment, and cowboys, then Scud might be something you should check out.