It's good news that Mark Martin is back with Runaway Comics #2, because sometimes these black and white alt-comix, small press titles tend to disappear suddenly.  Issue two's showcase piece is the second chapter of Montgomery Wart! in "Who Knocked Over the Christmas Tree?" which finds Monty angling to get his Christmas gifts even though he's been nothing but naughty.

Issue two has another star - Skinny Benny, the stick man with a big head.  Skinny engages in a pointless war of semantics with the owner of Mildon's Market with disastrous consequences of inane pettiness.  This issue concludes with a "flip book" entitled Jabberous, containing "Jabberous Offline," which is some bonus weird content.

Martin is known to fans for Tantalizing Stories, the 1990's anthology comic book he shared with Jim Woodring, and also a long-running single page comic strip, 20 Nude Dancers (eventually collected by defunct publisher Tundra).  He's contributed to numerous anthologies published by Dark Horse Comics, Fantagraphics, and even Nickelodeon.  He does parody and satire very well, but he's adept at funny animals comix.  Montgomery Wart isn't some cutesy-pie funny animal; he's more in the cantankerous tradition of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry.  If you like rowdy anthropomorphism, you'll dig this.

7/10