Monday, July 26, 2010

Muppet Comic Mondays: Muppet Snow White #3


Muppet Snow White #3 
Comic Book Review


James Gannon - After reading Muppt Snow White #3, it has come to my attention that Disney really SHOULD have let writer Jesse Blaze Snider give this series its original title of “Snow White and the Electric Mayhem.” The band's combined role as the 7 dwarves (or dwarfs, which is oddly acceptable) has totally taken over the show. Of course, all the characters equally try to steal the spotlight from each other. That’s the Muppets all over! It can also be argued in the Disney version that the Dwarfs (Dwarves) were the best part--especially Grumpy and Dopey. But let’s not get into that.

Pepe’s management of the Seven Dwarfs (or Dwarves) led them into a very explosive gig in a nightclub. And since Crazy Harry--a spy for Queen Piggy--is the pyrotechnics guy, that’s quite literal. The second failure in trying to kill Snow White to become the fairest of them all. The original Snow White story did feature the queen trying to kill Snow White three times. Fairy Tales ALWAYS have to have the three. That is to say, the comic got the deadly ribbon/lace part right. This version swaps out the sale of a poison comb to said explosion. Good call. Of course, Piggy knows her fairy tales. She still has to come a third time and sell her the poison apple. There’s a twist, though… Snow White ALSO knows the story, and wants to eat it all the more, causing Piggy to fight over it. And we all know how the story goes (though not all that well, as Gonzo later points out). She eats it, Prince Kermit has to save her. But as we all know the Muppets, all Hades breaks loose, and the only thing you can count on is mayhem (and I’m not referring to the band).

Again, this issue manages to get Gonzo’s struggle to tell the story the classical way, while Rizzo tells it the more famous Disney way. And, as before, Disney references are a-plenty. The Mayhem even manage to spin their own versions of songs from that movie. There is such an amazing amount of coloring effects in this issue, from the club concert at the beginning to a scene with Beaker repeatedly getting electrocuted (I hope that sounds as ambiguous as it can… of course, 90% of the time you know he’s gonna get zapped). And there’s some nice references to 1960’s and 70’s music posters in the opening splash page, featuring characters who will appear in the issue. One of them though, is Lew Zealand (accidentally misspelled as Lew Zeland by the artist) and he doesn’t actually appear in the issue. Of course I figure… E-gad, do I have to say it? Ugh… of course, that could always be a Red Herring. But you’ll see a LOT of cameos in this one, as always.  One of those characters even mentions this was the only way she could get into the comic.

As I said, this issue ends in such an unexpected (but almost predictable in the character’s personality) way that we can only imagine what happens in issue 4. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat right now!

We apologize for the lack of pictures in the article this week. Due to ComicCon this weekend, BOOM! Studios was unable to send preview pages to our good friends ToughPigs, where we get the pictures for our articles. We hope to be able to update the article with pictures soon! Thank you for your understanding.









The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier 

 
jim henson pic powered by blogger.com
Design by fashion