I know, I typically review a large series in small groups. With Girls I’m going to review all twenty-four issues all at once. It’s simply too good to break up and it’s the whole that is so phenomenal! This is the second series produced by the Luna Brothers who finished off Ultra in a mere eight issues. I should probably mention at this point that if you were expecting something along the lines of another Ultra with super-hero oriented comics, think again. This is a completely new world.
That being said let me say that this is one of the most creative things I’ve ever come across. I’ve read so many books/comics, watched so many movies, listened to so much music, and played so many video games that I thought I was done being blown away. Well the Luna Brothers stepped up to the challenge and succeeded. To be honest if I had just read Ultra before this came out, I wouldn’t have been as excited to follow these writers. That whole concept of the everyday lives of super heroes has sort of been touched upon. Girls, on the other hand, I don’t think has ever really been done before. I’m sure they have their influences, but as a whole I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
Welcome to a small out of the way town called Pennystown. The story sort of centers around a character named Ethan. He’s like any other average American guy living in a small town. Works at a boring job and has girl problems. Most of us growing up and being around college age can probably relate in some fashion or another. The comic overall is a highly sexualized series and if the nudity wasn’t enough to clue you in that this is for adults, the violence and script should be enough to seal that one. Anyway this is like one of those small towns you see in “Leave it to Beaver” or the “Andy Griffith” show where just about everyone knows everyone else. So thanks to the tight gossip tree anything you do gets around to pretty much everyone else.
I’ll basically go over the general concepts of the first couple of issues just to intrigue people, but after that I’m done. This series is better left for people to read on their own to discover. So basically Ethan is driving home from the bar when he almost hits this beautiful naked girl in the street. Ethan being a fairly kind hearted individual wants to help any way he can. He is actually a very nice guy at heart, just a little too nervous at times. So he picks her up and brings her back to his place, because apparently communication isn’t her strong suit. Like any normal person the first thing he does is get her something to wear. He also gives her some food. However… like most other normal guys when she comes onto him very strong he doesn’t say no, especially since things weren’t going all that well for him in this town in that regard. Okay… now at this point things seem normal right? Not too long after that she’s in the bathroom and something strange is happening. She’s literally laying eggs! They’re growing bigger and hatching exact duplicates of the girl he just slept with… it’s like some scary parasite! That’s right… I know you’re intrigued by this “wtf” scenario. I love it. Honestly, I don’t think many people could pull off writing this kind of a messed up story very well. You’d think at some point things would fall apart, but that never happens. The story stays very strong and builds up even more beyond this point. If that didn’t happen I couldn’t say this was one of the best comics I’ve ever read.
Beyond that basic story premise the characters we meet in this town are so well developed. They really captured the kinds of people you tend to meet in the world. Their reactions to a crisis situation are highly plausible. You really do feel bad for Ethan towards the end at having to put up with some of these inept townsfolk, but you feel that for a lot of the other kids too. As you can see I’m mostly at a loss for words at how well developed this story is. It’s a completely messed up concept and it’s so shocking it’s great! Better than great!
Okay, I guess I should say something about the art. Basically it’s nearly the same as Ultra. The Luna Brothers seem to be sort of a one trick pony in this regard, but I actually don’t mind so much. Artistically it’s definitely good enough to get the job done. Sure it’s nothing as strong as Stephen Hughes, Dale Keown, or Romano Molenaar, but the art isn’t poor or very bad by any stretch of the imagination. They actually manage to capture the essence of the tale pretty well with what they have. It’s a little simplistic, but people don’t look disproportional or “strange” in any way. However, with scripts and story concepts this strong I really don’t care if their art might get redundant. Plus this art just works for what I’m reading. It’s tough to explain, but the atmosphere is simply perfect.
Overall, I absolutely recommend this. If you’re looking for something that will throw you for a loop or just want to read something messed up… get this. It’s a complete mind screw at times. It captures the annoying kind of world we’re subjected to on a daily basis. I simply can’t recommend this enough and at this point it is the most impressive story I’ve come across in comics so far.
I do have a bit of a random story that goes with this series and if the Luna Brothers ever read my review they’ll probably appreciate it. I hadn’t collected comics in years; seriously the last time I collected was probably when I was thirteen. I’m twenty-six now. My girlfriend’s an illustration major and goes to an art school. So near the school is a comic book store, makes sense. My girlfriend was a much more current collector and wanted to go check out the comic store down the street. So we went into the store and we were walking around. I wondered if any of the old series I used to collect were still being printed and they were, so I flipped through some of those. As I was looking around I saw prominently displayed on a shelf a comic titled “Girls” with a girl jumping on the cover (issue 7 specifically). So naturally judging by the cover I really expected this to be a comic geared for girls. Not that this is a bad thing, but I remember thinking to myself “boy, comics sure have changed a lot since I was collecting.” I decided to amuse myself to see what sappy or gossip based story would be inside. If you’ve read this series you know as well as I do this has nothing to do with that. Sure there’s drama and there’s even some gossip, but oh man is it weird. As I flipped through the pages it went from seeing something that seemed somewhat average to one of the strangest stories I have ever encountered in my entire life. I was instantly hooked. I bought the earliest issues I could there and then scrounge around for the early ones I was missing online. I have since gotten over a thousand new comics within a year and filled the gaps in most of the series I used to collect. The Luna Brothers have single handedly brought me back into the comic fold!
Overall Rating: 5/5