Hollywood Trash #1 

Published by Mad Cave Studios

Written by Stephen Sonneveld

Art by Pablo Verdugo

Colors by Jose Esposito

James and Billy are Hollywood trash men. James has been on the route for awhile and Billy is a newbie garbage man with ideals of making the world a better place. The privy council is a secret and seemingly sinister group of Hollywood knock offs that have decided that the Garbage Man must die!

The story is centered on James and Billy as they experience their first day together on the Hollywood garbage route. James has been working it for years, but since his longtime partner retired, it been a revolving door of peers. James thinks his new partner is nice and hopes he sticks around.

Outside of our garbage men, we also meet the “Villains” of the story, which is a group of goofy knock off characters. This group includes a knock off Vincent Price, Parody of Oprah, Famous Chef person, the foreign techy and some sort of crazy three faced showman. Their intentions are clear, but the motivation is not.

We get to see a lot of interaction that teaches us the various quirks of all the main characters and set ups the world they live in. This issue is pure set up, although we do get a little piece of action near the end. The comic does a good job with the dialog so that we get to know each character in a short amount of time. I agree that it is important to get to know the new characters and the world around them, but the comic fails when it comes to understanding what is at stake in this world. So far no “Hero” has been introduced. I have a feeling that James is more than a simple garbage man, but I guess I will have to wait for issues #2 to find out.

The artwork is good. Very clear with good coloring. It uses line shading but does not over do it. The images are clear and have a good amount of detail, so that it is easy to understand what is in the panel. The panels are all sequences well and it all flows together very good. Reminds me a lot of the art you would see in a Dragon Ball Z manga.

I give Hollywood Trash #1 7 capes out of 10. This looks like it will be a lighthearted and amusing series. What hurts this book, is the pacing. I feel like I would have liked to see and understand just a little more, before having to wait for the next issue. I do acknowledge that this can be an issue for #1 comics since there is a lot that needs to be introduced.