What Dogby Walks Alone is the business.
First of all, what is “the business”?

“The business” is when something is so good that it is what the industry should be all about. For example, after the release of Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s style was “the business.”

Now on to Wes Abbott’s Dogby Walks Alone. Dogby is a hilarious, pop culture laden romp through the “Happy Place.” It also has a lot of heart. Our anti-hero Dogby finds that someone has ripped off Happy Place, but more importantly his beloved Princess has been murdered.

Dogby and his side-kick Snack Girl serve as a two-person manga-noir, with Snack Girl revealing much of Dogby’s inner monologue. The story is so full of twists and turns that you’d almost expect Dogby to take off his mask and reveal Humphrey Bogart under there.

With references to Chinatown, the Blues Brothers, Manga, Metal Gear Solid, and World Wrestling Entertainment (when Dogby dropped the “People’s Elbow on Katty Kit, I laughed so hard I think I peed a little), just to name a few, Dogby creates a surreal journey into the life of a man who spends the majority of his time in a dog suit.

However, it’s not just the multiple pop culture allusions that make Dobgy especially tasty; it’s how much heart the manga has. The detail Abbott puts into his characters really comes through in each panel. When Dogby and the gang stops for a smoke break, we see his entire hand go into his dog suit’s mouth, allowing him to take a drag of his cigarette. This is an inconsequential, but endearing idiosyncrasy of Abbott’s characters.

Finally what makes this Manga, any other work of fiction that is considered “the business,” so good is the fact that it has a lot of heart. It’s not just needless violence or elementary school humor, its characters that many people can see in themselves, or in others, most notably the Princess, who see most of in flashbacks. When Dogby is recounting the time he spent with the Princess, he paints her as a beautiful, yet tortured individual who can’t seem to find happiness in herself, so she looks for it in others, knowing she’ll never find it.

Aside from psychological issues, Dogby also wrestles with concepts of friendship, loyalty and isolation, all with an amazing cast of characters as a backdrop. I could postulate many more reasons you should read Dogby Walks Alone, unfortunately it wouldn’t do the work justice.

It’s a good book and in the immortal words of LeVar Burton, “. . . you don’t have to take my word for it.”

Dogby Walks Alone by Wes Abbott is currently available through Tokyopop.com or at any self-respecting book retailer.