Hard Luck Hank: Prince of Suck by Steven Campbell (3.5 stars)

Even darker again. Belvaille is barely functional, socially chaotic, and falling apart. Hank is so dense he is effectively crippled and close to death. And yet somehow he is in charge of everything. Unfortunately, most of the humour was lost in the dark plot. It's getting close to sci-fi noir.

In a number of cases, it's actually fairly clever social commentary:

I don’t even think any of them had given their positions on issues. Stating your position might piss people off who disagreed with you. But attacking someone else only hurt them, especially if you did it through third parties

There's even a little to learn about free markets and how they are important to society. In this case the bankers are an alien race called the Ankh, who are very interested in Hank providing some stability.

3.5 stars

Hard Luck Hank: Basketful of Crap by Steven Campbell (4 stars)

Highly entertaining, not too much thinking required just like the first in the series, but with a darker bent. Hank takes some actions that gets lots of people killed and he shows very little remorse. There's still plenty of funny moments, but fewer laugh-out-loud situations than in the first. Hank's prodigious hunger after injury provides some of them:

But the ache in my stomach was primordial. It was twisting my mind. I was looking at doors and wondering if I could eat them. They looked so similar to large crackers. I wondered why the asses who had constructed this city hadn’t left great piles of food lying around. What if people got hungry? It seemed a massive oversight. There was all this metal and no food.

And many more from Hank's apparent cluelessness, hiring an army via newspaper ad, and, well stuff like this:

I heard you were walking around barefoot, killing people, leaving their bodies all over the city, while wearing a diaper.

4 stars.