Last Week’s Comics 6/15/2011
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Screamland #1
(Image — writers: Harold Sipe & Christoper Sebela; art: Lee Leslie)
I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible. Screamland is about a bunch of c-list monster-actors – like the Wolfman, the Blob, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, Elvira, and Robobrain (a robot with a human brain) – who are all struggling/out of work actors. Years ago, while riding the high of their popularity, they filmed a drug fueled orgy, and now the Invisible Man plans on releasing it at a convention.
Until he’s found murdered.
If you’re not running out to buy this comic, you should be chased with splintered boards adorned with rusty nails. I don’t know what it is about he wacky concepts in comics, but they seem so original that I can’t help but feel an immediately inclination to them. Much like many struggling actors, these people are desperate for attention, so much to the point that they’ll turn against their own friends to get it.
There are a few Twilight jokes thrown in, a jab at J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, but mostly these people are pitiful and sad. The issue starts out with the Creature from the Black Lagoon — aka Dead Fish — swimming in a pool that’s filled with a mixture of water, cocaine, and goldfish. Unfortunately, Dead Fish is found dead from an overdose, and that’s when we meet our main characters, Carl and Travis. Travis is a washed up Sci-Fi actor, and Travis is a washed up werewolf.
Do you see how awesome this is yet?
While I won’t go into specifics, I can tell you that Travis and Carl’s banter is well done, and enough to make you believe these two have been friends for a long time. Much like like Robin Williams and John Belushi, Carl and Travis had spent years on drug binges, riding the wave of their popularity. This is the second series, but it feels like the first to a new reader like yours truly.
Now they’re fat, unimportant, and unemployable. It’s painful to watch their misadventure, but it’s unbelievably entertaining. I’m sure this second volume of Screamland is a short series (because otherwise this concept would get stale quickly), but with all the emptiness surrounding Hollywood, it’s fun to see a different concept of the “actor.” Much like an SNL skit, Screamland asks the question that not many people have thought about, but one which is immediately intriguing. We can suspend our disbelief for flying aliens and spider-powered teens, so why not a bunch of worthless horror actors?
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Citizen Cold #1
(DC — writer & art: Scott Kolins)
I don’t blame Scott Kolins for this. It’s tough to develop such a one dimensional character (if your name isn’t Geoff Johns) and especially one that is still one dimensional even in an alternate universe.
See, Citizen Cold may be the hero of Central City, but he’s still a dink. In the Flash series, Cold is calm, and calculating. He plays it cool (no pun intended), and never shows too much of his emotions. Johns writes him as a Batman character. He’s dark, brooding, but also very intelligent, and very fearsome. In this issue, he’s like a pissed off celebrity who hates his popularity, yet utilizes it to get more attention.
[pullquote]It’s tough to develop such a one dimensional character (if your name isn’t Geoff Johns) and especially one that is still one dimensional even in an alternate universe.[/pullquote]
Plus, the tension of the issue is solved in the last page, so the cliff hanger isn’t a cliff hanger so much as it’s a reinforcement of what we already knew. Citizen Cold is a dink.
Not really much more to say about this issue except that like most of Flashpoint, this has been a disappointment. It’s “meh” writing and a “meh” concept. I liked Abin Sur, so I expected to like Citizen Cold.
But I don’t. I’m not even moved enough to make some witty comment about the writing giving me the cold shoulder, or an icy feeling. My apathy is too great to motivate me.
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