Welcome to Longbox Junk, where I write comic reviews even though nobody asked me to!
FAIR WARNING: I'll keep it "PG-13", but this review discusses some "adult" subjects. You have been warned! Okay. . .everyone in that's staying in? Let's go.
If you've been around on the internet for a while, you may have seen the term, "The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish". It refers to a situation where a creator's personal interests (often of the sexy kind) are reflected in their work. Sometimes intentional, but in many cases, seemingly unintentional.
"What the HELL are you going on about, Atom?" You say. "I'm here for a comic review I never even asked you to write, not a meme lesson!"
What I'm going on about is that the comic at hand today is a PERFECT illustration of the concept of "The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish". You'll see what I mean. Enough introduction. . .LET'S DO IT!
KYRA #1
Elsewhere Productions (1985)
COVER: Robin Ator
THE COVER:
Yep. And there it is. The entire concept behind this comic in one image. It's one of those covers that reflects EXACTLY what you're going to get inside. It's actually not a bad cover for an 80s black and white Indie comic. I like the colors and the big, bold title. They really catch the eye. Overall, I like this cover, but there's absolutely no way I'll be putting it into my rotating comic cover display on my office wall.
MOVING ALONG!
THE STORIES:
There's two full stories in here. Let's give each one their own fair turn, shall we? WE SHALL!
A Rustle Of Feathers
SCRIPT: Robin Ator
PENCILS: Robin Ator
INKS: Robin Ator
We begin our tale in the Jungle. As our hero explores, she is attracted by strange sounds. Investigating, Kyra discovers a strange situation. . .a man, being ritualistically tortured by natives and a few out of place foreigners. They are led by a mysterious, cloaked woman.
Kyra leaps into the clearing and disrupts the torture! The mysterious leader commands her minions to destroy the interloper. The attacking minions are no match for Kyra's jungle fury! They fall easily, but their leader joins the battle, surprising Kyra by blasting orbs of flame from her hands!
Kyra has no defense against the magical attacks, so she decides to grab the man being tortured and flees for both of their lives!
As Kyra flees through the jungle, she discovers that the woman was trying to find the location of a sacred hill. . .the very hill where Kyra makes her home! As she moves toward home with the wounded man, she reflects on the past and we get a FLASHBACK MONTAGE!
Kyra remembers her life in the jungle as a child, the daughter of another Jungle Queen named Kageena. She fondly remembers her father's visits, when he taught her lessons of books and writing, while her mother taught her of the jungle and combat. She wonders how Kageena would have handled a witch. . .
MEANWHILE, IN BANGKOK. . .
The mysterious hooded woman, revealed as Johanna Starling, is NOT happy. She flies into a rage at her underlings for failing to find the sacred location, which contains some sort of rare mystical metal she desires. She is determined to get what she wants and will not let some little jungle girl stand in her way!
BACK IN THE JUNGLE. . .
Kyra visits a local village to help them with a water pump. She doesn't realize that Starling has dispatched mercenaries to the same village to watch for Kyra and take her down if she shows up.
Kyra senses the trap and spots the mercenaries, allowing them to follow her out of the village before she springs her trap and turns on them! As she thrashes the thugs, they desperately call for help and Starling herself joins the battle!
Starling takes Kyra by surprise, using mental illusions to attack! Kyra's strength of mind is able to break through the illusions, so Starling attacks using the same balls of fire as before. Kyra is able to dodge the sorcerous flames. Starling begins to weaken, but still has enough power left to be able to summon a zombie to attack Kyra!
Kyra desperately tries to destroy the dead thing attacking her, but nothing is working! It seems that Starling has gained the upper hand. . .until Kyra remembers a story about zombies her father taught her. She grabs some salt and finally destroys the foul creature!
Severely weakened and knowing she's lost THIS round, Starling mocks Kyra and vanishes back to her home. Kyra considers her victory a failure. She brought danger to the villagers she was supposed to protect. The only answer is for her to leave, and so she does.
The End. . .To Be Continued.
THE REVIEW:
It's a simple story, fairly long, and mostly action. As an introduction to Kyra, it's not terrible, but it's also not very good. The story itself seems more of an afterthought to the art. It's pretty clear where most of Ator's effort was put. The story is basically a flimsy framework to hang some jungle girl art on. Pretty much exactly what was advertised on the cover.
Unfortunately, even the art isn't THAT great. It's got some good moments, but it's generally sort of rough and sketchy. I'd say it's barely on the good side of "pretty good".
I have quite a few Golden Age jungle comics in my collection and this is definitely a throwback to the days of flimsy stories propping up an excuse to draw scantily-clad women in a way that could legally be sold in public. So for THAT, I can appreciate what Ator is trying to do here. Even so, there's not enough meat on the bone to really grab me and make me want to see what happens next.
But I ain't a quitter, son! NEXT STORY!
Jungle Justice
SCRIPT: Robin Ator
PENCILS: Robin Ator
INKS: Robin Ator
The creator gives us a note that this short story is actually an earlier appearance of Kyra that was originally in an (unnamed) "obscure" underground publication, along with a bit of story setup. . . .
We begin with Kyra swinging through the jungle, just thinking happy jungle thoughts before we get a quick look at her hidden home within the ruins of an ancient lost civilization. . .
HEY-OH!
