Title: PVP: The Dork Ages Volume(s): 1 Auther(s): Scott Kurtz Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Image Comics MSRP: $11.95 Genre(s): Comedy Rated: Teen (13+)

Scott Kurtz's popular online web comic "PVP: Player Vs. Player" is, in every single possible way, brilliant. "PVP" is a perfect look at how geeks live their lives. From the video game geeks, to the computer geeks, to the comic book geeks (guilty), to the Star Wars geeks (not guilty), "PVP" gets the geek lifestyle down to a T, making it both funny and interesting, as people who look down on geeks end up getting a whole different perspective of the geek culture when they read "PVP." That perspective mainly being that geeks are just as intelligent and fun as people who are interested in sports and politics, they just happen to be more interested in games and toys. You can also trust Scott Kurtz to be knowledgeable about the geek world, seeing as how he is a little geeky himself (even going as far as to put a comment on the back of the book, that essentially calls "PVP" a piece of shit comic). "PVP" is also an excellent series because of the extremely likable cast of characters Scott has created. First there's Cole, the strict boss of "PVP Magazine." Then there's Jade, the girl gamer of the group and major MMRPG fan. We then have Brent, who is a grade A sarcastic jerk, slacker, and Mac lover.

There's Francis and Marcy, the teenager gamers of the group, with both of them being PC lovers (however Francis can't kiss Marcy until he beats her in a game, which is something he still hasn't accomplished yet). And finally there's Skull, a mystical troll with a pure heart who has no gender (but everyone seems to be in complete agreement that Skull's a he). As you can see, the personalities of these characters are constantly conflicting with each other, making way for hilarity and mayhem throughout the entire series. Like Garfield tortures Odie and Jon everyday, everyone who works for "PVP" play pranks on one person or another, the only difference is while Garfield would laugh at his accomplishment, the employees of "PVP" usually fight back (and I won't lie, the comic is at its best when the cast is at each others throats most of the time). As stated before, "PVP" is first and foremost an online comic strip, however the comic had gotten enough readers a day that Scott got a limited comic book run with Dork Storm Press, and then eventually with Image Comics. With "PVP: The Dork Ages," Image Comics have collected the entire six issue Dork Storm series into one book, with a new introduction by comic book author Aaron Williams. Unfortunately for us, this is a rather disappointing collection of "PVP" stories by Scott, and some quality issue's bring this books value down quite a bit sometimes.

The first story is actually very good "PVP" fare, making the "PVP" style of story telling accessible in comic book form. You see, one thing that should be pointed out is that "PVP" is nothing more then a four panel gag comic that happens to have a continuing story on a daily basis. Online the story is always interesting, but if the punch lines didn't deliver on the forth panel of all the comics, then there would be a good chance we'd lose interest in the comic real fast. Since this is the way the online comics play out, a 20 page story could have really suffered if Scott didn't figure out how to insert the gags without interrupting the story. Luckily Scott fixed this problem by setting up the punch line for the last panel of each page in the comic book, making it so that we still get the "PVP" style of humor, just in a different format, and this first issue is both funny and interesting. However after the first issue the book practically goes to hell. The second story revolves around the "PVP" staff playing a superhero RPG card game. The narrative switches between the "PVP" staff and a fictionalized world of the characters they are playing with. The problem with this is not only is the narrative too jumpy for a comic book (this effect works much better on TV), but the superhero fantasy gets in the way of the character interaction, which just happens to be much more fun to read about then the fantasy superhero's. I actually believe that if Scott would have just stayed on the staff themselves without switching to the fantasy, then the story might have been better. But as it is the second story is just too jumbled and confusing for my tastes.

