The Mighty Skullboy ArmyThe Mighty Skullboy Army
By Jacob Chabot

The Mighty Skullboy Army is a very fun book. It was created by Jacob Chabot, who writes for "Mad Kids Magazine" and "Nickelodeon Magazine", which I was not aware existed. These influences on his writing are very obvious, as The Might Skullboy Army tells uncomplicated tales that are still very entertaining.

The book focuses on Skullboy, a skull headed boy that runs his own evil empire. Unfortunately for him he is young enough that he still has to attend elementary school. His irritation at having to use this important time to attend class instead of business meetings is obvious. Due to these time constraints, he depends heavily on his army to help him with menial tasks, such as his homework.
The Skullboy Army consists of Unit 1, a robot who has many powerful gadgets, but never seems to use any of them, and Unit 2, a monkey. Unit 2 is more than your average monkey, as he was bred to be super-intelligent. It does not seem to have worked.

The Skullboy Army does what it can to defend Skullboy against bullies and his teacher. This does not go very well for them. Their first assignment is to disable the school bell so that recess can go on forever, but instead they set the school on fire. This sets the tone for all of their following adventures.

Despite their bumbling, or perhaps because of it, The Skullboy Army is a very fun read. Unit 1 and Unit 2 have very definite personalities that are frequently on the lookout for themselves, even when they are supposed to be protecting Skullboy. They also have very bad habits, mostly gambling, which can be seen as they go to the horse races and play what appears to be Go Fish for money. Skullboy never seems to catch on to how completely hopeless they really are.

The stories in this short graphic novel are not complicated, but they are very clever. They make a person giggle to themselves and look forward to the next punch line. The art is very simple and reminiscent of "Patrick the Wolf Boy".

I would recommend that you check out this book. It is not going to change your life, but it might make it seem brighter for 10 or 15 minutes, depending on how fast you read. I hope that Chabot continues this story so that I can see what the future holds for the Skullboy Army.

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