Kyra gets bored with just sitting around and decides she hasn't been getting enough exercise, so she starts swinging through the jungle again, looking for some action. She spots a crocodile and decides that a bit of wrasslin' is JUST what she needs!
Kyra is Queen of the Jungle, so of COURSE she easily defeats the crocodile, but it's all just in a good day's fun and she lets the wounded croc go free to heal so they can wrestle another day. . .
BUT THEN. . .
As Kyra surfaces, she's surprised by a stranger in the jungle! And he's got a gun! The stranger demands Kyra tell him how to get out of the jungle. She tells him nobody forces her to do anything. He shoots! They start to fight!
Kyra quickly overpowers the stranger, but he's got a few tricks up his sleeve. He kicks her in a sensitive "area", and punches her unconscious. The stranger leaves Kyra there and continues trying to escape from the jungle.
Kyra recovers and quickly tracks the fleeing thug. She plans her attack. . .the timing MUST be perfect! Swinging on a vine, she captures the unsuspecting stranger's face between her mighty thighs!
Helpless in Kyra's mighty grip, the stranger struggles as she swings over a rocky chasm, releasing him to fall to his death! She decides she's had enough and heads home.
The End.
THE REVIEW:
This earlier story leans quite a bit harder into the "fetish" nature of this comic, with a bare-bones story told in giant panels and one page splash scenes featuring Kyra in various revealing positions. With a bit of bondage and violence thrown in for good measure.
That said, I actually liked the art much more on this one. Ator's style was a lot less sketchy, with bolder lines and a more fluid sense of motion than the first story, which was done later and has a more sketchy inking style to it.
But at the end of the day, this is the sort of thing that makes me feel a bit weird for reading it. Because I know it was done for a very specific sliver of the comic fandom at the time. I'm not really part of that group. I'm just here reviewing comics I find in the dollar bins.
That said. . .nice art. Don't judge me.
Okay, I guess you can judge me, if you really want to.
CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this issue, on the inside cover, there's a short essay from the publisher giving the reader a bit of an introduction. It talks about the increasing acceptance of muscular women and the roots of Kyra being based on an EXTREMELY obscure Golden Age comic book Jungle Queen, Kageena.
Now I'm going to make myself sound a bit old here, but if anyone reading this was around in the 1980s and watched any "adult" videos, then you might remember that at the beginning of those videos, there was always a guy sitting at a desk who would give a little short spiel going over the benefits to society that "adult" videos provided. I think it was a legal thing to dodge obscenity laws.
Yes, yes. . .I was young once and watched a few dirty movies in my day.
ANYWAY. . .
That's EXACTLY what this little opening essay reminds me of. It's like, "What you're going to read is an exploration of the beauty and power of the muscular woman, and it's perfectly healthy to do so".
So what I'm saying is what we have here is basically a fetish comic for people who love muscular women. Remember that this was the 1980s. There was no internet for people to find and share their various "interests" on. There were magazines, video tapes, and comic books. More accurately, most of these kinds of comics were called "Comix" and sold at head shops.
"What the hell is a Head Shop, old man?" You ask.
It's where you used to go to buy your "tobacco smoking" paraphernalia. You know, for people who like to smoke "tobacco" out of a fluorescent purple skull bong?
These establishments also sidelined as "adult" video and magazine stores, and sometimes as underground Comix shops. You could find stuff by R.Crumb, Milo Manara, Art Spiegleman, and many others. And they would have lesser-known indie comics like the one at hand.
Like I said above, it feels a bit weird to actually be reviewing the contents of a fetish comic, but they ARE a part of comic history and this one is actually quite a bit tamer than some I've seen. There isn't anything really offensive or explicit in it. . .it's just a guy's expression of love for the muscle mommies. And obviously, Robin Ator has MIGHTY love for the muscle mommies.
Objectively, this isn't a very good comic. It was written for a specific sort of person. If you aren't that sort of person, there's not going to be much here for you to like.
The stories are extremely weak, you can definitely tell Ator was more about the art. But even the art isn't THAT great. It's decent, even pretty good in places (especially in the second story), but it never goes beyond "pretty good". If you aren't into the specific thing this comic is celebrating. . .muscular women. . .then there's absolutely no reason to bother with it.
I was actually surprised to see that Kyra has more than one issue. There were five published, with two more in production before the series was cancelled. Normally, when I see comics like this. . .and truthfully, a LOT of 80s black and white indie comics no matter WHAT the subject. . .they will say "To be continued" but the one issue is all there ever was. I guess there were enough people with the specific interest this comic was targeting to keep it going for a little while.
Even MORE surprising was discovering this series was actually collected in trade with the material from the 6th and 7th issues included, which is REALLY unusual for a black and white 80s indie comic.
But the REAL plot twist was learning what happened with Robin Ator after Kyra. . .
He did a bit more work in comics, including a couple of issues of NOW's Terminator (Issues #7 & 17), but left in the 90s to teach art and to go into the entertainment industry doing storyboards and character designs for animation.
But his MOST recognizable work is in advertising, where he created a group of beloved characters that I'm quite sure almost everyone reading this are VERY familiar with. I'm talking about these guys:
Yeah. Those guys. The M&Ms
ANYWAY. . .
Kyra. Crap story, okay art, a bit uncomfortable. The creator's story is actually more interesting.
That's it for this bit of Longbox Junk. Thanks for coming by and I hope you'll come back again for more. Until then, remember that comics are worth more than money!
No comments:
Post a Comment