Art Ops, Vol. 1: How to Start a Riot

Scuzzy New York City punk Reggie Riot is a great disappointment to his cocktail-party mother. Unbeknownst to Reggie, she actually runs the Art Operatives, a secret organization dedicated to policing the surprisingly blurry lines between art and reality. Reggie, along with a black-masked Batman-like sidekick and an art-nerd mall girl, gets sucked into their clandestine activities when the entire Art Ops squad goes missing; somebody’s got to protect the Mona Lisa, now disguised as a rather homely looking human walking the streets of New York. Writer Simon (The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoy) has some fun personifying works of art by Picasso and Warhol. However, the colorful but often jumbled art by Allred (Madman) never pushes the pedestrian script into anything nearly as witty or thrilling as the concept deserves. (June)