I was buying comics on Ebay and the seller threw in one free. This is it and its cover made me laugh. A tough barbarian is squinting into the distance and wielding a big sword... while riding a big pug. That's Battlepug. I showed this to someone at work and their question was whether that was a shrunken tiny barbarian or a gigantic oversized pug. (Answer: the latter.)

This is a normal Sword & Sorcery comic, except with a pug. This is funny. Just to state the obvious, pugs are lovable, extremely affectionate dogs that resemble a brick on stumpy little legs. They're strong, but they're also small and cute, being about a foot tall and a foot long. They also have shortened snouts and pushed-in faces that look as if they ran into a wall, which is called brachycephaly and gives them a deformed upper airway tract and wheezy, obstructed breathing. A barbarian definitely couldn't ride one... but that's what's in this comic.

Mike Norton started Battlepug as a web comic in 2012 and within a year had won an Eisner and a Harvey. It's also been collected by Dark Horse Comics, but now it's with Image. Fair enough. Apparently the original series ended in 2016 and this is a sequel.

As for the actual contents... it's mostly being played straight. The Battlepug is just a riding animal with a goofy face. It can attack enemies, but here it's not a big deal story-wise. Our protagonist is that barbarian, known as the Kinmundian because he's the last of that tribe ("and revenge is back on the menu"). ALLIES: 1-3. a girl called Moll and her talking dogs Colfax and Mungo. Google tells me that Moll was naked throughout the first series and here is wearing clothes for the first time. She objects to the Kinmundian's habit of slicing things with his sword, but not when they're facing enemies that need slicing. 4. a little girl called Bryony who swears non-stop and can communicate through flowers. 5. Sasha, who has to wear a magical suit of armour lest she perish from the slightest scratch, but seems to be doing fine.

The baddies are amusing, though.

1. JOFEL = a Vladimir Putin lookalike who governs a city through a glove puppet. That's not a metaphor. He has his hand up a muppet's backside and it delivers speeches. "As your newly elected governor, I shall put an end to all the threats and problems you once had and truly make Ashkum great again!"

There wasn't an election. Jofel simply killed the old governor. He can also transform into a bear, re-underlining the Russian theme. Anyway, the Kinmundian severs Jofel's hands.

2. The last page promises "War on Christmas" and evil-looking elves with lots of red, green, candy canes and holly.

I quite enjoyed it and I love the pug, although he's just a big dumb loyal animal and I wouldn't really call him a character. I'm not planning to look for more issues, but I'd read them if I found them. This is a perfectly decent fantasy series with a shirtless Conan-a-like hero and a sense of the absurd. The four-page back-up strip's fine too. What I love most is the fact that Mike Norton had this goofy and entirely visual idea, went ahead and turned it into a comic... and won Eisner and Harvey Awards with it.