If you read Wizard magazine in the early 90s, I’d bet you know what an ashcan is. In those heady days, Image was all over them. Pitt, The Maxx, Cyberforce, Deathblow, these are just a few of the titles that got this coveted treatment. Today, these issues would be classified as ‘mini comics’ or ‘reprints,’ either of which would be a far more accurate categorization than ‘ashcan.’ All Image, and other publishers like Chaos and Dark Horse, did was republish existing issues in a smaller format, on a variety of colored papers. Red and blue issues, while rare, were the most widely available. Yellow was called ‘gold’ and was therefore far more cherished. And then there was black. The black ashcans, at least in terms of Image Comics, were the rarest of the rare. To this day, I’ve still never seen one in person. In terms of print runs, publishers tended towards being fairly conservative, with titles seeing between 1,500 and 50 copies per issue, per color. So while there were over a thousand copies made of “The Maxx – Red Ashcan Edition” #1, when you consider that the standard edition of that issue was one of the best selling titles during the best-ever year for comics publishing, you can start to get an idea of the proportional scarcity.
As I said, even though they were called ‘ashcans,’ these comics were really nothing more than mini comics. The term ‘ashcan’ is a comics publishing term, and it does have the implication of rarity, but ashcans were originally never engineered to be collectible. It just sort of happened. You see, back in the early 20th century, there were a lot of comics to be published. So many that publishers couldn’t keep all of their viable titles in print concurrently. So, in an effort to retain ownership over a work, publishers would cheaply produce a short run of an issue, send a copy off to the Library of Congress, and pulp the rest. These issues were destined for the ashcan, and so the term was born.
So why the history lesson? Well, it seems that cartoonist extraordinaire, and Multiversity favorite, Jim Rugg may be dabbling with the with the idea of the ashcan. He, along with co-writer and non-fictional person Brian Maruca, have set about creating all-new “Street Angel” stories, self-publishing them as a series of mini comics. Now, Rugg is no stranger to the mini comic format, but the two new “Street Angel” issues we’ve seen so far have two key elements that make me feel like these comics are more ashcan than mini. First, like the aforementioned “The Maxx” ashcans, each issue is printed in a few different ways. Risograph, black and white, full color, white paper, pink paper, the same content is presented in a plethora of flavors. Now, if you’re familiar at all with Rugg’s work, you’ve probably got a sense of his attention to detail. So while the content is the same, there are tweaks to how it’s presented. For example, the risograph edition of the first issue is printed with red ink on pink paper and features screentones that the other two iterations do not. The different versions offer readers the chance to see the work in different ways, which gives each its own weight and reason for being. The differences aren’t illusions created by different paper stocks, like the Image titles before them, even though it may appear that way at first blush.
The second thing that makes me feel like these may actually be ashcans is a little more obvious. Inscribed on each issue’s back cover are the words, “A version of this story will appear in a full color Street Angel series – COMING SOON!” Now, these issues, whichever iterations you have, all seem to be fully realized. So when I see the word ‘version’ used, I have a hard time imagining Rugg taking the time to redraw these stories in order to re-tell them. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that he’d make some tweaks and changes, but whenever these issues are re-presented in standard comics size, they’ll probably be largely the same. I’ve got some thoughts on this, but let’s have a quick look at each these issues. I’ve got three in total, the two new stories and a printed version of the X-Mas story that ran on Boing Boing last year. Lets start with that one!
Continued belowStreet Angel X-Mas Special – One snowy night Jesse Sanchez (aka: Street Angel!) is awoken by some bearded old man hollering out on the street. She presumes him drunk, but it turns out he’s actually Santa Claus and has misplaced his sleigh and reindeer. It’s lucky for Old St. Nick that Jesse found him when he did, because his sleigh isn’t lost, it’s been stolen by ninja! There’s a plot to steal Santa’s presents, and it’s now up to Street Angel to stop them. Unfortunately, the violence she unleashes on the ninja serves to land her on the naughty list. Better luck next year!
As far as I know, there’s only one version of this issue: photocopies on pink paper.
Fist Fight Funnies featuring Street Angel – The first of the new stories, “Fist Fight Funnies” is a day in the life of Jesse as she attends Van Buren Middle School. As the cover teases, Jesse is headed for an after school bloodbath, as The Ninja Kid challenges her to a fight. And there’s a dance!
There’s so much to love about this issue. Of course, there’s the adolescent charm of following kids through their school day. Even though Jesse’s age is plainly stated, it’s easy to not read her as a kid. She’s out there fighting super villains, and her Kung Fu is better than anyone’s. Add to that her comfort in living such a dangerous life, and she can seem older than she is. But here, where she’s confronted with dances and lunchroom bullies? In this setting she seems awkward and a little uncomfortable, and it reminds us that, despite the ninja fighting, she’s really just a kid. And this isn’t necessarily something that comes across in the narrative. The clues to how Jesse feels in school come from Rugg’s art. Jesse seems uninterested and detached, slumped down in her chair, seemingly watching the clock for when she can be free to fight this Ninja Kid. It’s these little clues that remind me of how good of a choice he was to draw “The Plain Janes.”
And then there’s the background characters. Looking at how this school is populated, I can’t help but feel that Rugg is having a blast drawing this thing. Everyone in the issue is on their way somewhere, doing something. And they’re all unique, seemingly fully realized by the artist.
This issue was released three ways: red risograph on pink paper, black photocopy on white paper, and full color. I went with the risograph.
Street Angel: Lost Dog – While digging up something to eat, Jesse finds a lost dog. Together the duo encounter street tuffs, the cops, some day old doughnuts, and a slug monster.
The art in this issue is fantastic. Rugg’s love for funny animal cartoons is on full display here, as the dog is presented with cartoon physics, while the humans in the issue adhere a little more closely to real-world rules. There’s also a lot of flex between how ‘real’ and ‘cartoony’ the characters are allowed to be. And where “Fist Fight Funnies” tended towards a more spare and open line style, the art in “Lost Dog” tends towards rendered details and spot blacks. More simply put, it feels a little inkier.
This issue was released three ways: a black and pink edition, a black and white edition, and in full color. My copy is black and pink.
So where will we see these stories again? Given the page counts, and the back cover tease, the easy guess is that Rugg and Maruca are working toward a series of “Street Angel” floppies. It’d be easy to see Ad House putting out a mini series, given Rugg’s fruitful relationship with the publisher. But then the whole ashcan thing makes me feel like an Image series may be in the works, given that publisher’s relationship with the format. I know how much consideration Rugg puts into format, so these issues may well be a clue to the series’ future. Speculation aside, whoever puts these comics out will surely be earning my dollars.
Rugg’s been posting new Street Angel art on his Instagram, so that stuff is definitely worth a look. If you want to know more about “Street Angel,” Greg and I devoted a couple of Robots From Tomorrow episodes to it. The first is a discussion of the book itself, and the second is a wide-ranging interview with Rugg. Lastly, for a real treat, check out “Rambo 3.5.”
