White Picket Fences #1
Ape Entertainment |
Space aliens, the red scare, bomb shelters, nosey neighbors, an army invasion, secret government plots and, yes... there's dad with his pipe and evening robe. If you apply these fine ingredients liberally, add a dash of humor and a splash of retro-styled art then combine it all together and shake liberally, you have the basic ingredients for a highly enjoyable new comic series. Yes, friends and neighbors, we're not in Kansas (or even close to this decade) anymore.
What am I talking about? Why it's White Picket Fences [link] from Ape Entertainment [link] of course. This is the story of a kid named Charlie, space aliens, the red scare, bomb shelters... No wait, don't get me started down that road again...
Personally, I have a real soft spot for any title that can transport me back to when I was a little kid enjoying those early fort building years where everything in the world needed a heavy dose of exploration and nothing lacked the promise of adventure. I and my friends were explorers of the first kind back then. Lewis and Clark had nothing on us. Sure it was only about an hours worth of woods in any given direction, but to us it was a world of mystery where films like Goonies had utterly convinced us that there was more to the our home town than any adult could possibly know.
That said, I hope many of you can identify with the feeling I'm trying to describe. It's got Stand By Me written all over it. If you get it (and even if you don't), White Picket Fences is a book you should try as it will make you smile for all the right reasons.
In issue one, we find ourselves transported to the wonderful world of Greenview where Charlie has made a discovery while exploring an honest to goodness (at least in the kid's eyes) haunted house. This discovery leads to the "Weapon O.M.F.G." (love the humor in that name all by itself) being discharged ahead of schedule. From there the game is afoot!
Before we know it, we have the Army invading Greenville. Right away the story elicits a bit of double edged patriotism and unrolls all the paranoia of the red scare era while remaining utterly steeped in a fun, light tone littered with well placed humor. In Greenview, keeping up with the Jones equates to keeping up with their bomb shelter and an invasion by the Army is met with the key to the city. Here father is still told he knows best and the kids know the city better than anyone.
The story is well paced and given this is a kick-off issue introducing a brand new tale, it moves right along carrying the reader through nostalgia, a fun look at 50's family life, young friends and just a hint of the adventures yet to come. Marry that up with an art style that is just a bit different, a bit vintage and really very good and you have a title which will make you want to return for the rest of the series. I really liked it and recommend finding it at your local comic store.
Each of the three issues of White Picket Fences will contain a backup story, a six page installment of Captain Odyssey, which only adds bang to the buck in terms of this series. Retro-camp-early-scifi-space-fun at it's very best!
This makes two titles in a row which we've reviewed from Ape Entertainment and they both scored quite high on the Comic Related reviewer scale of 10. I guess you can count me as a new found fan of this company's work. I like what I've read from Ape so pass me a banana and make room in your monthly folder for some fresh new Ape-ly goodness.
Scale of 1 to 10 ... A strong 8.5 with promise!
June 21st, 2007 ... Review by Chuck
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