Clowntown #1 – Review

By: Kevin LaPorte (writer & letterer) & Amanda Rachels (artist & colorist)

The Stories: Clowns on a murderous rampage.

Review: There are probably two types of people in the world: Those who think clowns are funny and those who think they’re kinda creepy.  Given how frequently clowns have turned up in horror stories over the years, there are obviously quite a few people in the latter camp.

If you’re a fan of the horror/slasher genre (and particularly the clown horror sub-genre), you’ll probably get quite a kick out of Clowntown from Inverse Press.  The story does have a twist at the end, but the plot is pretty basic: clowns on a rampage killing people.  Now, what makes it unique and effective horror is that the comic isn’t pulling any punches.  In the first real scene of the comic, the clowns bust into a house and attack a nasty, redneck couple.  As a reader, you don’t really know what to expect: “Maybe the clowns will take them hostage???”  Nope, the clowns go straight for the throat-slitting.  It isn’t shown in a way that is exploitive with arterial blood spurting across the page. In fact, the actual cutting kinda happens off panel.  But, there is no doubt after this first scene that the clowns will kill you and they won’t waste a lot of time with monologues or explaining their motives.  In fact, the clowns are mostly non-verbal uttering nothing but stylized word balloons that contain sounds more than words.

The comic just kinda runs from there as we follow the clowns’ rampage and a young girl that is caught up in the middle of the mayhem.  But, the creators are to be commended for having a pretty simple and pure concept for their comic.  That’s really important with an truly indie comic like Clowntown where the creators have to not only grab your attention with issue #1 and make you want issue #2, but also give you a pretty complete package in the first issue.  Given the economics of creating comics, it can be a long time before issue #2 comes our (if it ever does).  With Clowntown #1, we definitely want a second issue, but they haven’t created that desire by giving us a first issue that feels incomplete.

The Gathering 2011 – Review

By: Too many to list.

The Story: Come along this comic journey through the other side of despair—ghost children, shark men, and cookie-eating villains included.

The Review: GrayHaven’s anthology venture is an interesting addition to the world of comics.  By appearances, its format comes closest to DC’s annuals: a multitude of brief pieces by a whole posse of writers and artists.  But being an indie product, The Gathering looks and feels less polished, and its stylistic aims clearly have no intention of imitating the mainstream appeal of the Big Two publishers.

Whereas annuals have the feel of a short story collection, Gathering’s series of two-page pieces come across more like poetry.  Nearly all the contributions have some kind of narrative driving their intensity, but you’re not really meant to get conventional storytelling.  It’s best to read these works as you would poems: don’t look for character or plot development—it’s impossible to get much of either in two pages—and really embrace the emotional impressions they give you.

In similar fashion to annuals, a running theme loosely ties the anthology together.  In this case, Gathering seeks to discover, as the issue’s title indicates, “the other side of despair.”  Most of the contributors respond with stories of hope, though a few make efforts to play with that concept, so the whole package isn’t totally uplifting or inspiring.  The nice thing about the collection is with so many different flavors, you’re bound to enjoy something in there.

Content-wise, there’s little separating the best pieces with the less successful ones.  Considering the theme, all the stories lean on the sentimental and, dare I say, cheesy.  What makes some of the offerings stronger than others is their grasp on the limitations of the format.  They don’t try to compensate for their restricted space by stuffing it with material, but refine their ideas to their purest essence, leaving you a strong sense of feeling even if you didn’t actually read much.

In Gail Simone’s “Brief Encounter,” there’s an almost Japanese minimalism to her word choice, so even in two pages, you get a clear sense of conflict and resolution.  It helps that artist Cassandra James blocks her panels to get the most emotional impact out of them, and her spare, clean lines boldly free up space even though there’s hardly any to spare.  Also impressive is Kevin LaPorte’s “Great White Hope,” which depicts a submerged, New Orleans-style city and its sea-diving, vigilante protector.  It artfully blends Southern Gothic, super-heroics, and disaster plotting in just about 100 words.  Amanda Rachels’ cartoonish figures are enhanced by expert paneling and moody shading.  These two stories are great samples of what this format can offer, once contributors get the hang of what they can do with it.