Rocko's Modern Life... And Afterlife Review - Modern Problems Require Modern Comics
Format Reviewed: Physical Trade Paperback
Collects:: Rocko's Modern Life #1-#8, Rocko's Modern Afterlife #1-#4.
ISBN: 978-1-60886-471-3
Release: August 20th, 2024
Pages: 320
Genre: Cartoons, Comedy
Rating: Teen
Publisher: KaBOOM!
Writer: Ryan Ferrier
Artists: Ian McGinty, Anthony Burch, Mattia Di Meo
Modern life has never been easy for Rocko, Filburt, and Heffer. But it gets even harder when Rocko’s dog Spunky becomes an overnight internet sensation. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Rocko will do whatever it takes to win back his best bud’s affection, even if it means breaking the law or facing childhood bullies at his high school reunion.
In Rocko’s Modern Afterlife, in O-town’s dystopian future, everyone’s cell phone is glued to their hands and the latest app lets you avoid all contact with everyone else without even looking up from your gadget! When Rocko takes two weeks to chill and unplug from technology, the rest of the town seems to go mad!
Don’t miss out on the collected adventures of Rocko, Spunky, Heffer, and Filburt as writer Ryan Ferrier (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), artist Ian McGinty (Adventure Time, Welcome to Showside), Anthony Burch (Borderlands 2) and artist Mattia Di Meo (Regular Show) bring the Rocko’s Modern Life family back to life! Collects Rocko’s Modern Life #1-8 and Rocko’s Modern Afterlife #1-4.
I picked up "Rocko's Modern Life... and Afterlife" while browsing the shelves of my local comic shop on the week it released over a year ago.
I don't remember exactly what I was in the shop for but seeing the cover with the exaggerated face Heffer was making and Rocko's brain literally popping out of his skull immediately took me back to being a kid and watching Rocko's Modern Life while getting ready for school super early in the morning.
I skimmed through the book and was immediately impressed by the art and quality of the pages. Flipping it over, I was surprised to see the price of $18.99. As someone who often reads and collects Marvel books, I expected a collected edition of this size to be no less than $25 and wouldn't have been surprised if it was more.
So I bought it. Promptly brought it home, sat it on my bookshelf... and forgot about it for almost a year.
After recently wrapping up the Children of the Atom book (you can read my review here) I was browsing my shelf and got excited when I spotted the spine of this book that I'd totally forgotten about and I was eager to dive in.
What followed was an extremely entertaining read that perfectly translated the humor of the show onto the page with both character interactions and background gags like the "Have you seen this boy?" joke in the panel below.
The ridiculous story grabbed my attention immediately and as I flipped through the pages I realized that the themes of the issues were connecting with me on a much different level as an adult than they would've when I was a kid.
The whole title "Rocko's Modern Life" suddenly made sense and I realized the reason I loved Rocko as a kid had absolutely nothing to do with why I would love Rocko as an adult.
All of the humor was based on real-world interactions and issues people face every day - losing our jobs, consoling a friend, living with a roommate, and so on.
Rocko serves as a relatable vessel for us to experience our daily problems in cartoonishly exaggerated ways that help take the edge off and let us laugh at the little things that pile up over time.
It made me curious if the show followed a similar vein and I remembered I have the entire series on DVD, so I popped it in and have watched a handful of episodes over the last week and yes, it absolutely does. There's also a lot of adult humor mixed in, making the show way funnier to me now than it was back in the 90s.
After the first eight issues in the book, we're introduced to Rocko's Modern Afterlife which is a short series that takes the concept of everyone being stuck on their devices and being 'brain rot zombies' to the extreme by making them literal zombies.
I've recently started taking a step back from the always online mentality and I've been engaging with my phone a lot less, so this story presented itself at a really interesting time and I found that I enjoyed it a lot. Particularly the 'lesson' at the end of the book.
This full page panel in particular tickled me.
This book served as a really nice break from the day-to-day routine that I tend to have as a working adult. It takes the little stresses of life and turns them into jokes in a way that helps relieve some of the pressure you don't even realize is building over time.
I was initially disappointed that I'd bought the book and somehow managed to forget about it for over a year but after reading through it, I feel like fate kept it on the shelf until I needed it most.
The next time I feel like gritting my teeth over something small I'll try to imagine blowing it up to cartoonish proportions and picture how Rocko would deal with it, just long enough to smile and remember things are going to be just fine.
Rocko's Modern Life... and Afterlife is a budget-friendly book that provides a great value by combining two complete series and several short stories into one.
There's even some behind the scenes bits at the very end showing the process of creating the comic through original design documents.
If you'd like to see modern day problems through a comedic lens, or you just need to take a step back and unwind for a while, this is a book I would highly recommend.