The Awesome Slapstick #1

Slapstick is a teenage superhero created by Len Kaminski and James Fry III. He first appeared in his own comics named The Awesome Slapstick, which was published in November 1992.

Steve Harmon is a unpopular jockster at his high school. One day his classmate Winston ratts him out to a teacher after one of the many Steve's pranks. Steve puts together a perfect plan to get back at Winston. He dresses as a clown and goes to a local carnival, where Winston and his girlfriend Heather went for a date. Before Steve can execute his plan of throwing a pie in Winston's face, an army of monstrous clowns from a Dimension Ecch starts kidnapping people and dragging them into their dimension. Steve chooses to heroically save his friends and runs into the portal.

However, something goes bad and Steve's being is "stretched" over multiple dimensions, which creates a "powerful disturbance in the Force", felt over the whole universe.

And our poor hero ends up as a pile of goo in the cell of the former Scientist Supreme of the Dimension Ecch. Scientist Supreme puts Steve together and explains to him, that his body is made of a special material called electroplasm, which gives Steve powers similar to a cartoon character.

Equipped with these awesome powers, Steve saves his friends and destroys the portal. Back on Earth, Mike Peterson, one of the kidnapped victims and Steve's best friend, recognizes Steve.

And that's the origin of Slapstick. The hero, who preffers to play cruel tricks on crime instead of fighting it.

Conclusion

The awesome Slapstick is a solid comic with decent art. It's packed with a lot of "take that" jokes and pop culture references. Best shown here:

That can be a problem for new readers, who have a zero knowledge of the Marvel universe. However it's a threat of 90's nostalgia for a experienced comic book reader. It also helps that the mentioned pop culture references aren't (with a few exceptions, of course) outdated.

Overall it's a solid piece of 90's "chesse" and a surprising gem.