Southern Dog 1

When awkward high school teen Jasper Dixon conceals an injury sustained during a hunting excursion with his family, his infected wolf bite combined with the hormonal changes of puberty triggers a disturbing physical transformation. Now he's forced to confront his Deep South upbringing and monsters far worse than what he's become!

It can be hard enough just being a teenager sometimes, especially these days.  Then you add in having an overbearing father, who also happens to be a stereotypical Southern dad.  Take all that and throw in a metamorphosis far beyond the normal adolescent body changes, and things are going to get really tough.  These are the punches that Southern Dog hit us with, and they're not holding back.

This new title from the Danger Zone has quite a lot going for it within just the first issue.  It’s made pretty evident that young Jasper has dealt with his fair share of problems growing up in his southern town.  Living in his brother’s shadow, trying to meet his father’s expectations, and racial struggles in school are all in the picture.  The last thing he would have imagined though was being a victim of prejudice because he was packing fangs and a full coat of fur.

The art team has done a nice job visually building the story in this deep southern town.  The one thing I was a bit unsure of was a mixture of coloring styles, namely when it came to animals.  Although I appreciated the effort to make them more realistic, it threw me off seeing the difference.  Beyond that though, everything looked great.

This book takes very real, very strong issues and presents them in a compelling and creative way.  It’s not an easy task to take a topic like discrimination and approach it with a supernatural angle, yet Action Lab pulls it off.  I really enjoy coming across stories like this which balances the normal and supernatural so well.  If you’re looking for a title like that, then Southern Dog is one you should treat yourself to.

For more information on Southern Dog or other Danger Zone titles, check out Action Lab/Danger Zone.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.