2014 has brought and continues to bring some pretty oddball releases to the shelves, and frankly this makes for good reading. But if you had told me that in 2014 we’d be seeing the return of the Rock comic? If 2014 can bring us books like Afterlife with Archie and Groo vs Conan, fantastic titles that exist to prove how awesome their concept can be executed, who am I to doubt the return of rock to the scene? Now if you told me that not only were we getting a rock n’ roll on-going; but an ALICE COOPER on-going; you’d have my undivided attention. If that were all we were talking about, that’d be impressive. But would one comic suffice? Can we really say that we expect only one title to represent the king of shock rock on the shelves?
On the chopping block today we have a double header; this month brings us both Dynamite’s Alice Cooper #1 (the first issue in an ongoing comic!) and BlueWater Comics’ Alice Cooper biographical one-shot. Which, if any, of these titles is worth your money? Find out after the cut.
First, let’s talk about BlueWater’s Alice Cooper one-shot, and get it out of the way. Because, for all intents and purposes, this book is downright awful. If you’ve never seen a BlueWater biographical comic, a quick google search will fill you in. We’re not exactly swinging in the big leagues with this here book. No star-studded team, no real clout; and even though this book is playing in the minors it still doesn’t stack up.
BlueWater’s biocomic goes like this. The frame narrative is some kids want to summon up the spirit of Alice Cooper, the man, in order to help them combat a spirit that they believe is haunting them. The kids argue about the difference between Alice Cooper the man vs Alice Cooper the band (in some very awkward walls of text) and eventually meet the man himself by issue’s end. The plot is decidedly after-school special, and nothing can really save the book from that.
Admittedly the book has some fun bits. For one, seeing Frank Zappa in this book was pretty fun, not a surprise given his history with Alice Cooper but still a nice treat. And the book delivers a pretty great amount of information about the man and the band, though admittedly in a pretty dry way. Nothing on this earth could be funnier than seeing a group of kids (the frame narrative of this story being kids conducting a séance) talk about Sexual Dualism and paganism.
But, in a pretty bizarre way, this book made me enjoy Dynamite’s offering a lot more. BlueWater’s biocomic really informs a lot of the dualities at work within Alice Cooper’s persona; dualities that give me a lot of hope for Dynamite’s ongoing despite a lukewarm intro issue.
The book’s plot attempts to reconcile those dualities not unlike the BlueWater title, but this time to much more interesting effect. Alice Cooper the man is bound to a record deal by a diminutive devil, and in turn is sealed off from his true self, who is locked in a tower. Throughout the book we get interspersed scenes from really all over the place, Alice on tour, a kid getting his hands on his first LP, and more.
In a weird way it both succeeds and falls short of being a fun book, and overall left me feeling rather lukewarm about the whole thing. One thing I can’t fault at all is the art. For one, the cover. David Mack is one of my favorite artists in the business and he kills on cover duty. The internals are equally eye-catching. It’s hard not to be extra critical of likenesses in a comic but the King of Nightmares is looking as good as he ever has in just about every panel. The art really does do a lot of heavy lifting in this book, considering it has just about every kind of thing a comic can have going on between its covers. Demons, monsters, and busty women and a boa constrictor occupy page 1 alone; and that’s just foreground detail!
But the contents, aside from that wild art, deserve some serious discussion. As someone who grew up with at least one issue of the old KISS: Psycho Circus book rattling in my backpack, I’m no stranger to how books like this go for absolute wildness over coherence. But this is the reason I can’t recommend going out for an issue #1, especially in this case. Issue #1 tries to set up so much, and it won’t be another few issues before we really find out whether all of this pans out. It’s really a task to capture everything that makes Alice Cooper such a dynamic figure in one issue, but I have great hope for this title. Issue 1 did nothing to truly discourage me, it just didn’t burst out of the starting gate. It has plenty of potential, and is certainly a horse to watch!
So: the breakdown. Dynamite’s Alice Cooper is a book to watch if you have absolutely any interest in it. Maybe pick it up, absolutely pick up the trade if any part of you wants to read the ongoing adventures of the Lord of Nightmares in unrestrained comics excess. If anyone could really thrive as a comics character; it’s Alice Cooper. Theatrics and imagery like his without physical restraints could and hopefully will make for a great Dynamite title. BlueWater’s offering on the other hand should be left where you found it, and at the absolute most flipped through for some smiles. Alice Cooper deserves much better than that. If nothing else, take this opportunity to crank your car stereo and blast “Hey Stoopid” on the way to your local shop, pay homage to one of the greatest showmen of our time
