A super villain walks into a bar.

Issues 1, 2 and 3

Created by Rich Carrington and Brian S. Dawson

You can buy them HERE.

What is Mahoney's?

It's a bar intended for super-villainy. They all hang out here. There's quite a few regulars. Mahoney's is definitely in the spoofy category of superhero stories like The Tick or The Venture Brothers (which got its start as spoofing Johnny Quest).

Writer Rich Carrington said he was originally intending it to be a much darker type story -like The Brothers on HBO maybe- but when he saw Brian Dawson's artwork which had a much more cartoony quirky look to it he had to tone down his story to match the visuals. That's very interesting, I've never heard of a writer tailoring his/her material to match the visuals.

Hero = Villains here.

Mahoney's is a bit of a head-scratcher for me since the behaviors and the personalities of the villains seem to be the same as the superheroes. That irony felt unintentional. This will be a comic that uses hero/villain as a mere tag rather than a descriptive aspect.

That was what disappointed me -if just for a few minutes. The villains, say in The Venture Brothers' cartoons have somewhat lame super powers or themes (having invisible limbs, acting like a monarch butterfly, impersonating Henry Kissinger). They're not very scary or threatening. In fact, the basis of their villainy will probably seem laughable to some. It's with their hate, anger, rage against those potentially mocking them that makes them do really stupid stuff.

Carrington and Dawson's Mahoney's doesn't explore that vein, rather tells its story in two groups: one is the villains, the other is the superheroes. Either side is interchangeable. But while losing the chance of building funny material on their villain's villainy this comic does craft a few story lines well enough to be entertaining.

There's an issue that involves a super villain awards dinner. There's another with two villains getting a bank loan. They succeed, and go out on a bank robbery using their Ultimate Weapon blaster -only to find it's a cheaper model that needed a plug-in cord (which they forgot to bring).

There's other funny stuff, like the super-scientist visiting an alien planet, accidentally talking some of them to go and attack Earth. When he argues in favor of leaving Earth alone, with all its beauty, people, and art, there's a beat of the alien thinking about it... and then wanting to destroy Earth even more! I laughed out loud at that!

So in conclusion Mahoney's starts out slow, but has some real awesome, funny writing and better visuals as it moves along. I highly recommend it!