Dungeon Quest: Book One (Dungeon Quest)
Frustrated by homework, Millennium Boy, whose head is shaped like an enormous lightbulb, dons swim trunks and wellies, loads a “hobo stick,” and takes off on an adventure. He rounds up thirtyish slacker Steve, bodybuilder Lash Penis, and Japanese archer Nerdgirl. Each gears up before joining in, and all get upgraded after each dangerous exploit. If it seems no fair that MB and Steve start upgrading earlier because they fight crowbar- and chain-wielding thugs and furry Molelocs before they get to Lash's and Nerdgirl's houses, well, Lash and Nerdgirl are better equipped to begin with. Finally, they're off through a graveyard where pirate skeletons attack, a healing pool in which Lash's near-severed arm is made whole, and a shamanic encounter with Redman, to the edge of Fireburg Forest. Daly's parody of the trek adventure—the template for ripping yarns from King Solomon's Mines to King Kong to Indy Jones to scads of video games—is a kind of slackers' SpongeBob Squarepants, earthier (of course) but as ingenuously absurd, slightly boring but magnetically amusing. --Ray Olson