Ricky Rouse Has a Gun

by Jörg Tittel, John Aggs (Illustrator), Christopher Sprigman (Foreword by)

Overview

Rick Rouse is a US Army deserter who, after running away to China, gets a job at Fengxian Amusement Park—a family destination heavily “inspired” by Western culture, featuring Rambi (the deer with a red headband), Ratman (the caped crusader with a rat’s tail), Bumbo (small ears and a big behind), and dozens of other original characters. The park’s general manager is convinced that Rick was destined to greet Fengxian customers, dressed as none other than Ricky Rouse. This original graphic novel is a relentless action comedy, a satire of US–China relations, a parody of Western entertainment, and a curious look at China—a country that, once we look past its often outrageous copyright infringements, is a culture ripe with innovation and a unique, courageous spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906838829
Publisher:	SelfMadeHero
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jörg Tittel writes, produces, and directs plays, films, and video games. His passion and long-term mission is to create beautifully crafted stories and character-driven projects that transcend media. He lives in London. John Aggs is a comic-book artist whose work for adults and for children has been published by the Guardian, Random House, Hachette, and many others. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

09/08/2014
Tittel, who has worked before mostly in movies, plays, and video games, emerges into comics with this zany, ambitious graphic novel about a divorced American veteran named Rick who’s living in China, away from his estranged ex-wife and his daughter, Florence. Rick gets fired from his job at a factory after an altercation, and has to find new work. Despite his belligerent, unpredictable personality, he ends up getting hired at an amusement park called Fengxian to play Ricky Rouse, a “Chinese original” that is really a creepy twist on Mickey Mouse. On Christmas Day, Rick’s daughter comes to visit from America with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. The amusement park is taken over by a mysterious duck and Rambi—a combination of Bambi and Rambo—and Rick has to fight with everything he’s got to save his family and five hundred other innocent people. With art taken from the multipanel, fast-action superhero comic playbook, this aims to be a satire on copyright infringement and Chinese-American relations. At its best, it’s hyper, original, and fun, but occasionally the pitch gets too shrill, the violence too cartoonish, and events unfold much faster than they can be absorbed, or sometimes even understood. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

I loved Ricky Rouse Has a Gun, a comic filled with deaths and yet full of life.

Alejandro Jodorowsky

01/01/2015
The clash between Chinese culture and American culture fuels this satirical action-comedy, set in a Shanghai amusement park. Rick Rouse goes AWOL from his army gig in Afghanistan because his wife has bailed out of their marriage. The irascible but impoverished Rick is working reluctantly as a park host in a grotesque cartoon mouse suit when a crew of costumed Americans seize the grounds to protest Chinese economic power. Their leader, in a cartoon duck outfit, has higher connections than anyone realizes. But when Rick learns that his ex-wife and daughter are among the hostages, he channels John Wayne, teams up with a reluctant Chinese park guard, and saves the day. The exuberant, blocky-realistic color art from Aggs (The Silver Silhouette) renders the action, blood, and impossible stunts of this drama with zest and just enough clarity to get across both the story and the visual confusion of gun battles in roller coasters. VERDICT Those who like Die Hard-style shoot-out heroism in unusual settings will enjoy this tongue-in-cheek story. The plot from writer/producer/director Tittel offers twists and satisfying outcomes if not realism. Inexplicit sex and plenty of salty language make this for older teens and up.—M.C.

Library Journal