A Big Trouble in Little China comic! Crazy right? But here it is from writer Eric Powell and artist Brian Churilla. Each of the participating reviewers from Comic Bastards are going to give the issue a score and then write their opinion on the issue that way you can agree or disagree with one or all of us! You’ll also be able to pool a score from here like a mini-Meta Critic or something. Before we start here’s what the book’s about from Boom: Jack Burton, a macho, truck-driving adventurer, finds a stowaway hiding on his rig, The Pork Chop Express, but that soon becomes the least of his troubles. He helped his best friend Wang save his fiancée from the clutches of a demon, but now the wedding has been invaded by more evil forces with one thing on their minds—revenge against Jack Burton!
Nick: 5/5
Big Trouble in Little China is one of those properties that I’ve never necessarily felt a burning need to see a sequel to, even though they semi-set one up at the end. And imagine my trepidation when I open the book and find that there are not one, not two variant covers, but a total of thirteen covers. That’s an excessive amount no matter how you slice it, which either means a) more people are super psyched for this than I anticipated or b) BOOM really really really wants it to sell out, and they’re not sure it will.
Luckily, BTiLC is a delight in comic form. They nailed Jack Burton’s voice from page one, panel one, and they even made the introductory captions hilarious (no small feat). The art was nothing super special to me, but I’m more than willing to come back every month to see Jack Burton trek through one of the Chinese hells (Chinese got a lotta hells, after all) with a subservient ape demon in tow. I had so much fun with this one, I kind of want to read it again.
Samantha: 5/5
Man Boom just shoves you right into the 80s with high waisted pants, muscle tanks, and Kurt Russell. You gotta love it. Really, you will see this cover and fall in love with every minute of it! The comic’s setting perfectly matches the movie. It read like an 80s comic, not a present comic with a past setting. I love when stories can do that. But seriously there isn’t really anything else to say about this comic except for the fact you will love it. If you have loved Big Trouble in Little China before then you will love it again. The comic has a lighthearted feel that is necessary for the setting. Jack still has that same humor from the movie and attitude that I love. It is refreshing to see a remake that actually makes sense. Brian Churilla’s art makes everything come together. The creatures are cool, the scenes are well played out, and it takes you under into this martial arts comedy that we all love. Pick up the comic and enjoy some classic ties to some news stories.
Neil: 4/5
First of all, I love the art that Brian Churilla uses in this book, I love the cartoony style in this book it just feels right with the tone of the book overall which is very over the top, and sprinkled with some humor as well. As far as the story goes, I am all in with this book. It’s a very fun book, that takes place after the events of the movie and one of the things that I like the most of the story is that it keeps the over the top wackiness that the movie offered. Whether it was Jack keeping the demon ape Pete as his pet or Jack telling his story of his second marriage, the wackiness is there and I loved every minute of it. I have to say I came into this book with zero expectations and after reading this book, I came out with a good feeling about Big Trouble in Little China. I am looking forward to where this book goes from here and how Powell and Carpenter can up the ante from a very crazy, but fun first issue.
Dustin: 3/5
The issue is fun. It’s not perfect, but it’s solid enough and more importantly it captured the world and characters of the film. The best part of the issue was the backstory that it created for Jack. His different paranormal adventures only made me want more of this character. As much as the rest of the cast of the movie were important to the original stories plot, Jack was the hands down star of the film.
The other major strength of the issue is Powell’s dialogue and his ability to capture the characters persona’s from the film. I could picture Kurt Russell saying ever bit of dialogue.
I wasn’t very impressed by Churilla’s artwork. It was solid for the most part and while I know that the character likenesses can’t be used because they likely don’t have the rights, there still seemed to be an overall rushed feel to the characters. Overall though I’ll be back to finish the story because again it’s fun. Having fun reading a story is sometimes the most important thing.
Adam: 2/5
Ok so I’ve never seen the movie that this comic is based off of, or rather continues the story of the main character. If the movie is anything like the comic, I have no interest in watching it anyway. I felt like the opening was strong and our protagonist has a strong personality, but other than that there was nothing memorable for me. It’s all very confusing and doesn’t really stand well on its own; at some points I felt like the author did a good job of explaining some aspects but others left me scratching my head. As I said before, I wouldn’t be interested in even trying to figure out the parts I was confused about by myself. I won’t be reading this any further as the challenge that Jack takes on at the end didn’t pique my interest.
Story: John Carpenter & Eric Powell Writer: Eric Powell Artist: Brian Churilla Publisher: Boom Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 6/4/14 Format: Mini-Series, Print/Digital