Mystery Science Theater 3000 #1 Featured Reviews 

“Mystery Science Theater 3000” #1

By | September 13th, 2018
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

The comeback and success of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is some of the strongest evidence of the sea change in 21st century media. A show that had the textbook definition of a cult following got revived twenty years later via Netflix, launched successful tours, and seems to have established itself as a legitimate, sustainable force for comedy. Launching a comic book doesn’t seem like a crazy idea, especially given the crossover between the show’s longtime fans and comic readers.

But this isn’t like bringing Firefly or Buffy to comics. The show is centered around riffing – aka making fun of – bad movies. Translating that is far trickier than just coming up with new stories for Jonah and the bots and, to its credit, this comic attempts something new with the format.

But is it any good? Keep reading for our spoiler-free review, though how could you really spoil a book like this?

Cover by Todd Nauck
Written by Harold Bucholz, Joel Hodgson, Matt McGinnis, Seth Robinson, Sharyl Volpe, and Mary Robinson
Illustrated by Todd Nauck and Mike Manley
Colored by Wes Dzioba and Mike Manley
Lettered by Michael Heisler

MST3K as you’ve never seen it before! The riffing hilarity of Mystery Science Theater 3000 comes to comics when Kinga Forrester pairs her Kingachrome Liquid Medium with her latest invention –the Bubbulat-R! Jonah Heston, Crow T. Robot, and Tom Servo find themselves thrust into the 2-D world of public domain comics, with riffing as their only defense! Created for comics by Joel Hodgson! The hit Netflix show has come to comics! Variant cover by longtime MST3K DVD artist Steve Vance!

Let’s not bury the lede here: this comic doesn’t really work. It over-complicates what should be a reasonably simple concept, and makes for a reading experience that is thoroughly un-enjoyable.

The concept of the book is complicated from jump: instead of simply riffing on bad comics, the book attempts to find a way to bring the characters into the comics themselves. A now forgotten 1960s comic, “Johnny Jason, Teen Detective,” is the book at the heart of this issue. Instead of just presenting the ‘classic’ MST3K silhouettes beneath the panels, cracking wise, there is a convoluted new piece of technology that can put people into comics, and the Mads – the villains of the show – are subjecting Jonah and the bots to it.

But it doesn’t put everyone in the comic, just Tom Servo and a few new bots that seem to serve no function whatsoever. The other characters are riffing on the comic, but we have no idea who is saying what. The riffing and the comic’s dialogue – as well as Servo’s dialogue, which is a mix of dialogue from the original comic and riffing, are all presented as speech bubbles in the same color. The only way to tell if something is an ‘original’ bit of text or a riff is a small bubble that appears on the edge of the bubble. To clarify:

Because that little bubble is present, we know that’s a goof. It is understandable that the creators wouldn’t want to overcrowd the panel with a silhouette, or put a little face on each bubble to indicate the speaker, but why not just establish a color scheme? All three characters have an easily identifiable color – Jonah is in a canary yellow jumpsuit, Servo’s body is red, and Crow is brass. Just make the speech bubbles those colors, and you’re all set. There already is an editor’s note explaining the bubbles – just explain the colors in the same way.

Due to the bubble’s small placement, a brisk read of the comic can miss what are jokes or not. But the larger problem here is that comics are bad in ways that are different than movies being bad. In a film, a majority of the cringe worthy moments come in the delivery of dialogue, or poor physical acting. Both of those things don’t really happen in comics. Bad dialogue versus good dialogue is hard to isolate in a panel, and coming up with a book that is ‘funny’ in its poor illustration is a challenge as well.

Continued below

Don’t get me wrong, “Johnny Jason, Teen Detective” appears to be a bad comic (Don’t believe me? Read the original for yourself here). But it isn’t bad in the way The Final Sacrifice or Manos, Hands of Fate are bad movies, nor are many comics. Even the dumbest comic of the past 10 years (probably something Scott Lobdell wrote for the New 52) couldn’t really be riffed effectively in the same way a bad film can be. This is a problem.

It is a problem that is exacerbated tenfold by placing Servo into the story, in the place of Johnny Jason. By having Servo as a part of the book, it guts the ‘us vs them’ from the riffing process. No longer is this the crew of the Satellite of Love cracking wise against the terrible dreck they are forced to watch. Now, Servo is, no matter how superficially, invested in the world around him, and it takes the bite out of the jokes.

The jokes do have some comic references sprinkled in, with allusions to Archie, Spider-Man and more, and those jokes work the best, because they are able to comment on the format in a way that feels natural, but also works really well. There’s a panel of a woman rubbing her head, and someone riffs, “Come save me, Professor X.” That’s a solid joke, but you can’t expect every panel to be a comic reference, either.

This is a tough comic to write about, in part because the creators of “Johnny Jason, Teen Detective” are not credited in the issue and may very well be lost to history. Similarly, Mike Manley’s job is to illustrate Servo in and among the pre-existing work, and so I can say “he really draws a nice Servo head,” but anything more isn’t really applicable. Todd Nauck handles the ‘host’ segment that starts the issue, and his style is loose and manic enough to match the show’s tone. Even the jokes themselves usually land, so it’s not like this isn’t a funny comic. There are solid jokes to be found.

But when the concept is so tough to swallow, it doesn’t matter how effective the small pieces are. The idea of taking a public domain comic to goof on is a really fun one, but it may just be something that doesn’t translate, no matter how seemingly brilliant the idea is. But, before we go off complaining too much, we would likely be wise to remember – and slightly adapt – the lyrics to the show’s theme song: “Just repeat to yourself ‘it’s just a [comic], I should really just relax’.”

Final Verdict: 4.3 – A missed opportunity in almost every way.


Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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