I promised my bud Beau Smith that I’d review his comic “Cobb: Off The Leash” when it came out, and I apologize that I haven’t had time to do so til now. And yes, I said buddy. In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you all that I like Beau Smith, he and I correspond by e-mail from time to time, and by the time we finally meet at some convention I’ll probably have enough “buy you a beer” offers from him to pass them around the entire bar. I even named a prison after him in “Metro Med” #0. So I may as well admit, I’m fully compromised here. Beau’s been warned that I’m going to be honest with what I like and dislike about the book, because my first commitment is to the Monitor Duty readership. I just wish I hated the book because a bad review is the only kind you all will believe is genuine.

Unfortunately for “my credibility”, and fortunately for Beau, “Cobb: Off The Leash #1” is intense, joyfully violent, quite humorous and full of promise that the two remaining issues will just be even more packed with excitement now that the setup is done. Cobb has been getting great reviews and there are only a few hundred copies of the first issue left.

Short review: Go buy it right now.
Long review: Read on!

Cobb is an ex-Secret Service agent in need of a new purpose. When we first meet him, he’s brutally dealt with a gaggle of men who were beating a dog.

Dogs figure prominently in the series for a reason. As Beau has explained, Cobb is actually based on his dog.

I’ve got an Australian Shepherd named Blue. As a working herding dog, he doesn’t have any cattle or sheep that he has to herd and watch over. Aussies are real smart dogs and they like to have a job. It’s born in em’. When you don’t have a job for them they tend to invent one for themselves. In this case, Blue invented guarding me, the pack leader, 24/7. He is with me from the time my foot hits the floor in the morning until I crawl back into bed that night. He is with me from room to room. Always making sure that he is in maximum protection position to ward off an sneak attack from any direction.

He won’t let anyone into my office without my say so. He won’t even let my wife in the bed unless I tell him it’s ok. He loves her, but he is devoted to me first. So I put that instinct to protect into Cobb. It’s hardwired in his DNA. He can’t help it. It’s been that way all his life.

A hero who protects people because it’s in his DNA, instead of in response to some violent trauma? What a concept! I like him already.

As for the plot, it involves the mistress of a brutal Russian mafia boss who is fleeing for her life now that the don wants her eliminated. It’s pretty standard stuff, in some ways. You know how every private eye story has a tough detective waiting in his second floor office with his name written on a glass door while a saxaphone plays in the background and a slow ceiling fan lazily stirs the cigarette smoke while he waits for a sexy dame to enter seductively begging for help? It’s Sam Spade and about 100,000 copies of Sam Spade. Some people stir it up by making him black, or reversing roles and making it a woman, or maybe he’s got allergies. But nobody ever gets TOO far off the genre by having it be three middle-aged housewives operating out of Debbie’s old greenhouse until they can get office space. They stick to the standard cliches and the fun is in the dialogue and the details.

In some ways, Beau Smith’s writing is like that. He has the standard bad guy who kills his own henchmen, and the interesting part is in what he says and how he does the execution. The mobster’s moll on the run is also a story that’s been done before, but when she is nummily drawn by Eduardo Barreto one can’t really complain. And, just as Jackie Chan movie plots are all contrived silly excuses to get Jackie beating up on fifteen guys in some unique factory setting, this is merely the setup issue preparing us for way more action to come.

“Cobb: Off The Leash” is a book you need to check out now while it’s on the stands, because IDW won’t necessarily be doing a trade paperback collection. I hear that it’s selling well, but even that isn’t a guarantee. Grab #1 while you still can, and ask your dealer to put #2 and 3 on hold.

Cobb is not a dog of a book.