Eh. I get the joke. It’s a Grindhouse homage comic book instead of a Grindhouse homage movie. Does Alex De Campi come up with any reason to actually read the comic other than the gimmick?
It’s tawdry to be sure. It’s got tawdry to spare, but there’s nothing behind it. De Campi shocks for the sake of shocking and the shocking isn’t particularly good. It’s hard to be trashy when you’ve got an impossibly difficult to imagine scenario. Killer demonic bees or whatever. Those are a lot of bees to choreograph.
Chris Peterson doesn’t do bad with the issue other than that choreography. The bees are all messy, never with the detail the rest of the comic gets. But there’s a lack of personality in the artwork too. The comic needs personality–to make up for De Campi not bringing any sincere personality–and Peterson doesn’t bring it either.
Yawn.
CREDITS
Bee Vixens From Mars, Part One; writer and letterer, Alex De Campi; artist, Chris Peterson; colorist, Nolan Woodard; editors, Ian Tucker and Brendan Wright; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.
While this one was a particularly light, breezy read to be sure, you nailed it with the books utter lack of any type of personality. I get no feeling from this that they were inspired to do a grindhouse comic in the first place, just that they wanted to do one. I’m not totally familiar with the exact definition of grindhouse, but this seems safe, totally without the shocking, in your face details you’d get from the innuendos on sex & violence. A wasted opportunity,