Comics
[Comic Review] “Kaptara” #3 Glomps Wildy
Reviewed by Taylor Hoffman // @taylorcheckers
Kaptara is the modernization of The Lord Of The Rings in space, but even “better” because it’s a comic by Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod. Simply put, it’s an historical masterpiece and epic gay saga of the ages that details the most important mythical races and their struggle for survival through war, hate, hunger, and, the most insidious foes, time and space. It’s like reading a twitter feud at three AM between two spam bots when you know you should be sleeping or watching drug PSAs from the 70s: poetry.
Story by: Chip Zdarsky
Art by: Kagan McLeod
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: June 24, 2015
Price: $3.50
How much you like Kaptara depends on how you read it and what you want from a comic reading experience. If you’re concerned about deep, philosophical plot development and serious stuff, then this series might just seem annoying; however, if you want irreverent and really off-color Masters Of The Universe style fun, then it’s perfect. Zdarsky somehow creates inside jokes instantly by riffing off simple annoying characteristics of the bottom of the barrel humor, but it’s like South Park instead of Family Guy. Canadian and funny, just like Zdarsky. Coincidence?
Full of not-directly She-Ra references and overt social commentary, Kaptara is challenging to the reader because we’re forced to submerge ourselves into the depths of insanity to move forward. We’re still following the journey of an explorer named Keith, The Prince of The Dance Floor, who is stranded on a very dangerous and very strange planet, Kaptara, where he’s accidentally treated like royalty by a pretty peaceful people who don’t know better than to trust the inexperienced stranded stranger. Inter-dimensional threats are still at large, but Keith and the gang are all tied up with the Glomps. The Glomps are the hybrid blobs every horrible thing imaginable: internet trolls, bros, and smurfs. There’s absolutely nothing lovable about these cheap, racist, sexist, douchey chimeras, so it’s both frustrating and entertaining to read or even look at them, but they’re also so pathetic that it’s worth it. Overall, this issue’s main plot is a lesson in defeating trolls. In exchange for safety, Glomps send Keith on a mission to kill the wizard “Melvon,” who is really one of the creepiest and least hip old white guys in fiction, as evidenced by his grotesque body that is like a wizard cap on top of a taller version Shel Silverstein’s little dude in the poem “The Beard.” It’s cringe-worthy stuff, but in a mostly good way.
Kaptara is a unique book and certainly still lightyears away from any other space adventures right now. What it lacks in substance, the team makes up for in style. Keith’s character actually improves each issue and he’s beginning to become the voice of reason in all the craziness, which lays some nice groundwork for when the story gets even more complicated. He’s slowly moving away from being just a gay Indian version of Ignatius Jacques Reilly in space to just Keith, kind of a jerk in space.It’s like they’re challenging readers to believe in the story; what we’re presented with is the reality we paid $3.50 to experience, and dammit, that money is well spent on some “high-quality” art, some low-brow “humor”, and a lot of interesting “jokes.” By far, though, the best part of Kaptara is Motivational Orb and I can’t wait till the spinoff series, MOTIVATIONAL ORB: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! gets optioned for a television show.
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Taylor’s a Valkyrie at Black Cat Comics in SLC, UT. Follow her on twitter @taylorcheckers for cute chinchilla pictures and more about comics.
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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