Internet Spotlight: Battlepug

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If you think that looks odd, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, kids.

I’ve praised Mike Norton’s artwork on both Billy Batson & The Magic of Shazam! and the toon spin-off version of Young Justice. Well, I happened to find out that Norton is working on his own webcomic, Battlepug, where he serves as writer and artist (with color by Allen Passalaqua and lettering/editing by Chris Crank). I was curious to see how he would do as a writer, if it was a good as his artwork. It seemed interesting at first, then I saw this scene.

I was officially in.

I wouldn't mind hearing a story from her. That's not inuendo. She's a good storyteller.

Battlepug is framed as a story told by a naked woman…hey, wait until I finish talking about the comic! You don’t get to see the goods anyway, your pervs! Anyway, Moll tells her story to two talking dogs, Colfax and Mingo. The tale she weaves speaks of the adventures of an unnamed warrior, the only survivor of his village’s destruction seen above. Swearing revenge, he seeks the beast and the mage who set it upon his people. In his third adventure, the warrior meets the titular canine, and a crazy old man who opens his sentences with “scribbly” and closes them with “scrabbly”.

There’s not much else to discuss story-wise, because the weekly comic is only up to 29 strips. Oh, I could bring up the evil not-Santa who kept the warrior prisoner Conan style, or the talking giant toad who ate all of the crazy old man’s fellow villagers, but what would that serve? So yes, Norton is as fun a writer as he is an artist.

You're assuming she went looking.

Oh, and the art is certainly up to his high standards, full of life and emotion. Backed by Passalaqua’s brilliant color work, the character models, scenery, and action is a site to behold.

There’s not much more I can say at this point, mostly because you should be reading this comic right now. Whether or not it ends up knocking Runners from my top slot of favorite webcomics, it’s still going to be one of my favorite reads.