It’s difficult trying to sum up Emergency Exit in just a few sentences. I mean, I could describe EE as a heroic quest adventure set in an urban fantasy setting. I could go on about its varied and growing cast, each with a rich background that even now slowly is emerging. I could even talk about its massive crossover potential utilizing dimension travel (and two crossovers and a drive-by multi-day cameo during the Crossover Wars to date) as part of its “quest storyline.” But doing so ends up only telling a bare portion of EE’s story.

This is both strength and a weakness for the comic. When EE first started out, it felt like your typical “wacky roommate” comic, with Eddie as the increasingly eccentric (and by that I mean batshit insane) comedic relief to Bob. Add in a super-intelligent cat (who has a massive crush on Bob… and yes, you can feel as disturbed at that thought as I do), and their eventual roommate Saya who is almost sociopathic in how she acts around people, and you have the firm foundation for a comic replete with wacky hijinks and pain-filled situations. And by pain-filled, I mean Saya physically pummeling those who annoy her. The cast grows from there to include Bob’s roommate, the demon possessing Bob, Bob’s girlfriend, the alien mailman with a hook for one hand, and more.

The problem is, we don’t really know what’s going on. Of course, Bob and the gang don’t really know what’s going on either, but that doesn’t stop them from going on a literal artifact hunt, using a dimensional portal in a neighbor’s cupboard to go from world to world. Nor are these traditional artifacts. I’m not talking the typical magic sword and shield. No. The first one looks like a psychedelic-painted car. The second, a necklace with a smiley face. The third, a psychedelic hourglass. (If you’ve noticed a pattern – funky color patterns – you’re not alone.)

Nor are they alone in this artifact quest. Not only are the apartment kids searching for the artifacts for their landlord, but fairly inept demonic baddies, working for the whimsical and not-exactly-evil Lord Kyran, are also after the widgets. And in some ways these villains are actually more interesting than the good guys. Nyos, for example, often speaks down to people with obscure words, and seems to seriously hate Saya’s sister (something he shares with Saya though he doesn’t know it). Alkia is much more homicidal and has to be restrained… and has already tried to kill two of the apartment gang. Orulla and Jurinjo are much simpler mentally, with Orulla just blindly following Lord Kyran and Jurinjo starting to question if he truly wants to be with them.

But Lord Kyran takes the cake. Not only does Kyran rely on a six-year-old child to double-check his plans (having obviously taken a page out of the Evil Overlords List), he gives his human researchers pay raises when they please him, and promotes an intelligent and talented human to be his second-in-command. (Okay, he also has the hots for her. But I can’t blame him.) Further, it seems that in the past he was the God of Hatred… a role he’s trying to avoid (to the point he’s left standing orders not to kill or try to kill the apartment kids… and came down on Alkia for disobeying his orders). And yet it seems he too may be manipulated from behind the scenes, though if by Nyos or by someone else remains to be seen.

If I were to try and sum up EE’s problems, then I’d say it’s trying to do too much. We have several different storylines going on at the same time, a cast of characters that… well, the cast page has settings for main cast, villains, support cast, minor characters, guest characters, and objects, with 54 separate listings. We’ve several potential relationships (including a protagonist that I don’t quite know if he’s bisexual or just has no problem flirting back with a blatantly gay neighbor), and Bob who not only has a girlfriend, but gets jealous over his super intelligent cat (the same cat who has fallen for him). Feel free to feel freaked out over that little tidbit as well.

While it works… there are times when it threatens to spiral out of control… and I’m not sure how NJ Huff manages to keep it all together. Still, there are several things that do work quite well with the comic. Eddie is one of them; I’m not sure if he’s an idiot savant (with the ability to make impossible inventions) or is just not human (and considering his ties with the landlord… who is definitely not human… it’s quite possible). Lord Kyran is the second thing that truly works and makes the comic worth reading. And for all the wacky hijinks, the growth and consideration put behind the characters is the third aspect of EEC that makes it worth reading… even if you’ll need crib notes from time to time.