Yakuza vs Lizards Review

Yakuza vs. Lizards

writer- Kenny Jeffery

artist- Joe Badon

In case you didn't know, the Yakuza aren't just bad guys. They're some of the worst bad guys ever. They are an organized criminal underground in Japan with a violent past and terrifying presence that rivals the prohibition era mob here in America. Thanks to creators, Kenny Jeffery and Joe Badon, the Yakuza get to join the ranks of such fearless but hilarious monster hunters as Abbott & Costello, the Ghost Busters, the Scooby Gang, the Three Stooges, and anyone whoever stood up against Godzilla. “What's so funny about the Yakuza fighting monsters,” you ask? In Yakuza vs Lizards, organized crime goes up against some of the most ferociously funny bipedal reptiles you could imagine.

The story starts with a couple of Yakuza underlings unloading a precious dinosaur egg for their boss' dinner. Unfortunately, that egg breaks and something large and mean scrambles into the bushes and out of sight. The two underlings stash the broken egg and replace it with a large boulder. Unfortunately, that only gets them killed. When the rest of the Yakuza henchmen decide to investigate, they find a whole nursery of eggs hatching and break into some super violent slapsticky action, fighting a small army of these big bad lizards. In the world of Yakuza vs Lizards, the Yakuza are about as funny as the Keystone Cops from the screen of yesteryear.

Yakuza vs Lizards is a whole bunch of fun. It isn't meaningful and it isn't important literature by any stretch, but it is 20 pages of, “I need something light” and “Oh, look. Isn't this silly?” That isn't to say that it's completely void of thought and personality, however. The book has several little moments where you get to appreciate the characters involved. For example: the Yakuza boss' daughter builds a metal nose for one of the henchman after a lizard bites his real one off in a battle. Now, that is endearing.

Big thanks go out to the writer and artist of Yakuza vs Lizards. You managed to take my mind off some stressful things and to allow me to chuckle a little while reading your book.