Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wet Moon vol. 1; A Hardcore Review

I am going to remind everyone who reads these reviews that the grading system I use is this: instead of thumbs up or stars, I rate on hardcore moments in pro wrestling history. The more hardcore the event, match, promo or moment the more I liked the book, comic, movie or video game I am reviewing. The less hardcore the moment, the more I disliked it. An example would be anything related to Hulk Hogan would be highly NOT recommended. Onto the review...
With some of greatest facial features since Kevin Maguire's run on the Justice League, Ross Campbell 's art speaks volumes. Wet Moon's true to life dialog and story concepts make for endearing characters and some extremely funny and heartfelt situations. Campbell has crafted a series which has the necessary ingredients to become a longtime fan favorite. The central characters long for awareness and caring during the tumultuous moment in life, "college life." Cleo learns what it's like to not be on top of everyone's friend's list. However this doesn't keep her from trying to help her friend, Audrey score with the cute video store clerk. Trilby, an extrovert to Cleo's introvert, shows up to a "goth" party in a patent leather bra and bondage pants, all the while making obsurd faces at Cleo from across the room. Trilby gets drunk at the party and attempts to force herself on Cleo, who runs out of the room, allowing Trilby to collapse quietly on the couch. Only later does the reader find out Trilby is secretly a Trekie, seeking to keep her pending nerdlike tendencies from spilling out into her circle of friends.
Cleo's serious infatuation with the mysterious longhaired boy in her European Gothic Literature class, sends the mousey girl sprinting out of the room, tumbling down the stairs and into the path of Myrtle, who seems to play a more integral part in the whole master plan of Ross Campbell's opus.
From potential romantic interests like Fern and the mysterious longhaired guy, to perenial societal outcast, "The Pringles Guy," Wet Moon is full of characters that you can't help but like and root for. Ross Campbell knows how to do one of the most difficult things in comics, he writes female charaters so well. This is one of those rare things, where the words and art blend into one amazing story that you can't help but shell out your mind and emotions into. I liken Campbell to Kevin Smith in terms of his dialog, for some obvious reasons, and in the fact that the characters, no matter how extreme or different from the perceived norm of society's expectations of entertainment. Campbell has modeled the next great indy comic with Wet Moon. This volume rates a serious and rare event in ECW history. No matter what mainstream wrestling fan's thoughts on what ECW brought to the dance, the barbed wire match was not a common event in the more than eight years in the company's storied history. In 1996, during one of the most personal and remembered feuds, Raven faced off with the Sandman in one of only four known, no rope, barbed wire matches. The then World Champion Sandman, had persevered through the adversity of having Raven steal and brainwash his ex-wife, Lori and then suffered the ultimate horror, when Raven stole his 7 year old son, Tyler. The match saw, blood, and beatings, along with one of the most unexpected finishes, when Raven, attempted to deliver a tabletop piledriver to the Sandman. The table broke before the move could be finished and somehow Raven garnered the strength to cover the beleagured Sandman for his second ECW World Championship.

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