Girls #1
Story & Art: Joshua and Jonathan Luna
Image Comics
Rating: 6.5/10
Naked cover girls always catch my eye, which probably explains my porn collection. Nevertheless, I never buy a comic without flipping through its pages. So I saw the nakedness on the cover of Girls #1, flipped through it, and figured I’d give it a shot. There seemed to be a story in there somewhere, and the art didn’t suck. Why not?
Opened the book. Saw sperm. Okay, par for the course for porn, but Image isn’t run by Larry Flynt, last I checked. Moving on.
So we have a horny protagonist (Ethan) who’s beset by a c***tease. He gets drunk in a local bar, mouths off some misogynist bull, and gets tossed out by the local sheriff. A single utterance of the F-bomb sets off some sort concussion, and then cut to the self-hatred method of drunk driving. Our hornball almost runs into a naked girl on the road, who promptly passes out in his arms. After he leaves with her, a couple of hillbillies surface, obviously fresh from raping her.
Great. Another story involving sexual abuse as a plot point. Excellent.
When Sam Kieth did Four Women, he created a compelling drama based around four women during an impending rape scenario. He gave us meticulously crafted characters and a story that gripped your guts like a steel vise. Four Women was a classic, one-of-a-kind graphic narrative.
Girls? Well, we have an a$$h0le, a hint of superpowers, and some banjo overtones. There’s not much meat on them bones.
Think of it this way – you’re sipping on a lattè at Open Mic, and you’ve heard a few lines of mediocre angst from a girl with emo glasses, stripped tights, and spiky green gelled hair. Under the right circumstances, she’d be the perfect pickup. Trouble is, do you want to deal with the drama and bull$h!+ that will inevitably follow the hookup?
And that’s how I feel about Girls #1. There are gaps in the dialogue-driven plot and art – adequately filled by the other when one falls short, but it’s still noticable. I’m told the Luna Brothers are talented individuals, but Girls #1 isn’t impressing me.
