The story stars Dr. Michael Ong, a former seminarian who abandoned his faith when he turned to science. Ong is the head of government facility charged with studying and cataloguing supernatural and alien artifacts and technology. What with one thing or another, Ong becomes bonded to a powerful alien symbiote and must use his new abilities to save the world from the ghost of a mad scientist who has a sinister plan involving the Shroud of Turin, a hand that can turn cats into demons, and a giant space eel.

It if sounds silly, that's because the concept really is. TenNapel shows incredible skill, though, in taking elements that could be used to create a weird, slapstick story and injecting it with genuine heart, emotion and action. You feel for Ong, his pastor father, the disfigured girl he used to persecute as a child and even the giant insect assigned to him as a security guard of sorts. Every character in this book has a dash of humor and a healthy dose of humanity that makes this a really great read.

The artwork is clean and effective, and the iconic style doesn't detract from the story at all. If anything, looking at the artwork makes you feel like you're actually reading the storyboards for a really great feature film that just hasn't been animated yet. Hopefully someone will pick up on this and make a movie very soon.

TenNapel also leaves room for a sequel, or even a series, and I for one would welcome it. There's plenty of backstory left to tell and I find myself intensely curious about elements that he alludes to -- even shows in full -- but never really explains. I'll be on the lookout for more work from him in the future.


Comic Greatness   May 7, 2003
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

The art in this book gorgeous. The writing is really bizarre, and mostly hilarious. I read this in one sitting while waiting to catch a flight, and it was one of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had. This was definitely the best comic for my dollar in 2002. The complaint I hear most often about it though, is that it has christian themes. Well, yeah, the shroud of turin is a christian artifact, so by virtue of it being in the story, you'll have some christian themes. On top of that, the main character has faith issues to overcome, but so what? You don't have to be a Christian to enjoy a story about a Christian. It's a well done story, and despite my lack of religious faith, I found it quite enjoyable, and laugh out loud funny.


Truly amazing work!   September 9, 2002
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I wanted to title this review "Why everyone with two brain cells to rub together should read this book!", but I guess that is a little lengthy. It is, however, what I think about CREATURE TECH.
CREATURE TECH is a story that is as fun to read as it is difficult to classify. It has elements of science fiction and horror and action and religion and romance (only a little, guys; don't be afraid!) and comedy.... and on and on. And yet, all of these _very_ different elements come together to tell a very engaging and powerful story.
Doug TenNapel writing and art work together to fashion a graphic novel that is unlike anything that I have ever read (which is, in itself, enough to recommend it). CREATURE TECH is a seriously thought-provoking, funny, and memorable work of literature.
Here's hoping that we see MUCH more from Mr. TenNapel in the future....


Fun but flawed graphic novel   August 8, 2004
 8 out of 14 found this review helpful

I'm really kind of floored by the uniformly positive reviews this work as gotten. While I enjoyed it, and have read it more than once, there are certain glaring problems with the story as a story that no one has addressed. I'll get to this in a moment.

I'm a big fan of Doug TenNapel, even though I didn't know it when I started this book. The Neverhood is one of my favorite games ever, Earthworm Jim was probably one of the best Genesis titles, and so on. I think his work as an artist and designer is unparalleled.

And Creature Tech lives up to this, for the most part. From the cover right down to the final drawing, this is a nice looking book. It is, for some reason, awfully reminescent of Bill Watterson to me, but that's neither here nor there. It's a great story to look at, with real movement and wacky characters and surreal landscapes. I loved it for that.

The writing, however, well...

The main story is fine, it's a pretty neat, weirdo narrative fraught with odd creatures, demon cats and space eels. There were a few moments when stuff seemed to missing (Like how and why Dr. and Pastor Ong went back to the church at one point) but for the most part it wasn't glaring. There were some awkward moments in the narrative, in my opinion, and the none-too-subtle spiritual subtext didn't really do much for me, but all in all it's okay.

The characters were painted with broad strokes, but that's okay too. This is a fun adventure story, and not meant to be taken that seriously (religious jabs notwithstanding), so if Mr. TenNapel wants to drop in a couple of rednecks with shotguns, officious bureaucrats, a crazy caretaker of the local oddities museum, that's fine with me. With the possible exception of Dr. Ong's love interest (which feels a bit rushed and makes not quite enough sense to me), everybody acts like they're supposed to. Oh, except that the villain really seems anachronistic. When he says, "Aw, Suck!" I stopped believing he was a 19th century British dandy. But that could just be me.

The real problem for me occurs on just about every couple of pages. For a guy with such amazing visual skill, he sure does spend an awful lot of time telling us every freakin' thing that happens in the book. I swear, by the middle of this thing, I was yelling at the pages: "Quit announcing in the middle of the action what the heck you're about to do! Or at least find a way to do it that seems natural! This isn't radio, I can see what you're doing right there on the page!"

Cases in point: "He's going for that vent!" "It crushed my heart!" "Startled! I can't control it!" "There's a giant mantis sitting on my toilet." "The ghost has disinterred a corpse!" and so on... I would continue but then we get into the realm of spoilers, and I don't care to do that. To be fair, at least one of those is a joke, I think, though like many of the jokes in this story, it kind of falls flat. Considering how clever some of the plotting and art is, I expected a bit more that Jesus-shaped danishes and lame puns ("meat his maker" comes to mind).

I don't mean to be pedantic. This is probably more a matter of taste than anything else, but I've come to expect a lot from this medium. Not everybody is Alan Moore or Garth Ennis (two very excellent writers in comics today), I grant you, but some people are, and TenNapel, while an excellent artist, definitely is not.

So in closing, pick this book up. It's got great monsters, some generally interesting weirdness, and even offers a perspective on religion (Wow! That's never been done before!). It has its problems, but I've read it three times now. So TenNapel must've done something right.


Eh.   August 2, 2005
 6 out of 14 found this review helpful

The cast has their moments, but they're pretty thinly sketched, especially the protag and his amore. The plot is simultaneously free-form yet oddly slap-dash, sort of like improvs that feel forced and unnatural. It often thuds when it should sing.

The Christian elements bugged me because they do not seem well integrated into the story. There are interesting messages that true faith requires no miracles, yet "superpowered" miracles abound in the closing sequences. In the end, I felt that the story tries to make a point involving faith and X-tianity and fails to say anything very interesting or even coherent. Obviously, other reviewers disagree, and they are in the majority, so perhaps this was just not a work that was suited to my tastes.

Overall, I found this OGN to be a bit of a letdown after all the praise it has received. I'd suggest BLANKETS or GOODBYE, CHUNKY RICE from the same publisher (TOP SHELF) which puts out scads of amazing books.