I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Dressed to Kill (1975).

I feel like I used to  give this disc short shrift because (horrors) its cover is in black and white.  But, unlike the first two discs which were heavy (poppy, but heavy), Dressed to Kill is very anthemic and, well, a little wimpy.  Despite these caveats, I still know every word to the disc, and I do rather enjoy it.

In fact, the first four songs on the disc are not featured on Alive!.  It starts out really poppy with “Room Service” which has a pretty wild guitar solo.  The next track, “Two Timer” is a Gene-sung slow track which even has Gene getting into a spoken word bit: “That’s the truth baby, you’re a two timer.”  “Ladies in Waiting” is one of those fun Kiss songs that starts out a little off-sounding but ends up being a really poppy singalong.  “Getaway” continues a trend of songs that Ace wrote but which Peter sings.  (Evidently Ace didn’t feel confident in his vocals yet).  The side ends with the cool “Rock Bottom,” a slow, pretty guitar intro opens into a rocking song.

This is the rare Kiss disc where Side Two has more hits than Side One.  “C’mon and Love Me” (an unusual request, frankly) is a fun rocker with a lot of baby baby’s.  “Anything for My Baby” is a really upbeat song which amuses me for all of the things that he swears he would do for her: steal, wheel and deal, crawl or kneel, etc.  Next is “She,” one of the all-time great Kiss songs.  It’s heavy, it’s menacing, it has an awesome guitar riff and a great guitar solo.  The fact that they tucked it away in the middle of side two is really weird.  “Love Her All I Can” is a fast rocker that’s followed by Kiss’ most popular song of all time, “Rock And Roll All Nite.”  At this point in my Kiss listening career I’m a little tired of this song.  It’s a very catchy anthem, no doubt, but it’s really not a very good song as far as Kiss songs go.

The recordings for the Kiss Alive! disc were taken on the Dressed to Kill tour and yet the live album has the fewest songs taken from this album.  It’s kind of funny that their most popular song comes at the end of this disc.

[READ: December 22, 2009] Wet Moon

This is a fantastic goth-inspired graphic novel with the absolutely worst title ever.  Wet Moon is the name of the town the book is set in, but it is never mentioned beyond the welcome sign, and I just can’t imagine what inspired the name.

Okay, actually, I just looked up wet moon on Wikipedia, and found out that it is an astronomical term for when the “horns” of a crescent moon point up, away from the earth (like devil horns).  And so I completely take back my complaint, as I now think the term is pretty cool and very appropriate.

And that is the only thing that I find disagreeable about this book.  (Well, actually I don’t like the lettering either, but more on that on a moment).

The town of Wet Moon is a college town where goths live and thrive (and no doubt many fans of the book wish the could live there).  Our heroine is Cleo, a young, slightly overweight goth with a pierced nose and bottom lip.  She has just moved out of her parents house and is living on campus.  (There is an implication that her house is a dorm, but if so, it is the single most beautiful dorm ever, anywhere, so I’ll pretend it’s an apartment–I mean, there’s a walk-out balcony for cripes sake).

Anyhow, Cleo’s friends include Trilby, a rambunctious skinny punk (you can’t be blonde and goth, right?).  She is foul-mouthed and a ball-buster.   Audrey is a beautiful black woman who is the least punk of all the girls, but who is good friends with everyone.  Mara another black girl is a scary punk with spikes in her nose and under her bottom lip.

Cleo’s new roommates are Natalie (we don’t know much about her yet) and Malady (a black woman with blonde dreadlocks and a lip ring).  Their first introduction comes when Malady finds Cleo bent over the toilet throwing up.

And that introduction kind of sums up the way Cleo feels these days.

The story is largely plot-free in this first book.  We meet Cleo’s friends and hear them bicker with each other.  They go to a goth club where the underage Trilby gets drunk.  And Cleo goes to her first class, which she flees from as soon as she sees….

Well, actually I don’t know who the person is.  I’m not even entirely sure if the person is a man or woman (s/he’s very tall with long hair and an intense demeanor).  Cleo has seen this person a couple of times and s/he has made her nauseous each time (there is clearly a past between them, although it is not explained).

There’s also a scene in a Denny’s which I found rather amusing.  The kids are smoking and cursing while Trilby tells them that she is supposed to be meeting a guy for a possible date.  The reactions of the friends was totally believable.

Cleo also discovers the phrase “Cleo Eats It” all over town.  Since she’s the only Cleo any of them know, she assumes someone has it in for her.  (Although I secretly hope it’s a new band in town).  Cleo does have an enemy around town, however.  She’s a former friend and she is certainly spreading bad tidings about her.

The really fascinating story line concerns Fern.  Fern is a completely hairless (the only nudity we see concerns her) woman with crazy piercings (she has rings in her back (ow!)) and what I believe is an amputated arm.  It’s unclear who she is or what her story is, but as the book ends she expresses and interest in Cleo.  Hmmm.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this story.  I had my own tiny goth phase (although again, being blond is quite a hindrance) and am still friends with people who are, so I appreciate the scene.  All of the characters are compelling and interesting.  Not all are likable, and I think that’s what keeps the story believable.

But beyond that, the artwork is simply amazing.  Cleo is rendered so wonderfully, with such love and detail.  There’s even a sequence where Cleo is examining herself in the mirror and it’s a grand opportunity for Campbell to show off his incredible detail work with faces.  Cleo makes all kinds of funny faces that people make in the mirror, and the renderings are spot on.

And, of course, its nice to see normal looking people in a book.  These women are wonderfully shaped, they are believable.  Even skinny Trilby is believable-skinny not supermodel-skinny.

Emotionally, the story feels real too.  The cast is mostly women, although there are a few men in there too.  And the interactions between women and men are believable (although it is clear that Campbell writes women better than men, as the male characters are mostly peripheral). In many ways it reminded me of a punk version of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For (and who would have thought when DTWOF came out that there would be anything more subversive than that?).  It is multicultural, accepting of different sexualities and is a fully formed, self-contained universe that gently pokes its head into the real world.  It’s fantastic.

The only gripe I had was with the lettering.  It feels very sloppy to me.  I suppose it kind of works in the context of these characters, but it doesn’t feel intentionally sloppy, it feels a little hurried (like words don’t fit properly).  I’m not sure what to make of it, but honestly it doesn’t bother me that much. It’s just at little surprising since he takes so much care with the rest of his page.

There are a total of five books in this series, and I can’t wait to read the rest.

Ross Campbell has written a few different graphic novels, but this is my first exposure to him.  I’m definitely going to be looking into some of his others, too (The Abandoned & Water Baby seem like good contenders).