My Name Is Bruce, 2008.

I bought the My Name is Bruce one-shot a couple of months ago, and I've gotta tell you, it was pretty awesome.

This book is actually an adaptation of a movie by the same name, which I was rather shocked to hear about. Normally, this kind of movie is right up my alley and I have advanced notice of it before it hits the theaters. It's your classic "actor thinks he's acting, but it's a real situation" scenario.

I've actually met Bruce Campbell and he is an awesome human being. It was at a book reading for his autobiography, and he's just a cool dude. His book is very good, I HIGHLY recommend it; his story is very interesting, because he doesn't claim to be a movie-star, in fact, he professes to be quite the opposite; he describes himself as a working-class actor.

Anyway, this book is a one-shot and, like I mentioned before, it's an adaptation of the movie, and the plot is your basic "movie-star thinks he's filming a movie when it's actually a real event". I know, it's a tired plot plotline, but it works and, I mean, it DOES star Bruce Campbell, so if you're not prepared for a decent amount of cheesy antics, you are really reading the wrong comic/watching the wrong movie.

Sidenote: this was published by Dark Horse, and it is pretty shocking to read real curse words in a comic book; check the page to the right. I guess I'm kind of used to seeing the super-lame "####" whenever characters "curse" in mainstream books. My personal thoughts on the matter are; if you can't cuss in a comic book without being censored, don't do it. It's just lazy writing. Really, any effect you're going for is diminished when you see something like, "HOLY ####" in a word balloon. Moon Knight is probably the biggest offender, and I know that's supposed to be an edgier book, but if Marvel is going to censor you every time you do it, think of something else. Hell, MAKE-UP a curse word, I don't care, it's just annoying to pound marks everywhere. But this book doesn't have any of those problems, because the curse words are used rather liberally.

Anyways, Bruce is abducted and brought to a town to fight Guan-di, the Chinese god of war and protector of the dead. The only problem is, Guan-di is real, and Bruce thinks that he is filming a movie. Of course Bruce (in the comic/movie) is a pretty sleazy character, and he runs screaming when he finds out that Guand-di is real. Ghosts, explosions, gunfire, fist fighting and bean curd (Guand-di's only weakness) are all involved in the telling of the story and of course at the end, Bruce turns into the hero we all know and love. There's also the obligatory "death scence" where Bruce is thought to be dead, only to stumbled out of a pile of rubble to deliver a couple of wise-cracking one-liners.

All-in-all, it was a pretty fun book and I enjoyed it an awful lot. The art was pretty good, and even though it followed a movie script, it was written very well and it packed a lot of stuff into 32 pages. There was also a very nice balance of action, back story and humor that made it a very fun read. I saw copies of it for months after it was released so you could check your local comic book store, or try eBay. It's really fun and I wouldn't mind Bruce getting his own series. I'd add it to my pull-list.

One last thing: according to wikipedia, there is a sequel planned intitled My Name is Still Bruce. I have one thing to say to that: sign me up for some more.