I’ve always said nothing good has ever come from the social networking website MySpace, with its ugly graphics, horizontal scrolling and largely inane users. But then I found MYSPACE DARK HORSE PRESENTS: VOLUME ONE, which reprints original comics created specifically for online consumption. (However, since Dark Horse does all the work and MySpace just provides the intangible space, I’ll stick to my belief that MySpace sucks.)
Dark Horse has to be commended for commissioning quality comics to just give away for free on the web. For those of us who hate reading anything of length on a computer screen (especially comics, since part of the medium’s beauty is taking in a whole page layout at once, rather than having to scroll down to see it all), collecting them in print is most appreciated.
Opening the anthology is “Sugarshock!,” Joss Whedon and Fábio Moon’s three-part tale of an all-girl group (well, plus one male robot) that travels to a distant planet to take part in an intergalactic battle of the bands. I’m not one of the many members of the Whedon faithful, so I’m not about to praise it just for having his name attached. I will say, however, that what starts out kinda shaky grows to be genuinely funny as it goes along.
I also really liked Steve Niles’ “The Nocturnal Adventures of Scratch and Suck,” which pits superhero werewolf vs. superhero vampire; Haden Blackman’s serial-killer history “The Axeman”; Brodie H. Brockie’s magician fable “Tricks of the Trade” and Mike Mignola’s twisted holiday tale “The Christmas Spirit.”
Many stories feature regular Dark Horse characters, including an action-packed adventure starring THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY‘s Kraken, the tech-minded kids of GEAR SCHOOL, the bumbling blonde teen crimefighter EMPOWERED and Rick Remender’s sci-fi superhero FEAR AGENT. Eric Powell’s THE GOON — normally annoying to me — benefits here by having four different sets of writers and artists, as the tough-guy hero tries to find a skeleton’s lost pecker. Yes, you read correctly. (A discarded alternate opening chapter is presented in sketch form in the miscellany section that closes the book.)
Simple — but simply wonderful — are various two-pagers featuring Tony Millionaire’s Sock Monkey and Chris Grine’s Chickenhare characters, plus Rick Geary’s “The Comic Con Murder Case” and Peter Bagge’s “Founding Fathers Funnies,” which best captures the alt-comics spirit of the entire project. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Dark Horse resurrects Universal Monsters for novels
- Showcase Presents Metamorpho: Volume 1
- Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes: Volume 1
- Showcase Presents Batman and the Outsiders: Volume 1
- Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups: Volume 2
