COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 337

Winding Down Then Up

Things are getting pretty hectic 'round here, what with school kicking in with actual assignments. Over at NYU we missed about a week of classes because of the attack, which left most professors and students disorientated and displaced. But now the instructors have got their business together, and so my nose is to the grindstone to make up for lost work. Additionally, I've been foolish enough to volunteer my services in the number of geeky things, notably an informational article for the anime/manga fanzine Tsunami and working staff for next year's Shoujocon. So stay tuned for my reports from the seedy world of Japanese fandom.

With all these different things to worry about, I haven't had time to get myself to a comics shop yet. Fortunately, I still have one thing to review from SP-Xiles (what a useful trip that turned out to be!) that I saved for last. Because it was the best. Really, I mean it.

Royal Flush
Volume 2, Book 1
Published by the Number Foundation (www.numberfoundation.com)
Summer 2001
72 pages
$8.95

"every story is a gamble..."

Passing through the crowded room of SP-Xiles, scanning the Mexican- style market for something that looked interesting and intriguing, this was the first title to catch my eye. I snatched it up and read it on the train to my friend's house. I was quite impressed.

The title is professionally printed, with a cardstock color cover and glued binding. By traditional standards, what I'm holding in my hands here is not technically a "comic book" so much as a "magazine." Amazing what a difference size can make.

The book is anthology format, presenting some twelve stories along with single-page randomness. Everything is in black and white, art styles varying from cartoonish to surreal. The one unifying factor is that all of the work is clean and easy to distinguish: at no point will you turn the page from a beautiful piece of line art to encounter a disgusting mess of scratchy lines. Royal Flush has a clear standard of art it chooses to maintain, to both their and our advantage.

The writing quality and imagination, however, varies widely between tales. The first story, "The Happy Meal Adventure" is a befuddled piece of satire that tries to make you laugh but comes off stilted and awkward. If you manage to get through it, or decide to skip it all together, the next few stories are pure gold, if to your taste at all. For Royal Flush's biggest strength is in being offensive - when the stories are laden with stereotypes and cheap South Park-esque humor. No decent person should be caught reading this book. However, if you consider yourself somewhat vulgar and daring, you will enjoy yourself reading twisted such tales as "Hispanic Batman" and the "Mitzvah 4." You'll enjoy the raw urbanity of "Lone Wolf McQuade." Or the wicked mess of high school in "The Tater Tots."

There is a strong cinematic influence present, though not of any scholarly measure. We are treated to a somewhat halted action movie parody in "The Man Who Beats Priests" and the one-page portrayal of the everyday life of "Jason Vorhees" is just plain weird. There are two prose pieces which I admit to not reading in full because I found them simply too long - prose stories are inappropriate for a comix anthology. The Golden Books parody near the end was intriguing, but ultimately disturbing enough that I was turned off. "Clown Police" just didn't do anything for me, since I had no idea what exactly was happening there anyway. My favorite piece of the book was a one page parody ad called "Jesus Christ Kickboxer." Religion, fighting, and great abs. What more could a girl want?

I hereby appoint Royal Flush as "book to be whored out to all my friends and slowly destroyed by the many groping dirty hands." This is a big honor. Really, I mean it.