STREET ANGEL
Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca
Slave Labor Graphics
Every once in a while, a comic book comes along and whacks you about the face and neck –with a skateboard, for example – and reminds you why you started reading the damn things in the first place.
This is one of those books.
Street Angel is the story of a teenage orphan named Jesse Sanchez, living rough on the streets of Angel City. Jesse Sanchez, however, is no Artful Dodger: she’s an insouciant master of the martial arts; a skate-ninja supreme. And she’d kick your pasty website-surfin’ ass soon as look at you.
In between going to school and tracking down food and shelter, Jesse Sanchez fights ninja hordes (complete with name tags – those black outfits tend to work against individuality), mad scientists, demonic suitors, Space Irish and threats so terrifying and clanky that I dare not speak their name here. Her only allies are a sturdy deck, a quasi-limbless sidekick and a jive superhero whose ‘fro has gone the way of all flesh. And Jesus.
Street Angel could so easily have been a really dopey comic: the stories pretty much follow the same pattern of “Jesse meets Threat, Threat gets Slapped Down,” and so on. But Street Angel is far from dopey. The characterisation is spot on, from Jesse’s adolescent fearlessness to her moments of quiet sadness. The book is full of superbly judged humour, as well as pastiche of a number of well-worn tropes.
The artwork is phenomenal, combining the nervous mundanity of Daniel Clowes with the energetic abandon of Jim Mahfood. The fight scenes are fluid, bone-cracking things; the quieter moments are enclosed in a depressing urban squalor. Brian Maruca isn’t afraid to play with the page, either: ninjas fade to cut-outs against a black background, focusing attention on Street Angel. Occasionally, the sound effects go three-dimensional, almost tumbling out of the page with noise.
Street Angel overflows with a novel energy that you can’t help but love. Reading this book in 2005 brings back memories of first reading Tank Girl, in the 1990’s. It shares with that earlier work a palpable sense of unfettered joy. But beyond that, the character's situation adds a layer of melancholy that both grounds and balances the story, without crossing into mawkish, "issue" based plots.
If Jesse Sanchez is one of the best new
characters in years – and she is - then Street Angel is one of the best new
comics in years, raising the bar for new and veteran creators alike. Hit the official
website, then buy this comic: it’ll be the best present you give yourself this year.
Review Text (C) Matthew Craig