You first thing you notice when you open Scurvy Dogs up is that it's rough. This isn't some computer colored, glossy paged, studio work. This is the opening act in some dingy rock club, who are still there at 4am selling their CD out of the back of the bassist's '89 Corrola, labeled in sharpie. If you're lucky, there might even be an ink jet printed track list.

It's rough, and it's raw, but it's also filled to the brim with a creative intensity that you're just not going to find in issue #3482 of Batman. You know, the one where he fights the Joker for the 9 billionth goddamn time. Scurvy Dogs is kinda like the first season of Family Guy, before they knew what the hell they were doing; if Family Guy were about a band of murderous, black-hearted pirates battling hobos, monkeys, space vikings, and lepers that is.

Okay, so it's absolutely nothing like Family Guy. But it is chock full of pop culture references and ridiculously absurd humor. How absurd? Well if I'm ever sailing through the Strait of Malacca and get hijacked, if one of the brigands ISN'T wearing a 'Frankie Says Relax' t-shirt I'll be sorely disappointed.

The writing is sharp in the way a rusty hacksaw is sharp. The humor doesn't always work, but there's bits at which I recommend you avoid beverages, lest you suffer the dreaded 'milk nose' effect from laughing to hard. A Kathryn Hepburn poop joke is a difficult thing to lay down, but these guys make it work. The stories make sense about half the time, which is fine because they don't really matter. They're just there to set up the punch lines.

The nods to pop-culture come fast and furious, and the comic would be funny enough on that basis alone. But the combination with the pirates just takes things to whole other dimension. Just watching these guys interact is hilarious. If ever there was a comic that needed to be turned into an Adult Swim cartoon, it's this one. Actually, fuck Family Guy. Scurvy Dogs is like Robot Chicken plus pirates. I mean come on, that's just a big ol' box of Win.

The art has sharp line work and a simple style. The overuse of black backgrounds feels a bit oppressive at times, but like everything else with the comic, the lack of polish is an asset, not a flaw. The style is incredibly imaginative, especially in the character designs. There are so many jokes hidden in the little details that you might miss them the first time through, and believe me this is something you're going to be reading more than once.