The two-page teaser for "Killer Lawn Gnomes from Hell" is just that - lawn gnomes gather and plan to overthrow humankind through the use of blunt or sharp objects. Nick Clark's artwork shows poor perspective - when there's perspective at all - and is a bit rough-looking, a common theme since Clark's art is featured throughout Toxic Shock Comics. Still, the teaser interested me, so it served its purpose.
I'm not sure what "The Subculture Syndicate" is supposed to be. On one hand, it features ninjas and a talking monkey named Kirby. On the other hand, Kirby's fairly anthropomorphized - he wears a Ween T-shirt and seems to have some experience with firearms. That's pointless shit since half the comic is The Subculture Syndicate killing ninjas and the other half is debate about the merits of Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. Is the monkey supposed to be a reincarnated Jack Kirby or is he just there to draw out a punchline? I'm honestly not sure if the ninjas being killed has to do with them being overused comic book fodder or if Mike Storniolo just wrote a shitty story. If nothing else, Storniolo shows up Kirby vs. Eisner as a more high-minded version of Hulk vs. Thing arguments, so "The Subculture Syndicate" isn't a total loss.
Toxic Shock Comics isn't an essential purchase but it isn't that bad. This is the sort of thing that feasibly could have come out during the black-and-white comics explosion of the 1980s. It's obvious to see where the comic could be improved, but at least some thought was put into this title beyond "chronic" and judging by this the comic has improved some. There are far worse ways to spend three bucks.
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