The Fish Police: Hairballs

by Steve Moncuse

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Craig]

This is a slim graphic novel I found on the clearance table at a used book store. I grabbed it when I noticed that it had an introduction by Harlan Ellison. It first appeared as three black-and-white small-press (what we used to call "underground") issues in the mid 1980's, and was colored and re-lettered for this graphic-novel format publication. It's a fun book, a nicely-drawn sort of underwater noir crime story. There are lots of underwater jokes, like the detective has a cigar clenched in his mouth most of the time, and how does the beer stay in the mug? (Sherman's Lagoon premiered in the early 1990's.) Fish Police was probably created in the wake of the success of the TMNT's. Ellison talks about his friend George Alec Effinger and their mutual dislike of seafood in the occasionally off-topic introduction. I enjoyed it.

[Donna]

Inspector Gill, a fish who has memories of being a man, looks into the appearance of a new drug on the market named Hairballs.

This was a bizarre black and white comic that came out in the 80's. The art is pretty good. The storytelling is very simple, with a crime noir feel. The author made a lot of fish jokes - Gill is after Dr. Calamari in the first episode.

[Angela]

There's something about the style of the art that I really liked here, probably because it's got the 80's written all over it or something... but that being said I saw a lot of stuff that I wasn't keen on in the way the panels were laid out and the way that the fish kind of stood on their tails. So, I've got mixed feelings on the art.

As for the content, I think I would pick up the next volume just to see where it goes, but I'm not all about the book as a whole... Maybe I'd change my mind if I got further into the story.