[Review] "Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe #1" is a bloody journey through Full Moon's greatest hits!

Back in 1991, everyone’s favorite B-horror company, Full Moon entertainment, released a little film (literally) called Dollman. The film featured a hard-boiled, intergalactic detective name Brick Bardo, who arrives on earth and decides to fight crime. The catch? Brick is only 12 inches tall! Now, with the release of Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe #1, Full Moon Comix FIRST EVER RELEASE is taking Brick from the streets to your local comic shop in an all-out battle against the various villains of, you guessed it, the Full Moon universe…

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…Owned by prolific director Charles Band, Full Moon has long been a provider of pint sized terror with films such as Puppet Master and Demonic Toys, so it only makes sense that Full Moon Comix's first release, Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe #1, focuses Brick’s first fight against one of Full Moon’s more recognizable band of tiny, gleeful murderers, the Demonic Toys in a story entitled Out of the Box.
 
Written by Shawn Gabborin (Puppet Master comics), Out of the Box centers around a group of demon worshipping teenagers who are trying to raise an evil demon at Arcadia toys in exchange for dark powers. But they get more than they bargained for when the demon decides to unleash Baby Oopsie and the rest of the demonic toys on them. As if the concept of evil, wisecracking dolls that piss themselves and throat ripping teddy bears wasn’t enough, the action gets even more insane when Brick Bardo shows up to save the day.
 
In typical Full Moon fashion, Out of the Box has as much depth as the pages its drawn on, with all of the fun of dumb, B-horror. The characters have zero to no personality. The story is more of an over-the-top murder free for all than anything with actual substance. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Brick is determined to save a bunch of asshole Satanists, but damnit if I don’t have a good time watching him try.
 
Brick is the perfect champion to root for in Full Moon’s universe. He is a concoction of every wise cracking, tough guy, alcoholic cop there ever was, and it’s a joy to watch him blast his way through a horde of monstrous toys. Best of all, there is nothing not entertaining about a 12-inch cop kicking ass and ripping out guts while spouting such classic one liners as “Abracadabra, dickhead. Time to go back to Hell”. Size DOES matter in the Full Moon universe, it just so happens that in their case, smaller is better. Or it’s how they use it. Or whatever. The point is, Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe knows exactly what it is, and it revels in the cheese dripping off its blood-tinted pages.
 
Artist Daniel Pascual brings to life the B-movie essence of Full Moon and these two franchises with excessive gore and more than a couple gratuitous pantie shots. I’m talking girl running, and for no reason other than eye candy, the audience sees up her skirt. Ah, Full Moon, always so classy. But if you’re reading anything from Full Moon Comix, you should know what to expect, and if you’re opposed to cartoonish nudity and doll on doll violence, this is not the comic for you. Gabborin and Pascual make certain of that.
 
While Out of the Box is the main story in Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe #1, there is also a much briefer story accompanying it, written by Brockton McKinney (Gingerdead Man comics), entitled Familicide. This one is somehow even simpler as Brick Bardo goes all tiny assassin on the freakish family from Band’s Head of the Family (1996). For those that haven’t seen the film, when I say freaks, I mean FREAKS. The “head” of the family, Myron, is just that, a giant head that looks like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles injected steroids into his brain.  
 
Being nothing more than a sequence of bloody “hits”, there isn’t much of an actual plot to Familicide, but McKinney makes up for that with kills which outshine Out of the Box, both in creativity and design by artist Bridgit Connell (Brother Nash). From sonic dog whistles to inspiration from the classic rhyme Humpty Dumpty, Brick never bores the reader, always looking for a new way to dispatch his victims.
 
When you get down to it, Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe is really just an excuse to bridge the gap between Full Moon Entertainment’s classic films and comic books. Seeing as how each issue will see Dollman slicing and dicing his way through various Full Moon characters, the comic is essentially “Full Moon’s Greatest Hits”, so if you’re picking up Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe looking for a comic that’s going to scare and shock you, look elsewhere. But, if you’re a fan of Full Moon like myself, and you’re looking for mindless, escapist horror to help you forget that its August and you still haven’t done shit this year, then this is the comic for you.
 
If anything, Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe will make you want to revisit Full Moon’s library. Come to think of it, it’s been a LONG time since I watched Head of the Family…
 
Pick it up while you can, because you won’t want to miss issue two, which is going to bring us Dollman vs the puppets from Puppet Master! 

Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe #1 ​is available now at your local comic shop. 

By Matt Konopka

What do you think of this Full Moon crossover event? Leave your comments below!