Bronze Age Boogie #1
Publisher: Ahoy Comics
Story: Stuart Moore
Pencils: Alberto Ponticelli
Inks: Alberto Ponticelli
Colors: Giulia Brusco
Letters: Rob Steen
Cover: Albert Ponticelli
Back-Up Stories: Tyrone Finch, Mauricet, Lee Loughridge; Bryce Ignman, Shawn Crystal; Kek-W, Darick Robertson
Back in my review of Coda, nearly a year ago, I mentioned how fantasy comics were becoming a popular genre within comics, and how Coda was an interesting genre-bender that combined fantasy with the post-apocalypse genre to create something unique. Now along comes Bronze Age Boogie, and it puts nearly every 70’s pop culture reference into a huge blender to create one of the most creative, if not also confusing, comics in the past few years.
The pop culture of the 1970’s was an interesting time of blaxploitation films, kung-fu media, disco, aging hippies, recreational drugs, esoteric and intellectual science-fiction, the Bronze Age of comics, and apes. Lots and lots of apes. Take all of this, and then add in some sword-and-sandals characters from the actual Bronze Age of earth (and a clever pun on the title), and you get Bronze Age Boogie, a fabulously inventive, psychedelic comic that promises to be a fun ride in future issues.
While the majority of Bronze Age Boogie focuses on Brita Constantina, daughter of barbarian king Domnall, nearly 4,000 years in the past, there’s a lot more to this story, including Brita’s companion, Sniffer, a talking Chimpanzee with knowledge (and items) from the future, and another setting from 1975 New York, where three other characters – Doc Lunar, Go-Go Golem (complete with mini-skirt and thigh-high boots), and Madame Ape (in a wheelchair, naturally) – talk about an impending alien invasion while sharing mushrooms and tequila.
All of this is laid out in the first two pages of the comic. Moore wisely skips any attempt at explanation, adopting a “show, don’t tell” technique, and jumps right into the story. The switch in focus from 1975 A.D to 1974 B.C. is slightly jarring, and the shift is made all the more confusing when it’s revealed that the alien invasion by spacecraft right out of a Victorian-era War of the Worlds book are attacking in both time periods, seemingly simultaneously.
Moore plays fast and loose with history, incorporating undead armies and dinosaurs into his Bronze Age barbarian setting, but the story is all the better for it, allowing artist Alberto Ponticelli to create some really wild, cinematic page designs, completely with two-page spreads and lots of action. Ponticelli’s character and creature designs are detailed, and his art and inking style for the barbarian scenes evoke some of the old Savage Sword of Conan stories from Marvel Comics in the 1970’s. Given the title of the book and its 1970’s inspiration, this is most likely a deliberate homage to some of the sources that inspired the creators. The scenes from the 1975 era have a slightly different style, which is accentuated by the completely different color palette between the two eras by colorist Giulia Brusco. The barbarian scenes tend to have a smaller array of colors, with a muted palette that looks aged. The modern scenes are more colorful, but not in a garish way; there is still a dark undertone that portrays a sense of dread.
Despite all of the action, time traveling, and creatures, a story is only as good as its characters, and Brita is a very relatable character. One of the best scenes in the story is a quiet discussion between father and daughter, as the large, overly muscled father has a touching moment with his daughter, Brita, that happens in-between the action in the story. This short scene conveys so much emotion and character development far beyond any of the more action-oriented scenes.
The amount of world-building in this main story is incredible; so much more happens toward the end of the story that builds upon everything that happened in the first few pages that to reveal any more would be to spoil the fun when reading it for the first time. This is not a story to be read quickly, as the amount of information being conveyed comes fast and furious, and a casual perusal of the story will miss much of the nuance and detail that makes it so much fun to read.
The main story of Brita Constantina is accompanied by a shorter 7-page story involving space exploration in the 1950’s, in a story called “Major Ursa.” Writer Tyrone Finch and artist Mauricet don’t have a lot of space to develop things too much, but the main characters are introduced and there is even time for a quick plot-twist at the end of the story that sets up the presumed premise of the series. The title of the story somewhat gives away the surprise, but it’s still fun seeing things unfold.
In addition to the main story, there are three additional one-page stories in this issue. The first, “I Say It’s Nostalgia and I Say the Hell With It” is by writer Stuart Moore and comes directly after the last page of the Brita Constantina story. It’s basically a peak inside the writer’s mind and why he chose to write this story and all of the pop culture influences from the 1970’s that got him to this point.
Secondly is a very unexpected, fun yet somewhat disturbing, semi-horror tale, “Animal Control Incident Reports: 437 Red Cedar Lane” by Bryce Ingman. This one-page prose story takes the form of actual incident reports from the Animal Control responding to strange goings on involving “two giant squirrels,” a “floating opossum,” and even weirder things. Talking animals are quite prevalent throughout pretty much every story in this comic, even though each story is written by a different person.
Last up is “How to Beat Writer’s Block” by Kek-W, a darkly humorous look at how writers can get their creative juices flowing again when they are out of ideas and are staring at a blank page.
Bronze Age Boogie is chock-full of entertaining comic reading, compelling characters, imaginative settings, and great art. The lead story alone was so much fun that it’s nearly worth the price by itself, but adding in the other stories (both graphic and prose) make this a great deal and a huge treat for all comic readers, but especially for those of us who grew up reading in the Bronze Age of Comics.
Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net
