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SHUCK THE SULFURSTAR #1
by Rick Smith
($2.95,
www.sulfurstar.com)
Reviewed by Matt DembickiI'd heard of Rick Smith's
Shuck before but never had a chance to read it. Since Smith was relaunching the title with a new issue No. 1, I thought it'd be a good place to start and get acquainted with the book. Smith has a nice, cartoony style, but I had problems following the story. First, all the characters speak in a dialect, which makes it difficult to read through the book. Smith writes in the letters page that he did this to distinguish Shuck's world from our own. I think he could have accomplished that without using a confusing "lankwich." Second, the story is a bit fragmented. I simply didn't have a clear picture of what was happening. I know there's a play where an angel battles Shuck (a devil or demon), and at the end of it Shuck takes a break from theater and heads to a town called Thicket. It also happens that a little girl and her mom who watched the play are also headed to Thicket to see the girl's grandfather for an undisclosed reason. Shuck and the girl and her mom cross paths near the town. That's about all I was able to ascertain. The rest seemed esoteric. I'm sure
Shuck fans get it, but it wasn't a good issue for a new reader to jump in. I also wanted to note that the back cover has an installment from Smith's online dream comic "
Sawlogs", which I really enjoyed. I used to read it, but drifted away. I'm glad I was reminded that it's there!
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