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Written by Byron Kerman Thursday, 03 July 2008 17:00

St. Louis' own Ted May and friends return with a nostalgic look at '80s burnouts.

40 pgs. b&w; $4.95)

(W: Ted May & Jeff Wilson; A: Ted May & M. Jason Robards)

Who doesn't want to read about high-school burnouts? Give me three dudes in jean jackets with Dio and Ozzy patches, a good supply of cough syrup and Marlboro reds, a gold T-top Camaro, and I'm ready for action. Even if that action is just, like, throwing eggs at teachers' houses. Or going to the Majic Market to get someone to buy you beer—or to shoplift the latest issue of one of the more discriminating porn mags, like Oui or Club. But dudes, I digress.

Ted May's "Hair of the Dog," the first story in his latest Injury comic, is a misadventure among burnouts on the day of the long-awaited end-of-the-school-year carnival in 1983. Pot smoke, freedom, and the inexpensive perfume of young females in the air. The stereo is blasting Diamondhead, the first Metallica album, and the lamented Witchfinder General. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal is cresting, and that shit is all right.

Young Jeff lays in bed listening to Black Sabbath's We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘N Roll album. "I wonder what kind of wicked shit Black Sabbath is into to come up with such great lyrics?" he ponders. Jeff imagines Ozzy brandishing a knife, in hot pursuit of a fleeing chicken; Geezer Butler shooting up; Bill Ward spray-painting a pentagram onto a wall; and Tony Iommi reading a Robert Heinlein book by candlelight. Sweetness.

Jeff might just get the high score at Tempest at the video arcade at the mall. He also might take some crap from his brand new girlfriend Heather for hanging out with the glue-sniffing crowd, aka "your wastoid friends."

Whatever happens, this nostalgic look back at ‘80s burnouts is just too funny.

The other story in the issue, "Your Bleeding Face," is a campy send-up of "Biff!Bam! Pow!" superhero fights. Its anything-goes plot reminded me of Mike Allred's Madman—a shifting cast of goofy characters in aimless romp. Eh.

If you're old enough to have attended a high school with a designated outdoor smoking area for students, to have listened to Judas Priest before Rob Halford came out of the closet (or at all), or to have smoked herb from a ceramic bong shaped like Alice Cooper's head, then go for Injury #2. Seriously, dude. | Byron Kerman

Click here for a 7-page preview of Injury #2, courtesy of Ted May!