Iron West, Tommysaurus Rex, and Creature Tech

	Iron West by Doug TenNapel Image Comics ISBN: 1582406308
	Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel Image Comics ISBN: 1582403953
	Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel Top Shelf Productions ISBN: 1891830341

I like westerns. I like robots. Why not have both? That's what I thought when I found Doug TenNapel's Iron West graphic novel at the library. Ok…I admit that I think similar thoughts on a pretty regular basis. This was different as it was prompted by the finding of book rather than…well…boredom.

Anyway, if the name Doug TenNapel sounds familiar, it’s probably not surprising as he’s worked on a lot of different projects. I was most familiar with his Earthworm Jim creation.

Iron West featured the humor and, let’s face it, off-the-wall-ness you’d expect from TenNapel. There were portions that seemed a little gimmicky but, overall, I really liked the book. It had humor, action, character development, and character growth. In this case, the main character grows from a man that runs from challenges to one the accepts and responsibility for those around him. I liked the silliness of the story. I enjoyed the free-flowing artwork. And I liked that the story was wholly contained in one book. You start from scratch with no preconceived ideas as to who the characters are or should be. Well done.

I enjoyed Iron West enough that I proceed to read the other TenNapal works in the library’s collection. Next up was Tommysaurus Rex. I actually enjoyed this more than Iron West. Like Iron West, the story is solid and well told. Again, there’s silliness but I’d consider that a good time. Through the telling of a story that involved a boy finding and befriending a dinosaur, the boy learns valuable lessons about kindness and sacrifice.

Third in my TenNapel reading trilogy was Creature Tech. Maybe my favorite of the three. The silliness is still there. The solid story and characters are still there. The silliness (thankfully) is still prominent. Space eels? Demon cats? A symbiotic organism? Good stuff. Here, the main character finds a faith he’d previous put aside for science. Yes, there’s a message of faith here. I wouldn’t call the message thinly-veiled though I didn’t find it preachy, either.

All in all, I’m disappointed the library doesn’t have more TenNapel works. From what I’ve read, it’s lively and fun without being superficial. While I didn’t know it when I first picked up his work, TenNapel’s is a professing Christian and it shows through. As in several of my previous book reviews, I was pleased to see these books fall into the category of things I wouldn’t mind my kids reading. The language was clean. There may have been a cheek shown in Creature Tech but it’s brief (you know, assuming you don’t read the same panel over and over).