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The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson #1 $0.99
Average Rating:2.3 / 5
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The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson #1
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The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson #1
Publisher: Cinemacomics
by Keith M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/17/2014 05:51:54

The art's nice, the writing... well, there's an interesting idea for a story underneath the cursing, unlikable characters, and the writer's poop obsession. Not a fun read.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson #1
Publisher: Cinemacomics
by Charles M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/23/2013 11:25:12

It's not a particularly enticing cover, after all. The cover image, itself, lacks visual impact. Sure, it depicts a scene, but it is done in a rather ho-hum fashion. There is nothing about the cover that makes me want to read the tale that it contains, much less make me look forward to the book as a series.

The way that the green text is depicted on the front cover helps to imbue the cover with a very amateurish look. It helps this title to blend in with a virtual sea of other mediocre comic book titles that compete for attention and readership with one another.

All that I was looking for, on this particular day, was a comic book to read - a free one. I had a little spare time, today, and I decided that I wanted to grab a comic book, one that was published by an independent publisher (i.e.: not a Marvel or DC title), and I was then going to try and sit down and write a review for it. So, in a roundabout sort of way, what I needed was a guinea pig - and Sheriff Clark and Deputy Jefferson, as things turned out, just happened to "volunteer" for the job.

I quickly flipped past the WANTED poster on page # 2, not even bothering to read the part where it said that Sheriff Clark was wanted for being a "notorious murderer of spacemen and such."

That should have been a clue.

So, anyway, I skip on past to page # 3, which is where the story actually started.

And this is where we get to the nut inside the shell of this review.

I liked the interior art. It's fine. It does it's job, good. It serves its purpose. It lends itself well to the telling of the story. Why on Earth they went with such mediocre cover art for this comic book, when the interior art is far superior to the cover art, is beyond me.

As for the story, itself - I like it. I enjoyed it. I really did. While, thus far, at least, I have only read just this first issue, I soon enough came to enjoy reading it. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Why?

Not because the story featured poop in it, nor even because its use of poop as a literary tool helped to inject humor into the storyline.

Rather, more than once, I found myself laughing aloud, as I read from page to page. It was amusing. It was honest laughter, on my part. If you focus on the issue's use of poop as a staging point for humor, then you are, I'm afraid, likely to miss the big picture. The humor worked, not because it was poop-based, but rather, because the dialogue between the two main characters worked.

This dialogue that they had going on between themselves was believable. It made the characters seem as if they had a personal connection. The dialogue extended past the poop. It built the narrative of the story.

The real story is not the tale covered by this single issue. Rather, the real story is the relationship between Clark and Jefferson, between Sheriff and Deputy.

Thus, in spite of this issue's over-reliance upon poop as an element to inject humor into the storyline, I feel that the issue succeeded. Personally, I think that it passed muster with flying colors. How do I know this?

Because, at the end of the story in issue # 1, I found myself looking forward to issue # 2. It's called anticipation, and it is a crucial part of a successful formula for comic books. Not just exclusively for comic books, mind you, but certainly, for comic books, amongst other things.

It works, and was successful, because I - the reader - found the work in question to be entertaining. It won't work as well for everyone, just as nothing works equally well for everyone. We each have different likes and dislikes. We each gravitate towards our respective tastes.

If this issue of this comic book had had a decent front cover, then I might well have considered rating it a 5-star find. The front cover certainly reeks far worse than the issue's fascination with poop.

Would I recommend this issue to others? Absolutely. Positively. I certainly would - and do, in fact.

Even though the setting is apparently in the Wild West/Old West, issue # 1 made only marginal use of the setting. The setting is secondary to the dialogue between Clark and Jefferson, where carrying the story to the reader is concerned. This isn't an inherently bad nor inherently wrong thing. In fact, there's much that can be said for this style of story telling.

Oh, sure, the accoutrements of the Wild West are there. There's horses, and cowboys, and bad guys, and even cactus. So, why, then, doesn't it have a stronger western flavor to it, to me?

Maybe it's due to adding space aliens into the mix. Or, maybe it's due more to the deputy's persona, as depicted. Deputy Jefferson has a strong lead playing that role. He's more than just a supporting character, that's for sure. Considering the name of the title, that's probably appropriate. Maybe the full "westernness" of it will only sink in, after several issues of it are notched on my belt.

The actual story of issue #1 of The Misadventures of Clark and Jefferson: Creatures from the Sky is a full 30 pages in length. Then, of course, you have the two pages that precede the story, and the three pages that follow it.

The follow on pages do a much worse job of tempting me to read the other comic book titles advertised on them, than this comic book issue did of tempting me to seek out the next issue in this series.

Issue # 1 was available as a free download on Drive Thru Comics, when I grabbed a copy of it. At that price point, you can't go wrong. You don't even have to hold the place up, in order to get a copy of it. Reading it is its own reward.

The "normal price" that is struck through has issue # 1 listed at $3.99. At that price point, any comic book feels like highway robbery to me. Don't let 'em scalp you on the price - but do read it, if you get a chance to.

And this is the point where this comic book review rides off into the sunset.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson #1
Publisher: Cinemacomics
by William H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/24/2013 20:38:18

I was looking forward to a buddy-Weird Western about cowboys and aliens (even though it's been done), but this was just terrible. The actual plot is decent, if not paper-thin, but the dialogue is really forced-Western and riddled with cliches. Every other panel had a character spouting off some bad one-liner. The thing that really killed this issue is the OBSESSION with crap (which is appropriate in hindsight). Seriously, our heroes spend about half the time either stepping in, falling in, hiding in or taking a shit. There were so many references to it that I'd completely forgotten what was going on in the story to begin with. No wonder this comic is free.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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