February 3, 2004
STREET ANGEL
Written and Drawn by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca
Published by Slave Labor Graphics
There’s an old adage about popular culture: 90% of everything is shit. Sadly, that holds out to be very true, particularly for the critic. Sure, the studios put on great press junkets, but then your weekend gets ruined by having to sit through something like A MAN APART. Preview tapes show up at your door, and you’ve been gifted with the chance to see the first episode of LUIS. It happens with comics, too. You open a package, and slog through an absolute pile of nonsense that you can’t explain why someone would have paid to print it. And this turns out to be a very high percentage of what you see.
But the reason that you do it and maintain energy for it is because every once in a while, you see or read something so unexpected that it excites you again. I can remember sitting in a Florida theatre in 1992 watching a workprint of ALADDIN and being completely floored. Disney’s animation had been stinking up a storm for years at that point, and it was like watching a re-birth happen right in front of me. I smile fondly thinking about watching the first episode of THE SOPRANOS and knowing immediately that it was going to be a smash. It doesn’t even have to be something great to give you that feeling; this past Fall, sitting and watching ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, you could sense that this was a show that had a real sense of what is was, where it was going, and what it wanted to be, and it was excellent right from the gate. Again, just the kind of thing that comes along and makes you happy and excited to be a critic or reviewer.
STREET ANGEL, in case you hadn’t already figured it out, turned out to be one of those surprise gems.
I had no expectations in opening this book; I’m totally unfamiliar with the creators and haven’t seen any of their other work. It’s arriving with very little noise and fanfare, coming from a smaller publisher. And it’s damned near impossible to describe easily, so I’m going to repeat the character’s introduction paragraph here for your benefit: “Jesse Sanchez is an orphan raised by the streets. In an unforgiving world overrun with poverty, drug abuse, nepotism and ninjas, Sanchez fights for the poor, the forgotten, and, whenever possible, food.”
Did I mention that it’s played as a broad comedy?
“Armed only with her phat skateboarding skills, martial artistry, and tricked-out deck, she’s known to criminals as ‘Street Angel.’”
Equal parts Golden Age homage (she fights to stop a madman named “Dr. Pangea” from using a weapon to re-unite the continents), social commentary (after saving the Mayor’s daughter from Pangea, all the girl does is complain about how bad Jesse smells), and snarky humor (she takes a meeting with the mayor and Chief of Police and will only talk through a megaphone), this book manages to work on multiple levels and still be laugh out loud funny. And let’s take a note about that.
For a medium that once wore the label of “funny books” pretty strongly, there has been a serious decrease in the number of comics that are genuinely funny these days. The medium has become so unrelentingly grim that it’s almost pathetic. Having Giffin and DeMatteis return to a JUSTICE LEAGUE project last year was a stark reminder of when comics were a lot more fun. Fun. For Pete’s sake, bring back more fun, folks! STREET ANGEL made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, for which I am very grateful.
Artistically, STREET ANGEL resembles the work of David Lapham a bit. Jesse could easily be a young version of STRAY BULLETS’ Amy Racecar character without the criminal streak. There are a couple of moments when Jesse looks off-model, bit for the majority of the book, the art tells the story effectively, and even throws in a couple of Easter eggs in the backgrounds. Throw in some punchy and lively dialogue, and STREET ANGEL is a solid package all the way around.
There’s an almost timeless quality in the way that Rugg and Maruca blend their modern hip sensibility with a love for the comics of Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger, and it creates one of the more interesting and intriguing books hitting the stands today. I don’t know if they can keep up the quality of this debut issue, but it will definitely be worth keeping an eye on their progress. Grade: A
Should It Be A Movie?
STREET ANGEL is one of those projects that feels ideally suited to staying put as it is. What Rugg and Maruca have done is concentrated on creating a comic book and not worried about focusing on whether or not they will be able to get a STREET ANGEL cartoon on Adult Swim or a Jesse Sanchez action figure on store shelves. This doesn’t happen very often, so I have to tip my cap to them. That isn’t really the normal way of doing business in 2004, and it does limit some moneymaking potential for the creators. There’s always the chance that someone could come along and find the right way to turn this book into another media property, but I have my doubts. Instead, it’d be nice to see people recognize it for what it is, which is a terrific work of sequential art. And that’s all it ever needs to be.
I know last week I said that I’d be getting to SHANGRI-LA from Image Comics this week. My bad. It’s in the queue, I swear. Lots of things are popping out at me at once. Ya’ll know how it can be. Peace out.
E-mail can be sent to the address below. Review copies can be sent to: Marc Mason, SIBAM, P.O. box 26732, Tempe, AZ, 85285. Word to your mother.
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