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RED TOM'S RIFF REVIEW

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MST3K The Comic - #1



The Issue

So, before we talk about the issue itself, it is important to understand what exactly is going on. Apparently, someone had the bright idea of making this long running TV show into a full blown comic book. Well, at first, that sounded like an iffy idea. As many should know, the risk of bringing one medium to another, even something so simple as making a movie into a show and vise versa, is risky at best. The dynamics for one medium is completely different from the other. Even books to movies have been a complete catastrophe more times than anyone can count. Bringing a live action TV show to a comic book is an extreme gamble. Now add the dynamic of having a TV show that relies on watching bad films and making fun of said films. Throw that into the mix, and you have an enormous bombshell lodged into the Earth, waiting to explode if you slip one finger out of line. The very idea that anyone thought of this and set it into motion is absurd.

Well, they did it. How does such a thing work, you might ask? Well, it's a long explanation, so I hope you brought your toothbrush. The basics of it are that Kinga has evolved her Kingachrome into something new, they call it the Bubulat-r and it has the ability to turn all of your characters in a TV show into comic book characters and put them inside of the comic itself. Obviously, this is what they did to Jonah and the bots, but it's a little more complicated than that. 



Jonah, Tom and Crow have been turned into comic book characters who are actually inside the story and directly involved with it. The ones actually riffing the comic are Gypsy, M. Waverly and Growler, who remain outside the bounds of the comic itself. It's a bit confusing, but not overly so. They do a better job of explaining it through the comic book itself. 

The high and low of it are that Tom is the main character in the old 60's style comic and while the comic is going on, obviously there are riff bubbles included with the dialogue bubbles of the comic. Now, the real question is, how does this hold up?


The Grading

Obviously, there are highs and lows in this. You don't take such a ridiculous concept such as this without getting a few knocks on your noggin along the way. First of all, the artwork is absolutely stunning. Not only are the issue's normal panels beautifully done, but the old 60's style comic looks exactly like the real deal. Yes, Johnny Jason Teen Reporter is a real comic, they are riffing on the second issue of the comic. However, Tom and the bots are perfectly melded with the background characters, and for some reason putting Tom's head on the main character's body has worked very well. It honestly shouldn't, but it does. The riffs are funny, and honestly made me laugh out loud a couple of times. However...



Some things about the comic didn't click very well. First off, sometimes they did a little too much in the ways of editing the comic itself. It wasn't really all that fashionably great to stick Kinga and Max in with the product placement for Totino's Pizza Rolls (©Totinos). That part got a little off the beaten path. Other than that, sometimes they over riff a few of the panels and fall a little short on the rule "less is more." 

Beyond all that, I will say that I loved the overall set up of the comic itself. They left off on the end of the actual comic, and we haven't even seen Jonah or Crow yet. Obviously, each riffed comic issue is going to be something like a story arc for an actual super hero comic. How they're going to handle host segments and the like is anyone's guess.

It was a complete success as far as I'm concerned. If they keep up this kind of quality in their work, it wouldn't be a surprise if they lasted a good long while with this. The best bet is if all of the MSTies banded together once again to help keep this series going. Just stop by your local comic book store and be sure to pick up a copy, see for yourself. 

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