What do I know about furries? Not much.
While I can understand and respect that certain people have their hobbies and like to indulge in them with other like minded people, dressing up in elaborate fursuits and getting together with other people to do the same thing is not really my idea of a good time. Yes, I know they’re mostly harmless, but it’s the idea that this is a secret club and what goes on behind locked doors is best left to your imagination that lets people’s minds…wander.
You may be asking yourselves: “why is this person writing about furries in a comic book review?” which I would reply: “read on and find out”.
Written by Doug WagnerCover by: Daniel Hillyard and Rico Renzi
Illustrated by Daniel Hillyard
Colored by Rico Renzi
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
Serial-killing, cannibalistic furries! PLASTIC and VINYL creators DOUG WAGNER & DANIEL HILLYARD are back. This time, they’ve recruited colorist extraordinaire RICO RENZI for their disturbing “neon-horror” spin on fursuit psychopaths and bizarre love.In PLUSH, Devin Fulcher is coerced into attending his first furry convention. When he accidentally happens upon a group of furries devouring a human, the insanity begins. Do they just want Devin for dinner… or something much more wicked?
Devin Fulcher is not having a good night. He just found out that the love of his life not only cheated on him, she’s pregnant and the baby isn’t his. What’s worse is that everyone around him is encouraging him to tie the knot and raise the kid, because not only are his parents eager for a grandchild, his future father in law is eager to get a hold of Devin’s money and political clout so he can maintain his position as county sheriff. Oh, and to top it all off, his best friend has dragged him to a furry gathering in the name of having a good time, only for Devin to witness a group of furries literally cannibalizing one of their own.
Yeah, it’s that kind of story.
“Plush” #1 is written by Doug Wagner, and if you take a look at his bibliography you’ll see that weird and violent crime comics are something of a forte of his. Wagner has been writing comic books for a while now, and his talents are evident in this book. Wagner does a great job of introducing the characters and setting the stakes quickly and efficiently and the book is well paced with a great cliffhanger of an ending. Devin is a legitimately sympathetic character caught between demanding parents, a disloyal fiance, corrupt law enforcement, and cannibal furries that all want his body (both literally and figuratively) and it seems that the only way he’s ever going to survive this is by preying that these groups kill each other before they can get to him. The comic has great characters, great pacing, and a great blend of absurd humor and messed up violence that manages to be both funny and kind of revolting at the same time.
This might sound a bit paradoxical, but while “Plush” #1 is a solid comic, it might be a little bit better if it was a little bit worse. The script is extremely efficient and knows how to use the medium of comics to tell and enhance the story, but in its efforts to get everything set up, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for some of the more absurd elements. The book spends a lot of time with the cops and less time with the cannibal furry party, something that would probably do a better job of grabbing the reader’s attention. Granted, this is a drop of a critique in an ocean of excellence, but it is something that is worth bringing up.
The artwork for “Plush” #1 is provided by Daniel Hillyard, who has collaborated with Wagner on other comics. Hillyard has a very minimalist style with very clean lines, a combination of busy backgrounds when trying to show setting and no background when trying to focus on emotion, and characters that have very cartoonish features. Now, minimalism is not a negative critique in any sense of the word, it allows Hillyard to be incredibly expressive with the characters and gives the reader a clear sense of what’s going on. Also, while this particular art style may not feel appropriate for a crime drama/horror story, the comic does a great job of using the art to highlight just how absurd and weird the whole scenario is. If it wasn’t for all the blood and violence, the art would look like it would be more at home in a children’s book than a mature horror story, but here we are.
“Plush” #1 is a solid first issue of a bizarre and absurd horror story that is filled with corruption, blood, and fursuits. It’s a book that is crafted by a creative team that knows how to craft a great story in this particular medium, and it will be fascinating to see where they go from here.
Final Verdict: 8.8- If it wasn’t for the blood and violence you’d probably think this was a kid’s book, and that’s the point.
