Comics Review: Bee and Puppycat #5

The latest Bee and Puppycat disappoints…here’s why.

Bee and Puppycat. I’m starting to have a love/hate relationship with you. The last issue was disappointing. So much so that I almost didn’t want to read the new issue. I’m afraid that the comic is going to ruin how awesome the cartoon is. There are four different stories contained within issue #5. I hope they are going to bring the sexy back.

The first story up is “A Coffee Problem” and I already have a problem with it. Bee has apparently gotten herself addicted to some very expensive coffee. After a week, her entire apartment is filled with empty coffee cups. Puppycat finds Bee reading a parakeet encyclopedia in the dark. He nicely puts her to bed and cleans the apartment. The very next day, Bee comes back in with another cup of expensive coffee. Puppycat thwaks it out of her hand with a broom.

My problem with this story is how out of character everything is. Bee is poor. She does the temp work to put food on the table. There is no way she can afford to spend that much money on artisan coffee in one week. On top of that, there is no way that Puppycat would clean the apartment by himself. In issue 3, the duo cleaned the apartment but Puppycat wasn’t particularly good at it. But I am much more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he learned to clean. I can’t believe that Bee had the money to buy that much expensive coffee. With that said, I did like the artwork a lot.

The second story is “One Hit Wonder.” Bee and Puppycat have built a stage for a queen’s 600th birthday karaoke extravaganza. Unfortunately, the queen has not been happy with the singers. The blob-aliens convince Bee to sing. Just as she opens her mouth, a huge belch comes out. The queen thinks it is brilliant and a new song is born.

Not a great story but, once again, very pretty artwork.

“The Claw Game” comes next. Bee has lost Puppycat at a carnival. She finds a claw machine filled with Puppycat plushies. Once she has emptied the machine, Puppycat mews at her, revealing that he has been standing beside her the entire time.

This could have been a really funny story if the artwork wasn’t so atrocious. I also think that this would have been better as a slightly longer story. Four pages just wasn’t enough to fully form the jokes.

Finally, “Je Ne Sais Quoi.” Bee and Puppycat are on a bus. All of the aliens keep staring at Bee, making her self-conscious. When the pair gets back to Temp-bot, Bee insists on getting a new outfit. Puppycat takes her to the retired outfits. She goes through almost every outfit but none of them work for her. The very last outfit gives her a Sailor Moon-like transformation scene, complete with ending post. Bee loves it! Until she finds out that the transformation took two hours to complete. Back to the old outfit it is.

This was the best story out of the four. While the artwork was inconsistent, I love the idea of Bee doing a clothing montage. I also love Sailor Moon references in my comic books.

Overall, this was another disappointing issue. There were no continuations of previous storylines. Will we ever find out what happened to Wallace? I think the main problem is that the publisher is trying to feature a variety of writers instead of relying on one or two people. Unfortunately, it really is hurting the comic. If the publisher wants different writers, perhaps they should try a “continue the story” approach. Have a main storyline, tell the new author what happened in the previous issue and let them continue the story. It is a tried-and-true writing exercise for many authors. This format just isn’t working and definitely needs to change.