Wish List: Comics Past
Looking back on comics I've really enjoyed this year and wondering which I'll be reading next year, I came to the realization that there are three titles I wish there were more of but there aren't. One of them died a premature death when its publisher abruptly folded and the other two have only ever appeared as limited series. If 2010 holds any surprises for me, let the return of these three comics be among them:
Dummy's Guide to Danger:
This is a comic about a private eye with a ventriloquist's dummy he carries around in one of those baby-carrier backpack things the breeders use. The dummy talks to him but no one else hears it. Whether the dummy is "alive" is arguably undetermined. Together, as the saying goes, they fight crime. I loved this book when it first came out and have never managed to put my hands on the second one. If 2010 could cough up a third series of this gloriously weird comic I would do a lot of clapping my hands together and squealing with glee. It's like Rockford Files on bad acid, only it's supposed to be a good thing.
Spellgame:
Speakeasy's short lifespan as a publisher is a tragic tale of tremendous creativity and turbulent business outcomes capped by an abrupt and early demise. Along with the many other comics shut down by Speakeasy's closure was Spellgame, a very promising title built on one of my favorite narrative premises: in the "normal" world, a character finds out magic is real and that they have the power to use it. It's a formula that's worked out pretty well for any number of creators (paging J.K. Rowland) and this one had a fun and slightly sleazy edge by virtue of cast and setting: the unwitting wizard was a defamed Vegas illusionist running street scams to get by. The art was all big neon colors and active faces, a slightly trippy visual cocktail that went hand-in-glove with the hectic plot and wry dialogue. I must have asked my local comics shop about this title a hundred times after Speakeasy went under. I still ask sometimes. If this got resurrected under another publisher's banner I would kiss the cashier.
Vamps:
It's been so long since I read Vamps that it's probably rife with flaws I no longer recall. When I picked up an issue at random, however, I remember being impressed with the fact that it was a (not so) slightly sexy book about women who were powerful rather than victimized. With a woman writing it, its casual inclusion of a dangerous lesbian and a knack for routinely passing the Bechtel test, Vamps made a huge impression on me as I was reintroduced to comics in the '90s. It played with some of the tropes of 20th century vampire fiction but brought a lot of its own ideas to the table. By the time sequel series were coming out I had moved on to other things and never picked them up but surely in this age of creative cannibalism reboots it's time to revisit an unsung classic of '90s slacker comics.
Klarion
Posted to Comics on 4 January 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: Dummy's Guide to Danger, Spellgame, Vamps
I loved (LOVED, I tell you) VAMPS when it was first published. Now you have me curious if I would enjoy it just as much now as I did then. Guess I'll start looking to pick up some of the trades when/if I come across them. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!
I am so glad to know someone else loved it back in the day. I remember a friend seeing me reading it and saying, "Aren't you a little old for that?" My response was an emphatic no.
nice post. thanks.