Comic Review: Sugarshock
Imagine the smartest, most creative guy you know. Give that guy a brain-boost that doubles his wit and imagination, then lock him in a room and force-feed him pure sugar and caffeine until he’s vibrating so quickly you think he’ll drill through the floor. Now ask him to write the script for a comic book. That’s the image I have of how Joss Whedon wrote Sugarshock, a comic available for free online, with fabulous art by Fábio Moon.
Okay, there’s this band, right? One guy’s a robot, another girl claims to work for a secret government agency and has a thing against … vikings. Other characters are, uh, other things. And then this dead alien dude lands on their car with an announcement about a battle of the bands on an alien world. Or something. My head is still swirling from the awesomeness of it all.
Each issue is 8 pages long, and full of clever dialogue and complete randomity. Joss Whedon is a master of dialogue and a fountain of creativity, and in this case it seems he pulled out all the stops. I’m always impressed with Whedon’s work, and these little episodes, while short, pack more entertainment than a week of the newspaper’s funny pages.
Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 here, and you can also visit the Dark Horse Presents page for new issues and some other comics.
I laughed. I didn’t cry, but my eyes bulged out of my head. Seriously, if you like comic art or sequential storytelling at all, you really need to look at this. It’s worth the time just for Abraham Lincoln donning his slavepipe hat (!), and honestly nothing I can say will really describe it all that well. I only wish there were more of these mini-issues, and perhaps that MySpace wasn’t involved.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:16 am
“lands on their card” = “lands on their car” (it’s not quite THAT random ;))
Your review is exactly right, in all of it’s nothing-you-can-say-can-really-describe-it description!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:17 am
p.s.
I still think “BISECT!” is the best sound-effect ever.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:23 am
c1: Yeah, I really need to learn to proofread better.
Oh yeah. BISECT! That one was pretty great. I also liked “TireSqueal!”
(Actually, this begs the question of just what a sound effect is, anymore. Can it really be called a “sound effect” if it doesn’t portray a sound? Hmmm.)
… I thought I was going to mention those, but I think I got all wrapped up in the randomity of it all. Ah well.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Yeah, it’s definitely Joss’s work. I also sense a little bit of Firefly living on in there. (And the indisputable Buffy/everythingelseJosshaseverdone-ness of it, too — Joss has got a little fetish for girls beating things up.)
September 11th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
3 green fish: you bring up a good point. I would argue that “BISECT!” brings with it the expectation of a certain sort of sound, and therefore would still count as a sound effect. “TireSqueal!” does the same thing. Now if the effect were something like “PAPER!” then I’m not sure it could be considered a sound effect any more.
Jacob: Joss’ fetish is a large part of why we like him.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:56 am
C1: Oh, I know. I’m the one who sent Curtis his Firefly box set initially, after all.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:34 am
c1: I’d actually argue that “BISECT!” has no expectation of a certain sort of sound, and is more like “PAPER!” than “TireSqeal!” I totally see that last one as being evocative of a sound — how many movies have we seen with that sound effect in them, after all? It’s kind of a “screeeeeee” sort of sound. As for “BISECT!” I’m not sure how to portray that by writing out the sound. It’s so specific, and specific to something I don’t have any automatic associations with…
Kind of reminds me of one of the comic books I have where the writer’s or the penciller’s name ends up in the sound effects. “Bam! Pow! Dezago!” or something like that.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Jacob: I’d forgotten - YOU are the one to blame for my obsession with all things Joss (and Nathan, and he doesn’t really deserve to be in parentheses, except that Joss was the initial topic). In fact, I can even blame you for the appearance in my closet of a “Joss Whedon is my master now” t-shirt that I didn’t buy. ‘Cuz if I’d never seen the show to start with…
3gf: Hmm. I guess that “BISECT!” in and of itself doesn’t evoke a sound. But “BISECT!” in reference to a living being definitely evokes a squishy gross pain-making sort of sound to me. Of course, in Sugarshock, the being being bisected was a robot, so my reaction is inappropriate. I bow to your superior logic.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
C1: I’m always happy to pass on the fanaticism! You can’t stop the signal. By the way, in my mind, “BISECT!” evokes a sound much like tearing metal. But that could be because I pragmatically associate it with the robot. Sorry. My brain’s a little melty right now — I just finished reliving my goddamn trip back home from Germany on my blog. Sleeeep!