I had never picked up one of these Tributes by Blue Water comics, but since I am pretty sure I cried when Whitney Houston passed I thought it was a good one to try out. I have to say I was impressed with the flow of this comic. I didn’t know what to expect and honestly thought it may turn out to be very disrespectful. Just the idea of putting a dead woman on the cover of a comic is weird. Well I am happy to say that I was proved wrong. This comic was done with grace and taught me some things about her life. I would totally use these tributes in a class so students could learn more about these icons. The comic opens with two people talking at the Pre-Grammy party. This is where I thought the comic was going to go too far and almost relive her death. But instead the death has already occurred and the room is only there to honor her. These two people turn out to be angels. One is an older African American male while the other a younger female. The older angel decides to tell the story of Whitney to the younger angel who seems apathetic about Whitney’s work.
So the comic takes us through Whitney’s life and how she influenced a generation. We start when she was only a child and work our way up. It is a ghost of Christmas past bit and proves to work at well because they cover a lot of ground.
And I know you are all wondering so I am just going to say that yes the comic skips over some very troubling times in Whitney’s life. They don’t ignore it but they focus more on the positives. This was done tastefully, which is a plus because too many times stars get dragged done by the media. Obviously she made some bad choices, but she also was tortured by fame. Just another example of how money causes more problems.
The only bad thing about this comic was the art was overdone. The facial expressions of some celebrities had too much going on. It looked like each of them got a bad dose of plastic surgery. While other people looked normal. I don’t know maybe this is a play on celebrities in general that they are overdone. It was distracting if anything.
Other than a small complaint, Whitney Houston’s Tribute issue was done well. It told a lot of information on how she changed music, movies, and touched lives. I would say for little girls, specifically African American, this comic is an easy way to learn about her and may spark interest in other influential people.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Raphael Moran
Artist: Kirk Feretzanis
Publisher: Blue Water Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 8/7/13