The Naked,Pink, Truth! my first exposure to street angel was Street Angel #5. it had a picture of the young star holding two uzis and a vinette of blaxploitation has-been, Afrodisiac, as well as a really well-drawn cat head, amidst other details. all on a pink background that made it impossible to ignore (see cover below). to that end, i picked the book up and skimmed it several times. on the second or third store visit, i could no longer resist! i bought the damn thing (another reason why smart comic shops do NOT put books in boxes just because they didn't come out this week...), half-expecting to read it once and file it... to my surprise, this was a smart, funny parody/tribute to just about everything i love in independant comics!
unfortunately for me, this was, as i said, #5, so i had missed the previous material. nevertheless, i was excited at finding a new favorite comic. in telling my friends, i found they already knew about Street Angel (but had not told me... *HATE!*), and in fact, one of my peeps GAVE me issues 1-4 to make up for keeping me in the dark (*NICE!*).
Street Angel is "the invincible,skateboarding, kung-fuing, pre-teen vigilantress..." the only hope for "the poor, the weak and the nice," battling against "hate, greed and nepotism" in wilkesborough, the worst ghetto in a city that makes gotham look like maybury!
there's ninjas, mad-scientists, pirates, an incan sun god sporting a phat africa medallion,plain-clothes superheroics, not to mention kids that smoke cigarettes and skip school! Rugg writes the book with a deadpan voice that makes it hard to tell when he's joking or making fun of something and when he is dead serious... and that makes it even more fun!
this is a comic clearly made by someone who does whatever he wants: there is an issue where street angel- a homeless kid, did i mention she's homeless?- spends the entire issue searching for food! it's this kind of creative determinism you see less and less of in mainstream entertainment, and rugg revels in it.
the format of the trade (front cover seen here) is charming. it's printed in a smaller size than usual (though not quite as small as the digest manga format), and is very convenient to pack around (i took it when i rode the bus from dallas to kansas city... an adventure in and of itself-but i digress),plus, it has the all-pink wrap-around cover, similar to the individual comics (there's nothing like the looks a 6ft 240-pound black man gets reading a pink graphic novel in a bus station...), a keen marketing decision (as i said earlier, that pink cover draws the eye as well as any mid-nineties foil-stamped, tripple nipple gatefold gimmick joint!), and all-around eye-pleaser. the trade collects all five issues of the series (please make more, mister rugg!!!), plus some additional select material from Rugg's 'zine days! but my favorite addition is the bio pages detailing street angel and other characters, including some that aren't even in the book, like the fearsome Wereshark (?!). because you need to know, the categories includes "smarts", "basketball skills" and "skate skills"... the ONLY drawback of the trade is the exclusion of the "ninja dojo" feature from the original books, where ninjas teach you things you need to know: how to bake cookies, how to play the banjo, catch arrows, stuff like that!
however, they more than makes up for that with a diverse sampling of pin-ups by indie all-stars like mahfood, scott morse, and andy macdonald. so my advice: COP IT. it's published by Slave Labor Graphics, so order it online, or hassle your local comic shop or bookstore to order it. you'll be glad you did!
for more info, go to the Street Angel Website...
peace, love etc.
Very thorough! Props to you for giving me the heads up on this review! I'm going out to do some trade huntin'!
ReplyDeletebest pink graphic novel ever.
ReplyDeleteand you can QUOTE me, tough guy!