If you click this link to watch this .wmv file of a band called "Hurra Torpedo" covering "Total Eclipse of the Heart," I'm sorry.

Three from Booklist:

Wood, Brian and G, Rob. The Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker: The Couriers 03. 2005. 88p. illus. AiT/Planet Lar, paper, $12.95 (1-932051-31-7). 741.5.

The third installment of The Couriers gives us insight on the origins of the comic's stars, urban mercenaries Moustafa and Special (see Dirtbike Manifesto [BKL My 1 04] for more). In 1993, Special, 15 and already a street-smart hellraiser, and 12-year-old Moustafa, who, despite his profession as a small-time drug dealer, still has a bit of wide-eyed innocence left. The two meet after they fall into working for Chinatown crime lord Johnny Funwrecker. Johnny's operation gives them protection and status and allows the inexperienced Moustafa the chance to learn the ropes of the street-courier lifestyle. He and Special build a friendship through their training, and when the feds decide to bring Johnny down, the pair figure it's an opportunity to make the capital to go into business for themselves. This story has the over-the-top appeal of a John Woo movie and Rob G's black-and-white art, with its funky style and hip-hop grace, continues to be a highlight of the series. **Tina Coleman

Spears, Rick and G, Rob. Filler. Mar. 2005. 96p. illus. AiT/Planet Lar, paper, $12.95 (1-932051-32-5). 741.5.

Spears and G's hero is filler: a guy who fills a space in a police lineup. It ain't much, but, along with regularly popping for the blood bank, it's a living for a combat vet who's got his marbles but no hope. Then a hooker who's still a looker... except for the shiner her pimp gave her... accosts him for a light. One thing leads to another: to bed, to our man playing white knight, to getting framed for murdering the pimp and his goon. Hauled in to star rather than fill in, the vet escapes, goes to see a fellow filler, a down-and-out writer who concocts a scheme to get our man off the hook and out of the country. In the end, everyone's got his or hers, though they don't all like what they get. Terrific noir entertainment that stokes fond memories of Muñoz and Sampayo's great Alack Sinner stories of the 1980s, with G's stark, blunt black, white, and red compositions less intricate than Muñoz's, but still damned effective. **Ray Olson

*STARRED REVIEW* Boyd, Andrew and Yount, Ryan. Scurvy Dogs: Rags to Riches. 2005. 160p. illus. AiT/Planet Lar, paper, $12.95 (1-932051-27-9). 741.5.

The question propelling sf and fantasy... What if?... makes great fuel for ludicrous comedy, too. What if, Boyd and Yount asked themselves, there were pirates, just like the murderous degenerates who plied the eighteenth-century Caribbean, around nowadays, and they decided to go for media stardom? Sounds ridiculous, and it is! Blackbeard, back from his legendary death by decapitation, after which the rest of him, fed to the fish, swam three times around the ship before sinking (maybe someone threw his noggin in later, once its career as a pike ornament concluded), captains a crew consisting of McDougal, a hulking Irish (or Scots) man; Pappy, a daft, hook-handed old salt; Jefe, who insists he's not a Spaniard, seems to hails from el barrio, and owns the gang's ship; and Chinese Pete, a cleaver-wielding mute. Though he was in a Menudo knock-off band, Jefe may be the only sane one; of course, it's hard to tell about Pete. In the five chapters here, the pirates start off taking regular jobs, war with the king of the hoboes and his subjects, and wind up as TV pitchmen. Once the drawn foolishness is over, Boyd and Yount offer nearly panel-by-panel commentary à la the banter of the McKenzie brothers (Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis) on the classic TV sketch-comedy series SCTV. **Ray Olson