Eddie's Week Review

Eddie's got the week off from work and all he really plans to do is lay about his apartment and relax. Maybe watch some werewolf movies. He's rudely awakened by some pounding on his front door, and a bunch of government agents barge in, set up a jail cell in his living room, and throw Randall "The Backstabber" Orefeo into it as part of a city-wide plan to fix prison over-crowding by having citizens "volunteer" to keep some criminals locked up in their homes. Eddie didn't sign up for this, but gets railroaded by the lead agent so quickly that he doesn't really even realize what's happening until everyone leaves.

Now, you've seen stories where your average guy gets caught up in some bizarre circumstance kind of randomly, and then the story is about him dealing with it? Eddie's Week isn't that. Instead, Eddie keeps floundering from one bizarre set of circumstances to another, any one of which could lead to an interesting story. There are parts that are connected to a broader narrative, and some that aren't, but it's one of stories where, when we casually learn that werewolves and witches are for-real things, you just roll with. Here, let me just have Eddie himself sum up his week for you...

And there's another 20% of the book to go at that point!

Strangely, impressively, despite being kind of all over the map, creator Patrick Dean holds the story together rather well. Even some of the points that seem random and get dropped right away find ways of circling back. And while Eddie absolutely does not make any of the choices I would make if I found myself in his shoes, there's enough world-building that happens -- often without you even realizing it -- that put Eddie in a world where his decisions actually kind of make sense. I'm not sure how Dean works, but he either spent a huge amount of time mapping this all out or he's got a mind like a steel trap.

His illustration style is cartoony, as you can see above, and isn't far removed from various Mad artists that I've heard him claim have been his inspiration. You can catch glimpses of Will Elder, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragones, and many of the other usual gang of idiots in Dean's work, and he's managed to capture them all in a style still uniquely his own.

In the Afterword, Dean relays the long road of challenges it took to get Eddie's Week published. That's worth a read as well; the story is more tragic than you expect and that Eddie's Week got published at all is phenomenal. Dean would have every right to be proud of this work just seeing this see the light of day, but that it's a fun, entertaining read with some really clever twists make its success all the sweeter!

The book came out late last year, published by Birdcage Bottom Books. It retails for $14 US and is worth every penny!

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