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June 23, 2005
Subway Reading: Shuck The Sulfurstar
Shuck the Sulfurstar #1 - This is a wacky book. According to the Shuck web site, Dave Sim described this series as "What if Seth and Alan Moore decided to do a ghost story with a George Herriman feel to it?" That sums it up very nicely. The Seth reference describes artist Rick Smith's drawing style, the Alan Moore bit refers to the dream-like tone and the demonic themes, and the closest comparison I can think of for the singular dialogue style would be Herriman's Krazy Kat.
A few months ago I panned Rick Smith's artwork in Temporary, his collaboration with writer Damon Hurd. In the context of Shuck, however, I think his naive-style drawing is a much better fit. The surreal story and offbeat dialogue are complemented by the loose art. In Temporary, the story demanded a contrast between the "real" world and the imaginary, but the off-kilter visuals blurred the distinctions a little too much for my taste. The two books stand as a telling example of the importance of matching the right artist to the right story.
Ultimately, the thing that sells Shuck is that bizarre voice. In the letters page, we learn that people have described the dialect as Cajun, African-American, or maybe Yankee Vermont, but these incorrect comparisons miss the point. I don't think there is an analogous real-world dialect that matches up to the one used in Shuck, and that's part of its charm. The reader is sucked into the comic's strange world and never once doubts that a goat-headed demon could walk around incognito by strapping on a plastic human face-mask. It's not just one big acid trip, however; human touches like the woman's exasperation with her elderly father keep the story grounded just enough to keep the reader hooked. Not only am I looking forward to the next issue, but I'm clearly going to have to track down the collected edition of the previous series.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at June 23, 2005 11:39 AM
Comments
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the first issue.
You can thank Tania for keeping the acid out of the trip on this book - she's so good at bringing a human element to my scripts and actually adores Thursday and her mom's stories almost as much as Shuck's - Enjoy SHUCK UNMASKED as well -
Posted by: Rick Smith at June 23, 2005 11:55 AM
I'm definitely looking forward to reading Unmasked. Nice job on the comic, Rick, and thanks for the comment!
Posted by: jdonelson_nyc at June 24, 2005 11:44 AM