Daily Breakdowns 018 - Licensed To Kid

I have in front of me a couple quite different books. The similarity is that they both feature alternative cartoonists working for hire on popular characters. And that's about the only place at which they meet.

The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet The Muppets
Written and Illustrated by Roger Langridge
Published by Boom! Kids. $9.99 USD

Roger Langridge is no stranger to either work-for-hire (Fin Fang Four for Marvel) or creator-owned (Fred the Clown) projects, and was only looking for a place to publish some unused Muppets pages originally intended for Disney Adventures when Boom! approached him about a miniseries, Boom! having just gotten licenses to publish several Disney-related comics. He didn't know it would be quite this popular, nor quite so satisfying.

I came to this collection fresh, having heard the comic was surprisingly good. If Langridge wasn't involved, I probably would have skipped it. Although I liked the show well enough as a kid, even then I thought it was pretty corny and the charm relied so much on the voice talents of Frank Oz and Henson and their puppetry skills rather than the material. So I figured Langridge would have his hands full trying to do something special here.

And, truthfully, the performance aspect is definitely missed, but Langridge makes up for it not only with attractive, on-model artwork, but he actually outdoes the original show's writing by working the familiar sketches like Pigs in Space, Muppet Labs and Veterinarian's Hospital around character-based stories. The four issues collected here (as well as those previously unpublished pages, which are just a bit off from this material but successful enough to warrant inclusion) each focus on one character per issue, with a delicate balance of comedy and poignance. Kermit's homesick for his childhood pond; Fozzie's lost confidence in his stand-up act; Miss Piggy thinks she's going to lose Kermit, and Gonzo...well, that one is played more for laughs and it's probably for the best, as unbroken string of Muppets moping would get old fast.

Langridge brings his love of the trappings of theatre from Fred the Clown to the proceedings here, but he's absolutely reverent to the show's format. The cranky judges, the silly songs, the pantomime, the backstage frenzy to avert disaster, even some thinly disguised celebrity guest stars--they're all there. And while I can't say I laughed out loud much, it's always clever and fun, and reminded me of the affection I still had for these characters.

Strange Tales #1 (of 3)
By Paul Pope, Nick Bertozzi, John Leavitt & Molly Crabapple, Junk Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Peter Bagge, The Perry Bible Fellowship and Jason.
Published by Marvel Comics. $4.99 USD

The remit for this project was quite different than The Muppet Show or other licensed properties; essentially Marvel asked the cream of the altcomix crop (and one manga creator) to have fun with their characters and be irreverent and indie and whatever wasn't typically Marvel. But it's like your boss inviting you and other coworkers out for drinks, to be one of the guys. Sure, it's nice that the boss is paying, but it's not like you can really open up completely. In other words, these sorts of things are, if not doomed, at least resigned to the fact that it's almost never going to be the best work of the creators involved.

That said, with some exceptions, and an admittedly slight feeling to most of the work, this issue works better than one might have expected. The longest and best story, and probably one of the main reasons this project exists, is Bagge's "The Incorrigible Hulk," which was intended years ago as a follow-up to his popular one-shot "The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man." No one was maimed by that silly special, and yet Marvel got cold feet about the Hulk special until now. Probably wisely, it's broken up across all three issues, but just getting five pages here, it's clear Bagge has an actual story to tell, crossing a possible nerd scientist romance for Bruce Banner with the Hulk befuddled by a take charge danger girl not too different from Bagge's Lisa character from his old Hate series. Apart from a color palette that relies too heavily on pastels for some reason, this is a real winner.

Jason's Spider-Man story is a hoot--Peter thinks he won't be a real man until he gets in a bar fight, so he contrives to make one happen with Doctor Octopus. It's silly and yet right in character for the superhero so unable to cast off his scapegoat skin he's friends with his old high school bully. Bertozzi contributes an odd one about MODOK's long-lasting but ill-fated love with a female AIM agent. That and the one-page Watcher intro both use the comedic premise of inhuman characters having human sexual urges, but the Watcher one is easy laffs while the MODOK one gets a little sad and affecting by the end. Pope's Inhumans story is also well-done--he's got too much imagination to restrict himself to one superhero, so the Inhumans are an inspired choice, and he comes up with a structurally solid trifle about a hungry Lockjaw continually interrupted with supervillain antics just when he's about to tuck into dinner. It also reminded me just how good Kirby was at designing memorable headgear.

The rest of the pieces here were less equal pairings of story and art, but all still successful. Shaw's Dr. Strange vs. Nightmare story gets by on its intensely naive visuals, not unlike the appeal of current cult series Cold Heat. Kochalka's Hulk story is as cute as one would hope--who wouldn't like to see Hulk with a nosebleed? The Mizuno Spider-Man/Mary Jane story is also about the weirdly sweet art, with spider-children like slightly perverted and much cooler Powerpuff Girls. The Leavitt/Crabapple She-Hulk wedding story seemed more of an excuse to play in Jane Austen territory, the hulking out only used as a pat and not terribly amusing ending. The Perry Bible Fellowship (Nicolas Gurewich) gets off two nice gags in two pages, while Ryan outdoes him with eight, most of which are extremely childish (Aunt May buys porno, Galactus has a booger on his nose) but absolutely restrained compared to most of Ryan's work. This is probably as close as he can get to all-ages. He also provides one of the lamer efforts, a two-pager with the Punisher scaring a punk kid into doing his homework. Kupperman has a ball with his piece, plopping a crisp, on-model '60s Sub-Mariner on top of murky, multimedia panels of scenes out of the Great Depression. Namor stands alone, seemingly unobserved, sneering at mankind like an unrepentant Ghost of Civilizations Past. Kupperman takes one of the least likeable of Marvel's superheroes to a logical conclusion. Somehow, although there is arguably better work here, this one got under my skin. "A dog, a barrel...ridiculous!" Indeed.

Christopher Allen
September 7th, 2009