Comic Review: Survival Street TPB (Dark Horse Comics)

Dark Horse Comics brings you the darkest side of Sesame Street who are going into a war against some soldiers who are haters in Survival Street the graphic novel. Well, I don’t know what am I expecting. What’s the big idea of publishing a comic about some puppets from Sesame Street going into a war, because there are some people who are trying to get rid of a children’s tv show just for fun? Now, of course, if you remember Seaseme Street or Muppets like Kermit in your childhood, this would blow your mind because this comic is a never-ending action of the rebel puppets fighting against humans. This is quite something, but this comic is more of an Image Comic material than anything, how come this is published on Dark Horse?

This comic is written by James Asmus and Jim Festante and illustrated by Abylay Kussainov. James is not just a comic book writer but he’s also a comedian known in such theaters as “The Annoyance and “Hey You Millionaires.” And Jim is an actor and a comic writer who wrote an Image Comic miniseries such as “The End Times of Bram and Ben.”

The front cover of the comic shows something like you’re seeing Scarface from Batman having something good and evil on each side. The cover art is more like giving you a lesson about what life is like. Here on the left side, shows a happy place on a regular day while the main character is holding an educational book, and he seems to be living in a happy place with his friends around. But on the right side, shows total chaos around the world, which is more of a genocide. And somehow he’s like that main character from Doom because the half side of the background almost resembles the actual game box. And the main character is in a bad shape and looks so very tired while he’s holding a machine gun. And the title of the comic actually scribbled Survival Street because the street sign of the whole puppet show was Salutation Street, and it seems that some people outside of the show actually wrote in graffiti.

This reminds me, right when I wander around New York in the past years, I’ve seen some murals of one of the characters of Sesame Street, which is giving the citizens some actual education, and goes the good side and the bad side of the show. Although there are times when there is some cringy street art in the neighborhood, I had to walk away from it, which is the darkest side of the show. And that scene of the episode of The Last Ninja of the Angry Video Game Nerd where at the end of the episode, the Nerd beats up Ernie and electrocuted in the bathtub. Of course, I have a few things against the darkest side of the show, because Sesame Street is a children’s educational show. Sorry, I’m getting off track let’s move on, and I’m not cursing on this one.

So the story starts which is more like the usual opening of Avatar the Last Airbender, because the characters show such an ordinary happy life, living in peace. That is one of the people called NICE which is “New Immigration and Customs Enforcement” has forced everyone to shut the show down, and somehow a few years later, the whole country has transformed into the worst place ever like the alternate timeline in 1985 from Back to the Future 2 movie. The world has been thrown into chaos and somehow they’re enslaving actual civilians and children. So the first thing that these puppets are going to invade is some condo, just to rescue some kids, and kill those who threaten the peaceful side of humanity.

The comic is a never-ending war, punishing those who believe that children’s educational shows were all nonsense. However, I’d imagine what this world truly is in real life. There are people who lack human behavior such as the characters of this comic who wants to resolve everything with violence. This comic is about revenge for those who made these puppets suffer, and left the children with a pack of wolves, meaning that the adults are becoming more irresponsible for the children.

For example, there’s this part where some guy who’s the CEO of the Weapons Retailers of America, who just literary gave the baby a gun just for some stupid speech about how children need to carry a weapon to defend themselves, and of course carrying weapons becomes legal in America.

It’s quite barbaric, and what’s even more barbaric is another scene showing where the kids working as firefighters. But they’re out of water, oxygen, and everything and they’re all going to die in a burning forest. However there’s a story behind it from one of the kids who are dressed as a firefighter, and somehow their story is somewhat related to The Promised Neverland manga series. Of course, that story actually involved how the children are surviving themselves for not getting eaten by some demons in the demon world, while this comic is about some puppets who are teaching those grown-ups a lesson not to be assholes, to begin with. And everything turned out, in the end, the puppets prevailed and the NICE gets what they truly deserved, shame to the society.

The story can be this violent and it’s not very appropriate for children to read, but it gives a good reason why this comic is about saving children’s lives. Of course, I do like reading violent comics preferably Image Comics. But for me creating something that involves violence would make me a bad person. The comic creators can decorate with all sorts of worlds that they can come up with, good and evil, but that’s what it is. As far as you know I’ve read a lot of comics about fantasy, modern life, and the future which suddenly involve war and murder. Yes, all those people were evil, but they were human beings at first.

After reading this story, it made so much chaos that these people which are called NICE are not actually nice at all, because many corporates are conquering America and leaving every puppet show rot in the streets which I don’t really approve of. But I somehow realize what this story is telling us. The authors created this whole graphic novel as a means to save lives from those who are suffering over absurd laws that these rich people make, and those puppets are determined to save the children from this nightmare. I can’t say what to expect from the art style of this comic, but it almost seems that it’s inspired by Marc Silvestri. However, the character design of the puppets is actually more cartoonish because what I only know that these puppets are also inspired by Jim Henson. There’s not much to talk about this art style, all I can is it’s more active and educational at the same time. If you rather read something that involves a war between the humans and the puppets, then this is for you.