Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg return for a new Street Angel story that captures all of the series’ uncanny charm. (Minor spoilers follow below.)
Written by Brian Maruca and Jim RuggCover by Jim Rugg
Illustrated, Colored, and Lettered by Jim Rugg/b>Jesse “Street Angel” Sanchez takes the Ninja Kid to school! Her fists are the facts and his face is the report card! Don’t miss this very special After School Kung Fu, er, uh…Special? Meanwhile, Saturday night’s the big dance and Jesse doesn’t want to go! Is love in the airA? No.
“Street Angel” has always been a unique and versatile comic. Artist and co-creator Jim Rugg is himself a versatile artist. Following his Patreon or on Social Media exposes fans to a panoply of styles and tones. When “Street Angel” was a regular “floppy” series, one of the highlights was a back cover that perfectly replicated the art of people like (IIRC) Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. In the ensuing years, Rugg has transitioned from mimicking artists styles to adapting his art to different broader styles instead. He has drawn extensively and impressively in pen and ink, ballpoint pen, and pencil with many different approaches.
This is all to point out that Rugg’s stylistic choices in any endeavor really matter, because he’s established that he could literally make a book look like anything he wants. This is even on display in this otherwise consistently styled book, where Jesse battles a superhero on a page that perfectly replicates a Golden Age, pre-Marvel comic. Rugg has found a nice balance between precision and a looser, sketchier line in this book. Jesse, an ostensibly homeless, kung fu-trained middle schooler, is a character that lends itself to this kind of style. Much of the art feels like a story that was doodled on the margins of a cool kid’s notebook, and the end pages reflect that, literally showing ballpoint sketches and logo treatments. This helps the entire book capture that feeling of being a misunderstood kid looking for any way to lash out and/or express themselves.
Maruca and Rugg ingeniously take that sentiment just one step further by giving Jesse the ability to literally lash out with cool kung fu moves. Her nemesis in this story is Jacob, a punk rock kid who’s driving characteristic is that he hates Jesse. The feeling is mutual and the main crux of this simple story drives it towards the “After School” fight of the title.
This is where the book really shines. The plot, such as it is, is pretty thin (though not without a wealth of detail about the drudgery of the life of an action hero stuck in Middle School), and mainly exists so that Rugg can draw spread after magnificent spread of fight sequences. It’s here that the “Street Angel After School Kung Fu Special” reveals itself as practically an art book. The fight sequences are so visually bold and inventive that they can be appreciated simply as individual graphic pieces of art and design.
The story itself isn’t without its surprises either, and overall it is a very satisfying piece of work. Maruca and Rugg find a multitude of ways to make the simple feel inventive and fresh.
Final Verdict: 8.7 – A complete package of a comic, “Street Angel After School Kung Fu Special” tells a simple story with style, wit, and ingenuity.
