Posted on: September 17th, 2009 Bluewater Productions: Vincent Price Beyond the Grave…
This week was fairly strong in the world of comic books. Quality abound. So my “review” selection seems a little odd. Bear with me on this. It’s more like a P.S.A.
Bluewater Productions, Inc. Let’s just say they aren’t exactly one of the power hitters in the industry. You know all the bio comics that you see on the rack and wonder just who pays $3.99 for a comic about Hilary Clinton? A lot of people do. Not me, but those things sell out. Mystery of life, I suppose.
Bluewater prints a series called Vincent Price Presents (VPP). And that, boys and girls, is my guilty pleasure. Ever since I was a wee lass, I have been watching Price’s movies so it was only natural for me to pick up this book when I saw it on the self. It has no substance; no real infrastructure-it’s just a chance for no-name writers to pen a story on top of no-name artists.
What are your feelings toward The Twilight Zone? The original show that ran in the early 60s. Watch them now on SciFi…ahem…SyFy (dumb). Well, guess what? I think they’re just keen. Yep. Keen. All thirty minute nuggets presented you with a “What if” scenario. Most of the time that proposition was “What if everything you knew changed and it sucked?” Digression? Nope. That’s basically the setup to VPP.
Issue #12 hit the stands this week and it was just like every other issue. It was written by a guy named Nick Lyons. He’s actually fairly prevalent among the monster/horror comics Bluewater puts out. I’m only familiar with the work he did on VPP #6. It isn’t as if these one-shots give you a chance to flex the old creative muscles but hey, he does okay for his 20 some-odd pages. R.H. Stewart handled the art. That’s all I’ll say on that guy. He wasn’t anything to get excited and blog about.
Plot line: A private investigator is hired by an elderly gentleman to investigate a middle-aged woman that continually breaks into the man’s house. Come to find out the man has severe memory loss and it is really just the memory of his dead wife. Are you mad I spoiled the ending? Sorry. But did you see what I did there? Summed up the entire book in two sentences. Tah-Dah!
That’s VPP for you. It’s consistent. It’s like going on a road trip and stopping at a McDonald’s. Yeah, you could be brave and try some new place but there are times when all you want is a sure thing. You know what you’re getting into and that’s good enough for now.
So this is my advice to you: don’t buy it. I know, I know-it’s pretty contradictory. Don’t buy it but read it while you’re standing in the comic shop. See what you think of the concept. You may not like the story or the art on that one, but next issue you might. I would like you to simply acknowledge its existence. It’s kitsch in its purest form.
Now if only I could get up the nerve to read Bluewater’s William Shatner Presents. I’m so afraid I’ll like that too.
