Missing from the comics shelves for more than a few months has been Rob Schrab's Scud:The Disposable Assassin, a unique and humerous look at the future of humanity through the eyes of a robot. Well, it's not a total loss, because a new series of Scuds have been hitting the shelves with Scud: Tales From the Vending Machine. The concept of this is much like Batman:Legends of the Dark Knight, only every issue features a different Scud along with a different creative team.
Each issue kicks off with the usual Scud credits page, featuring a recommended music playlist for the issue, and recommended voice talent for the characters. The first page is always a scud schematic sheet letting you know what the Scud appearing in each issue can do.
The real appeal to Schrab's Scud character is the innate humanity he has, that's something that in each issue of Vending Machine, the writers have picked up on. You can't sympathize with a character who has no emotions.
In Mach 1, a new Scud is created for the huge Scud generating conglomerate. Its designer is, however, fired and is given no credit for his work. So he dispenses his own scud to kill the corporate head. Meanwhile the corporate head dispenses his own Scud to kill the designer. What results is twenty-some pages of mayhem and chaos with a whimsical edge. Both great art and story.
Mach 2 is a futuristic western about a Scud in love with a woman, but never really gets the chance to show it, since he's the Scud at the back of the vending machine. Poetic in story, confusing in art.
Mach 3, the story of a Scud bought in hell to kill the big guy. It just ain't gonna happen my friend. Probably the most amusing of the three issues, the art is reminiscent of Matt Wagner.
All around, this series is a better concept than the regular one, as I sometimes find stand alone issues much better than long drawn out stories in comics that rarely appear on the shelves.