4 out of 5

See, I, also, thought Alex de Campi was a guy.  And because I’m all misogynist and shit, I would never have figured on this first ‘arc’ in – if the quality and fun stays at this level – what’s hopefully a long running series – as being scripted by a lady given its particular pitch of kitsch and effective grasp of the genre.  I know, shake your head.  But I can’t deny my expectations and assumptions.  Without attempting over-explanatory justifications, I would relate what I’m saying to when guys write a female character who’s ‘strong’ because she swears and has random sex.  Not that those traits can’t be part of a strong woman’s attributes (however you choose to define ‘strong’), rather my point being that a character – or genre in this case – seems hollow or forced when the intention is screwy.  You write a slutty, swearing female into your story to prove you respect women; interestingly, the flip of this to which I’m comparing is a female author who writes a typically ‘male’ genre and just stuffs it full of sex and swear… ing…  Hm… there’s an odd dichotomy up for discussion thereabouts.

But anyhoo, for grindhouse or camp, I’d say striking the perfect balance between T&A and tastelessness is difficult regardless of the gender of the writer.  So dot dot dot, conclusion is that de Campi totally screws with my head by getting it all right.  ‘Bee Vixens From Mars’ – exactly what the title implies – was a great two issue mini-story with cheesecake, action, blood, and hilarious randomness.  I’m only iffy on that highly sought-after fifth star because I don’t think the story really ‘works’ until part two, when all the good stuff goes down and our heroine – eye-patched, cool tattoos, of course – steps up and causes mass awesomeness.  But you could say this is typical film set-up as well – a gory crime scene; establish the cannon fodder and the lingering “camera” over plot points (like, y’know, bees and honey).

Chris Peterson’s art is perfect for this.  It’s hard to match the thick, solid black inking style with the tone of his (…guy?) work go too far in the cartoonish direction, like a Darwyn Cooke, and I feel like you lose some grit, which would not have worked for this, or go too far in the realistic style, like Michael Lark, and those bee women would’ve looked way out of place.  I don’t see a letterer, so I’ll toss that onto Peterson as well, which was another huge plus – whether this crossed into Nolan Woodward’s colors or not I dunno, but different colored balloons and well-matched fonts for queen bee and drones and our characters all helped to keep me in the story. 

The fake move pin-ups were pretty hilariously grand as well.

I’m diggin’ it, Ms. de Campi, and I’m definitely on board, without hesitation, for what’s next.