Bucko is a graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics that compiles the complete web comic of the same name written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Erika Moen. It follows the adventures of Rich, named “Bucko” by a drunken Gyp before what could be a one night stand, as he makes his way hungover to a job interview where he finds a dead body in the bathroom.  From there he, Gyp, her butch lesbian roommate, his clueless hipster roommate, and an assortment of crazy characters make their way through the city to solve the mystery.

Bucko is a pretty interesting book. It’s got a great sense of humor to it, sharing the sensibilities of Scott Pilgrim and Portlandia.  It takes on hipsters as well as Juggalos and Suicide Girls.  Yep imagine all of those in a scene together.  It’s that kind of book.

Instead of being full color or in black & white, the book uses a unique palate of various shades of blue. It’s an interesting choice and sets it apart visually from other similar comics. It is well drawn though and the execution is flawless.

As I stated before this is a hardcover collection of the complete web comic. So why should you pay for something you can read online for free? Well first there’s the super convenience of being able to have the completed thing in it’s entirety in front of you instead of clicking through a ton of strips. But what really makes this collection special is all the extra stuff.  There’s written chapters about the making of the book at the beginning and between parts.  These give you a ton of insight into what the creators were thinking when creating Bucko. It also gives you a running commentary on every page. With Erika Moen’s commentary in bright pink and Jeff Parker’s in white, you get a funny interplay between them and the comic itself.

Besides the great commentary there’s also more bonus stuff like “The Juggalette’s Tale”, a multi-page strip about that character’s back story all the way from birth, the making of a page, and character designs and photo references.  It’s quite the bounty of bonus stuff.

Overall I highly recommend picking this one up.  It’s really funny and I enjoyed it a lot.  If you like the kind of thing that includes hipsters, Suicide Girls, and Juggalos all in one place, then this is most certainly for you.  It’ll be available starting September 19th wherever you buy comics or through the links below. You can pre-order right now!