SUPERIOR SHOWCASE #3 REVIEW

[Andrea Speed]

Reviewer: Andrea Speed andy@comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Great
Titles: Street Angel in 'A Ring Before Dying'; Freaks; Kid Medulla

Street Angel fights a ghost ninja, while a sister and brother struggle to get by, and a young boy adjusts to his superpowers.

Writers: Brian Maruca; Laura Park; Dustin Harbin
Artists: Jim Rugg; Laura Park; Dustin Harbin
Cover Art: Roger Langridge
Publisher: AdHouse Books


Ah, Street Angel, how I miss it. For those that did - and there are probably many of you - it was a strange comic about a street kid superhero, who saved the people of her town from ninjas and pirates and whatnot, and yet never managed to eat enough or find a regular place to sleep. It was gifted with an off kilter sense of humor, so you could never get too depressed about it (although there were depressing elements, to be sure). She returns here in a short story where she’s sent to the hospital after getting hit by a car, and she discovers that something in the hospital is brutally killing ninja patients. This is a neat little story, although much of the humor is missing, save for the inherent humor in the overly bombastic narrative captions. Mostly this is a straightforward riff on Japanese horror films, with the creepy little girl with the stringy hair in her face made ninja. Rugg’s artwork looks better than ever, clean and crisp, and the ending gives me hope that Street Angel and her curious cast might show up again someday.

I’m going to jump ahead to story number three, “Kid Medulla”, which was my least favorite. Not to say it was bad, because it’s not; it effectively captures the mindset of a nine year old boy. Which is probably why its appeal was limited. This is a boy with superpowers, and he goes around his neighborhood testing them out, until he runs into a teacher he had a crush on way back in the first grade, and the neighborhood bully. Much of the humor is predicated on fart jokes, which you either find hilarious or you don’t. But the way the bully ended up was nice. The art has a goofy kind of stylization, but it seemed appropriate.

The middle story is my favorite, and boy, what a powerful one it is. Employing the “less is more” aesthetic, Park tells a simple story about a sister and a brother trying to survive on their own. Only the younger brother doesn’t know they’re on their own, as his older sister seems to be (so far, successfully) concealing this information from him. As far as he’s concerned, their mother is just never home when they are. The sister is trying to protect him from the harsh realities of their life, but how long will she succeed at that? Still, she seems dedicated to preserving his childhood as long as she can. It’s sweet and moving, and the art has a cartoonish enough appearance to keep it all on the border of realistic without being maudlin. This is wonderful, saying a lot in a brief amount of time. Ms. Park, I want a graphic novel!

There are great independent comics out there - yes there are! Pick up this comic, and see for yourself.





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[B. Schatz]

Oh, but I was so happy when this book came out. I managed to sell this one to one of the guys who works our other location by telling him there was Street Angel in there, and got a couple of customers to pick it up here for funsies. They loved it.

Great, awesome book.

Now, to sell them the Street Angel trades.

[Andrea Speed]

Oh, Street Angel was (and still is) great. I wish it sold enough in single issues to survive.