Sweatshop #4

Peter Bagge's cover for this September 2003 installment of DC's comedy series says it all with gleeful self-awareness: a frantic, big-nosed character recoils in horror at a sheet of paper bearing a gun-toting "dark and edgy" Freddy Ferret, while several other cartoon figures tumble chaotically off to the right. The tagline "This Isn't Your Father's Freddy Ferret!" skewers the grim-and-gritty era of superhero comics with exactly the kind of rubber-limbed absurdity Sweatshop does best. If you've been looking for a humor comic that actually commits to the joke, issue #4 makes a very convincing case.