Samurai Jack #19

Samurai Jack #19
Released by: IDW Publishing
Released on: May 6th, 2015.
Written by: Jim Zubkavich
Illustrated by: Christine Larson
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This story, entitled Samurai Jack And The Mad Mutts Of Mistery, begins with Jack wandering through a dense crowd populated with all manner of creature, man and beast alike. A small furry like creature dressed in a dark cloak brings him a message and Jack, smiling, agrees to the letter's terms. He's led to a tavern where various dogs are hanging out and here he is introduced to the Canine Archeologists - Sir Drifus Alexander, Sir Angus McDuffy and Sir Colin Bartholomew Montgomery Rothchild III, Rothy for short. It seems they have a lead on an exciting new 'dog discovery' but they've been told the site where they need to dig is haunted. They want Jack to accompany and protect them.

He and the three dogs head into the desert, catching up on their respective quests and sharing some dog treats along the way, and eventually they arrive at the burial site of the first talking dog. Immediately after their arrival the diggers hired for the project quit - they've been hearing unearthly howls coming from below and don't want to go any further. Jack, never one to back away from danger, leads the archeologists into the tomb past various howl-o-glyphs and into the burial site. It is then that they come face to face with a ghost…

Underneath another classic cover by Andy Suriano are pages and pages of… bad dog puns. Zubkavich seems to be seeing how far he can take it here and he takes it to ridiculous extremes, but it makes for a fun read. The story builds to an interesting conclusion that is as humorous as you'd expect, but if you start to think about it as you read it and imagine it in either animated or live action form, you can see how it might actually be creepy in that regard. Either way, it's quirky, creative and fun to read story, the kind readers of this series have come to expect from Zub.

Art chores are handled this issue by Christine Larson who lends a cleaner, slightly more traditional style to the book than we've seen from some of the other artists. The tiki style is toned down a bit and the blacks aren't as heavy and splashy but it works and it works well. Her style fits the Samurai Jack universe nicely and she manages to give both Jack and his canine companions plenty of personality and peculiar style. The next issues wraps things up, seemingly for good, but for now this single issue standalone story should make existing fans of the series plenty happy.