Broken Frontier

Anything but toxic, and shocking only due to its high entertainment value, TSC should properly be called Really Good Comics; except that then its title would suck.

An anthology of irreverent black-and-white zaniness, Toxic Shock Comics churns out slice-of-life slacker drama, killer lawn gnomes from Hell, super-hero parody, and, of course (lest the creators be accused of negligence), a monkey and some ninjas. The stories found inside TSC’s big premiere issue are uniformly witty in a wickedly underhanded way, and they additionally boast a rhythmic, natural style of scripting that blends the best qualities of Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino. While there’s nothing between TSC’s covers that is overwhelmingly original, neither is there anything disgracefully hackneyed or amateur. The quintet of stories offered here are alarmingly well paced, well timed, well written, and clothed in fanzine-style art that, for all its rough and rudimentary appearance, nonetheless manages to frame and strengthen the storytelling as in a stick-figure rendition of The Godfather that, due to its incongruous nature, manages to evoke more brutality, blood, and effective drama than a live-action movie could.

Writer Mike Storniolo handles the lion’s share of the scripting, his style being more a off-the-wall, anything-goes blend of humor and bizarre event than his coconspirators. His handling of Killer Lawn Gnomes From Hell (a very short but very sweet idea), Generic Super-Hero Man (a one-two parody of the old Hostess Fruit Pie comic book adverts), and The Subcultural Syndicate (the story with the aforementioned monkey and the ninjas) are all fine-tuned, and superbly executed. Storniolo has a fantastic sense of story continuity and comedic timing, and accomplishes to manipulate both into some effortlessly entertaining ventures. On the other end of the story pool, Messrs. Nick Clark and Zach Russell produced my personal favorite of the book – Kind Budz, the ongoing misadventures of a group of stoner slacker kids and the Archie-gone-wrong type of melodrama they face. In fact, Kind Budz reminded me of exactly a modern, honest update of the Archie mythos, using carefree teen kids of an emphatically more contemporary mindset and loosey-goosey moral fortitude.

Clark and Russell share equal credit on both the story and the art for Kind Budz, creating a visual style that lies somewhere between South Park and Richard Sala, leaving readers with a semi-gothic sense of flippant minimalism. Clark additionally illustrates the Killer Lawn Gnomes and Subcultural Syndicate stories, losing the Sala influence (presumably Clark’s part of KB) and presenting a tale that both appears and reads like a bare-bone, straight forward episode of The Venture Bros. (all the action, none of the plot). Chris Wilson handles the art chores for the Generic Super-Hero Man tales, and does a commendable job at putting forth a ribald version of the even-then haphazardly drawn Hostess commercial strips.

Through and through, Toxic Shock Comics is the best of the low-low budget best; it looks like what it is – an indy-underground mess of whatever came to the creators’ minds at the time – but it reads like something much more considered. The folks involved in TSC are talented – they can write a damn fine story and an uproariously funny short and more often than not their stuff is both simultaneously. TSC is fun, fun, and more fun and just when you think that that is all it’s going to be, it turns up being dramatically entertaining as well. With such a claim to stick to its fame, TSC should, ironically, take care of the toxic shock you’re suffering from having ingested far too many empty, poorly conceived mainstream books. I hear digitally colored pages are highly poisonous to the eyes – it warps the senses and blinds you to the vapid, gauche inelegance of Big Two blockbusters and overly atmospheric, pretentiously uninspired independent graphic novels. You need to buy this book before you lose all sense of comic book reality! For God’s sake, stop suffering and hurry up and buy Toxic Shock Comics #1 and learn what a good dose of media anti-venom can do for the eyes and the mind! (Says the media-situated reviewer in his media-supported review. Oh, well – thought that counts! Rock on, TSC boys!)

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For more information on Toxic Shock Comics visit www.toxicshockent.proboards43.com and www.myspace.com/toxic_shock_comics

For ordering info go to: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=141&osCsid=c4296bcafb5eec03b9bcf8152d5efc0b