Upstart publisher Ahoy Comics continues to make waves with “Bronze Age Boogie” #1, a glittery disco ball of a book that doubles down on ’70s pop culture tropes without sacrificing a hook-laden story.
Written by Stuart MooreCover by Alberto Ponticelli
Illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli
Colored by Giulia Brusco
Lettered by Rob SteenWhat do you get when you combine all the best-loved comics genres of the 1970s: apes, monsters, Kung Fu, sword-and-sorcery, and cosmic adventure? You get Bronze Age Boogie, an intense, character-based action-fest with plenty of style! In this collector’s item first issue, young barbarian princess Brita Constantina finds herself battling a Martian invasion in both 1975 AD and BC! Back-feature: Meet Major Ursa, the first bear in space. But will he be a hero or a villain? Plus the usual assortment of AHOY extra text stories!
In many ways, we are living in a Golden Age of Bronze Age-inspired comic book content, as creators have begun to crib from their own nostalgia to create modern twists on bygone aesthetics to craft projects that resonate with older readership as well as offer a window into a less synergistic continuity-laden form of storytelling for younger readers. And instead of just rebooting period-specific properties, more forward-looking creators are letting themselves be inspired by the content of their youth rather than merely trying to ape it. More on apes later. In other media, one need only look to something like Netflix’s Stranger Things by the Duffer brothers (who are too young to be children of the ’80s but who seem to have absorbed their love of the decade from its movies) for the kind of lovingly created homage that lacks a specific antecedent but instead embodies the look and feel of something from a previous decade. Netflix’s Lost in Space would be its antithesis.
With “Bronze Age Boogie” Stuart Moore has created a book that contains a pastiche of many things that are emblematic of the disco era. From callouts to Planet of the Apes, Happy Days, recreational drug culture, the burgeoning of swords and sandals epics, afro-sporting heroines, French Connection-era New York, the promise of Bruce Lee-style kung fu, and shopping mall stalwart Spencer Gifts, Moore might seem to be creating the ultimate project in ’70s fan service, period-specific catchphrases and all. But what makes this premiere issue so special is how quickly readers connect with Brita Constantina, the dreadlocked daughter of a fearsome warlord in around 2000 A.D., who also just happens to be friends with a time traveling ape who has presumably taught Brita enough about the future that she now speaks and thinks like a child of the 1970s. She’s the beating heart of this first issue, and the narrative shrewdly plays on adolescent alienation by portraying Brita as a girl who is out of touch with her father’s world. It doesn’t help that there’s a cryptic and rhyming voice inside her head, and that her simian friend keeps reminding her how important she is to the future. It’s a trippy concept that is handled with deft as well as reckless gusto, forcing readers to surrender themselves to the story’s anachronistic charms long before the alien tripods arrive. It’s a book that is so unabashedly fun by design that readers will marvel at it’s expertly constructed low-brow sophistication. This is the monthly comic book medium at its best.
From the book’s attention-grabbing, funny, and efficiently brief prelude to Moore’s thoughtful author’s note on the nature of nostalgia, “Bronze Age Boogie” #1 barrels forward with go-for-broke hedonism and an I’m OK – You’re OK spirit punctuated by no fewer than four double-page spread compositions provided by the art team of Alberto Ponticelli and Giulia Brusco, giving the book a positively cinematic atmosphere. There are genuinely intimate moments too, like Brina’s scenes with her father and the aforementioned time-traveling Sniffer Ape, and Brusco infuses those with a fire-lit glow. The presentation, even in its most bombastic moments, is enough to give middle-aged comic book fans the warm fuzzies, and Ponticelli’s elegant, gestural style and Steen’s classic lettering give the book a modern but traditional feel in the midst of all the homages. To say more about the book’s narrative would do it a disservice as much of the enjoyment comes in the issue’s unexpected swerves. It’s a joy both to have no idea where the story is heading next and to be secure in a creative team’s guiding hand after reading a premiere issue.
Continued belowThe issue also includes a hilariously-intriguing seven-page backup story by Tyrone Fitch, Mauricet, and Lee Loughridge entitled ‘Major Ursa,’ a NASA sendup that opens in the ’50s rather than ’70s but certainly shares the main story’s shoot-from-the-hip irreverence toward its era-specific subject matter. Expect some Mad Men-era sexual politics and anthropomorphic fun as that beautifully rendered backup story unfurls, and don’t miss the cleverly comic backup text pieces as well. Ahoy Comics seems determined to make sure that readers not only get more than they bargained for at the cover price but also better quality than they might have expected for such a new player in the comics market.
“Bronze Age Boogie” signals the beginning of the second wave of books from Ahoy Comics, and if you missed the first wave of titles like me, this one will likely send you scrambling to track down “Wrong Earth,” “High Heaven,” “Captain Ginger,” and “Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror.” I know I will be.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Rarely does a premier issue manage to elicit as many left field laughs while managing to hook readers into the narrative as effectively as “Bronze Age Boogie” #1 does. We need more books like this.
