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.