If there’s a recent graphic novel collection that seems to have been created with as much love and joy for the genre as Steve Mannion has with THE BOMB, then I simply haven’t read it. Asylum Press’ trade paperback collects all five issues of the comic of the same name — a title I didn’t know existed.
And speaking of that title, I’ll forgive you if you assume it refers to the masked, barely clothed, gun-toting female on the cover. After all, I made the same mistake. Her name is Fearless Dawn, and she’s certainly the star of this hodgepodge celebration — and spoof — of adventure comics.
Prissy Jones is your average bullied, brainy student who’s sick of the abuse, so she remedies that by ordering a “miracle strength kit” from the back of her beloved comic books. It works, so by donning a black wig, wool socks, moose antlers and a “whoopass flashlite,” she reinvents herself as Fearless Dawn. Teaming up with her former nemesis — a Betty Page lookalike — she keeps her neighborhood safe from Nazis.
Another recurring player among the issues is the pirate Brownhole Jones, whose exploits involve a zombie island party and a rampaging robot from Great Britain. Jungle Chick is THE BOMB’s third act; she’s a busty survivor of a plane crash that plops her deep in the foilage, where a dinosaur keeps trying to eat her. Jungle Chick inadvertently turns the tables on the prehistoric monster without even realizing it. Cheap — and effective — physical comedy is the name of that game.
Not a single issue takes anything seriously. On each and every page, Mannion is channeling the spirit of MAD from its pre-mag early days, when the imaginations of Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood and Will Elder reigned supreme. You can see their influence all over THE BOMB; much of it looks like it could have spilled from their pens.
Only the fifth issue — the “swimsuit edition” — contains filler, at least upfront with several full pages of these various characters drawn in various beachwear. It’s kind of a waste of space, but the miscellany and short strips that follow it save it. And that’s my only complaint about THE BOMB, other than there isn’t more of this buoyant, boisterous title to read. —Rod Lott
Buy it at Amazon or Asylum Press.
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