However even though I'm not fond of the second issue, the third issue in the book just baffles me to no end. The third story is nothing more then a bunch of anime inspired characters doing random things (none of which are funny), and then the story ends with the reader scratching his and her head. These anime characters have nothing to do with "PVP," nothing to do with the staff, the story isn't funny (at all), the art style is WAY too different to have anything to do with "PVP"...in fact if it weren't for the fact that Brent and Francis make a four panel cameo appearance at the end of the issue (to give us a truly awful joke) you'd be hard pressed to figure out what this issue had to do with "PVP" at all! In fact, even if you are a hardcore "PVP" fan I would suggest just skipping the third issue, as it truly is a train wreck. The forth issue in this book is the "PVP Christmas Special," and if anyone wants to test out the "PVP" market on television with a TV special or something, then I would like them to seriously consider using this particular story as the guinea pig, as this issue has everything classic about "PVP" as well as telling a darn good Christmas story. Seeing as how there were a lack of original Christmas specials on TV this year (2004), making a "PVP Christmas Special" a reality wouldn't be a bad idea. Until then we at least have the comic to read. The fifth issue is a Matrix parody, and not a very good one at that. Don't ask me why I didn't enjoy it as much as some people did, but the idea of cartoons "revolting" and realizing that they are just pictures drawn by their creators...well, it just didn't work.

It also didn't help that Scott gave him, his wife, and his a dog a two page guest appearance at the end of the story which, all in all, added absolutely nothing to the story. In fact, I particularly had a problem with Scott including photo's of himself because it seemed like he was stroking his ego more then anything with this stunt. And for stroking his ego in these two pages, it would have been nice had this little stunt contributed to the story. But it doesn't, so the inclusion of these pictures just irritated the heck out of me. However his wife IS very pretty, so I guess I can forgive him this one time on her behalf (but just this once okay)! The final issue in this book is easily the best, as Scott scraps the experimental crap and just tells a story...a REAL story! It's Valentine's Day (stupidest day in the world in my opinion, but maybe that will change when I get a girlfriend), and Brent and Jade are still broken up and not going out (check out the "PVP" archives online for more info). Skull doesn't like this, so he try's to get the two back together again. To make a long story short, Skull manages to get Cupid's love arrows, and hilarity follows. The last issue actually represents what the entire book should have been: Fun. The main beef I have with "PVP: The Dork Ages" is that Kurtz wasn't writing "PVP" half of the time, he was trying his hand at other things and loosely relating them to "PVP." The Matrix parody doesn't work because the characters personalities don't even come close to matching the characters they are supposed to be spoofing (Cole as the wise Morpheus? Give me a break), the superhero game becomes more confusing then funny, and that third issue...well, I don't even know what THAT was, but I sure as heck know it wasn't "PVP!" There's also something to be said about the lack of color in this book.

Now I know what you're going to tell me, and yes, I am fully aware that "PVP" is in black and white 97% of the time. However most of these comics WERE in color when they were first printed, and it is extremely obvious by the various shades of grey that these comics were intended to be read in color! Every Christmas Scott puts the Christmas special up on his site for everyone to read for free, and reading the Christmas special with color works SO much better then it does reading it in black and white (mainly because the color makes the special feel more, well...Christmasy)! After reading the Christmas special in color though, I could not read it in black and white and get the same feeling from it. It NEEDS to be in color! For that matter, with the exception of issue six, I know that ALL of these stories would benefit from the color that was stripped from them! In fact, why isn't ANYTHING in this book in color?! Color isn't THAT expensive! Just print the pages in color, charge $14.95 instead of $11.95 for the book, and the problem is solved. I can read the color versions of these comics online for free, and these particular comics look better in color that I find myself reading them online more then I do in this book (and in no way should the online comics be more complete then the book collections). And while Aaron Williams intro at the beginning of this book is interesting to read, I would have also liked to have read what Scott himself had to say about these comics, and why he made them the way he did (again, what was up with issue three? Did you just have a nervous breakdown or something Scott).

As an introduction to "PVP" I think this collection does a lousy job at introducing the reader to the comic, for the simple fact that most of the book isn't really "PVP." For people who HAVE been reading "PVP" online, well they might get a few chuckles out of this book, but they too may find themselves disappointed with the stories contained within the pages here. My final thoughts on "PVP: The Dork Ages" is that this is one seriously screwed up little book. It has a split personality, the lack of color makes the book feel incomplete, and it just isn't a very good introduction to the "PVP" world. One can only hope that the staff of "PVP's" next book is a much better outing, but I just can't recommend this book. I just didn't enjoy it enough and it feels incomplete.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -