Thursday, April 12, 2018

TRULY GONE&FORGOTTEN: SUPER SIBLING AND HIS MAGIC CHOKES


Super Sibling and His Magic Chokes
(w/a: W.T.Vinson)

I did not get any joke in this whole biz.

Drawing in a style which I'd have to fairly -- and realistically -- describe as "Jack Davis at first glance," Vinson's drawing style isn't a disappointment. He illustrated the insanely dense wraparound cover of the book, after all, and the interior art on this baffling entry is also fun to look at. It's muddy as hell, though, which perhaps better suits the incomprehensible jokes being made every other panel. I DIDN'T GET THIS ONE! I have a hard time imagining anyone getting this, particularly in the target audience, except that I remember how ferociously some kids end up holding onto impenetrable humor. Probably there were guys who'd read this at eight and were still repeating "MAGIC CHOKES!" at fifteen. Nerds. This is how we got Ready Player One.

Yeah, this is crazy forced.

The adventure begins with the disappearance and re-emergence of Wanda Wimp, a go-go dancer who'd earlier fallen to her apparent death from the "skin diving jet" of "Carpmouth Rooney." Fucking see what I mean? At this point I'm not sure if "Carpmouth Rooney" is a specific pun of a particular personality or it's just one of those fucked-up, made-up names for a goon mentioned in passing. Likewise, I don't know if the jet skin-dives or if you skin-dive from the jet. OF COURSE YOU'LL FALL OUT OF A SKIN-DIVING JET, ISN'T THAT THE POINT? 

Oh, I don't like this ...
At some point, Wanda finds a literal iron fist with which she rules a race of giant slugs, becoming "Queen of the Slugs!" Apparently everyone in the jungle finds this fine until she steals the "Harley" of a guy who runs deliveries for a chicken joint, thereby drawing the attention of Super-Sibling!

Nope, we don 't know who the other sibling(s) is/are, but I guess that's the joke there in the implication. The hero flies around in his hot air balloon crimefighting base, blaring Guy Lombardo records and cramming his gullet with spoonfuls of his favorite cereal, Magic Chokes. This feels forced, doesn't it? This feels like this was an attempt to find the "zaniest" component to a narrative and not the most engaging or suitable.

When Super-Sibling finally meets Wanda Wimp, his solution to the problem is to cram armfuls of Magic Chokes down her throat until she loves him, then he steals the Harley AND the delivery job, the end. I feel like this ended a little ... Cosby-ish, nawmean? All of this felt wrong.

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