Spoiler Alert
Ahoy Comics has a unique tale that’s now in its third issue, and I will Howl should my expectation for the last two issues not get met. This alien invasion cum romantic comedy looks at a side of Americana where the events do not take place at a little shop of horrors. Instead, it’s some corner of Greenwich Village in New York. Unless the UFO was on silent running, I found it strange nobody on the streets noticed it spraying a fine red mist everywhere. The people introduced on the first page ignore it as if it were dust from a passing dirty truck.
Ziva is the main protagonist in this story by Alisa Kwitney. In issue #1, she’s with her friend, Frida, hurrying to get to school. Unbeknownst to them, they inhaled the micro-organisms instead of fanning it away. Even Stanley, Z’s boyfriend, caught this virus! By the next issue, he’s no longer the fun loving character she knows him as, and she even thinks he’s now cheating on her! The next issue really sets up the complications and as for what kind of education she’s getting, I figure she’s a nurse in training.
The weirdness does not really start until the end. By the third, after she helped deliver a neighbor’s baby, the nightmare finally starts! When this mother rejects him, there’s certainly something amiss. But for Z to say, “it’s like [the kid] has no soul,” I realized what’s going on. Although her dreams are not rendered for readers to see, I suspect some of them concern events from the second issue, which felt like a Twilight Zone episode.
In the waking world, she’s covered by red goo! By the time Stan finds her, cue in the cliffhanger for the next issue! Between the revelations about her past to this moment, this comic book will require reading everything in one full swoop rather than the chaptered approach to understand everything that’s going on.
When the next issue marks the climax of the series, and the fifth issue the denouement, I think the aliens invading 50s New York are going to have a hard time acclimatizing! These beatniks have a lot on their minds, and I suspect these tiny invaders are going to have trouble understanding the culture. Even though I admit to not being familiar with the earlier years of this anti-consumerism movement, what’s portrayed feels just right. It’s just minus the aspects of what I recognise in later decades, namely how it became part of the hippie movement of the 70s.
Unlike the Roger Cormen films where the characters are not always that well rounded, this comic book flips that convention over its head and has issues readers may well identify with. As for why they can barely understand why their neighbourhood is being “invaded,” I’m sure the next issue will explain all that.
One reason this comic caught my attention is because of the fantastic covers by Mauricet. I’m reminded of all those 50s era sci-fi movie posters and I’m a sucker for any comic book cover featuring an octopus. Although I got the digital editions to read, I hope the eventual trade paperback will offer reprints of all the art, including those variant covers from Bill Koeb, Ben Clarkson and Alan Robinson.
4 Stars out of 5
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