The title of Alex de Campi’s latest project says it all – this is a Grindhouse story, meant to be trashy and openly reveling in violent horror and cheesecake. It’s pretty simple: if you like it B-movie sleazy every once in a while, then this is a book to try on for size.
Written by Alex de Campi
Illustrated by Chris Peterson
Colored by Nolan WoodardLiterature: overrated. Morality: expendable. Tonight is right for some over-the-top sex and violence! Bringing the flavor of midnight exploitation flicks to comics, Grindhouse delivers four two-issue gore operas, starting with “Bee Vixens from Mars,” pitting a one-eyed southern Latina deputy against lusty alien chicks bent on laying eggs in the entire male population!
• Covers by superstar artists Francesco Francavilla and Coop!
• First issue in a brand-new series of B-movie masterpieces!
• Eisner nominee Alex de Campi (Smoke, Ashes) is a writer to watch in 2013!
• Future arcs feature art from Simon Fraser (2000 AD), Federica Manfredi (True Blood, Hack/Slash), and Gary Erskine (The Mask)!
In 2007, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” double-feature (sort of) brought the idea of B-movie cinema back into the public consciousness. I say “sort of”, because it really wasn’t super successful and I’m not sure how lasting its impact really was, but “grindhouse cinema” was now an idea that had a more modern context once reserved only for diehard cinephiles and fans of schlock. Where half of the joy of the 2007 “Grindhouse” event was seeing the errors, clicks, and pops on the screen and in the audio, Alex de Campi aims for high-concept cheese while Chris Peterson’s visuals go untarnished. Rather than play up all the different tropes of grindhouse cinema in one camp homage, de Campi aims to plainly replicate the sorts films that might have come out of the era. She’s attempting to add to the genre – not to parody or mock it.
Sweet, dripping honey runs over this issue, creating an intense and none-too-subtle symbol of the tone that de Campi wants to set here. Ominously, it drips on a creepy gravesite. A sensual drip of honey evokes sloppy young love in a parked automobile. In lustful giggling, honey is shared between secret (or not-so-secret?) lesbian lovers underneath the nose of a disinterested, uncouth, and seemingly racist bore of a husband. de Campi crafts a lusty, seedy mood in the opening pages of the story with one simple bit of imagery. Of course, Chris Peterson has just as much, if not more, to do with the way the mood is captured, but more on that later.
But while the opening of the issue drips with honey, it isn’t long before the comic stays true to the genre it adores and begins to drip with blood (and other body fluids). Because honey dripping on a gravesite couldn’t be anything other than an intense portent of doom, especially in a ass-backwards little bumpkin town like this one. Folks, if you’re looking for more than violence, sex, and a whole lot of goofy country folk talking funny – this is where you walk away. For the rest of us, “Grindhouse” #1 turns out to be just as much fun as watching a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” episode – only here you have to supply your own commentary.
That poses the question: if it’s trying to fit into a genre of B and C-level films, is the comic lesser for it? That would be legitimately difficult to answer, were it not for the fact that de Campi’s intentions cannot be misread on this one. This is meant to be schlock. Well-crafted schlock, but schlock nonetheless. It’s not trying to say more than “wouldn’t Bee Vixens from Mars be freaky?” and it doesn’t have to. Never for one moment is the comic trying to tug at your heart strings, or make you feel like its trying to be subtle or thoughtful. de Campi is in on the joke, and it’s a good one. When the busty, giggling lesbians start spilling out of their clothes, it’s because the book is going cheesecakey above all else. Compare that to “Fantomex MAX” (which James reviewed yesterday), where the women are constantly nearly spilling out of their tops, but the story doesn’t stick to its exploitative guns and actually feels antagonistic towards its females at times. It’s a fine line to cross and while this story is definitely “a little much” and some might disagree on what constitutes sexism, “Grindhouse” is very clear about its intentions the entire time.
Continued belowChris Peterson goes full bore with the idea that is supposed to be the trashiest, bustiest, more gory book that it can be. His close-up perspective on the dripping honey motif somehow adds an eroticism to scenes even if they don’t involve kids fooling around in the backseat or, you know, cats outright humping in the street. There’s a Lynch-like obsessive focus with the symbolism in “Grindhouse” and Peterson continually uses it all to amplify the excess. With a clean, expressive look and a willingness to draw some really disgusting stuff, Peterson was an apt choice. Colorist Nolan Woodard uses deep pinks and tantalizing golds and yellows to draw even more of that lustfulness into the atmosphere of the comic.
Exploitation doesn’t work if you don’t go at it with gusto. By making the violence as gory as it could be while still being intelligible, by making the women impossibly endowed and the men dopey as all get out, Peterson doesn’t sell the concept short. Again, it’s all a lot to take in if you’re not a self-perscribed fan of the genre. This is not for everyone and it’s definitely not for people who are going to take it seriously. My god, Peterson even gave the female police officer classic look and posture of “G.I. Joe’s” Baroness – plus an eyepatch for good measure. One thing is for certain, the art never holds out on de Campi’s over-the-top aim.
Nobody is holding out on “Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight”, for better or for worse. While the over-the-top traits of the story and mature depictions themselves are the extent of depth, there has to be a tacit understanding of that going in. I can’t imagine that this didn’t turn out exactly as de Campi envisioned, thanks to her willingness to go at the exploitation with gusto and bringing an artistic partner in Chris Peterson who was fully willing to go there with her. If this sort of cheesecake, gross-out sci-fi horror thing is your bag, baby, then you’ll want to get in line for it.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – A definite buy, if you like this sort of thing.
