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Snap Judgements
Review
by Randy Lander
DEATH JR. #1

Image Comics
Writer: Gary Whitta
Artist/Cover: Ted Naifeh
Editor: Terri Selting

Price: $4.99 US/$6.15 CAN

It's based on a videogame property, but reading Death Jr. #1 certainly wouldn't give you that impression, as this is a quirky, fun book that makes an interesting companion piece to Naifeh's kids/gothic book for Oni Press, Courtney Crumrin. Where Courtney Crumrin is sour and cynical, however, Death Jr. is a bright-eyed optimist, despite having a freakish appearance, a death touch that means certain doom for his pets and a father who's not always around because he's busy doing his job... which is killing people. Death Jr. sounds like a dark premise, something that would work in the morbid gothy style of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore, but it's not quite that sardonic, instead being more of a straightforward story of schoolyard social interaction with a slight streak of dark humor and a few allusions to legend and story. It's funny, likable and, thanks to Naifeh's work, gorgeous to look at.
This is not exactly the freshest of territory. The mines of dark humor and freaks have been pretty well tapped by the likes of Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge, to name but a few. However, Death Jr., while having a feel similar to some of those books, stands out as something fresh as well, thanks in part to a delightfully upbeat tone. Sure, there's a little potential angst in the outcast nature of DJ and his friends, or in the very real danger unleashed in the closing pages of the book, but in general, Death Jr. is a paean to the power of positive thinking. Despite DJ's many potential problems, he's a pretty happy kid, and his interaction with Pandora, a similarly chipper goth girl with a fetish for opening
boxes (get it?), is fun and sweet.

Too often with videogame inspired material, the story gets lost, and you find yourself reading what amounts to an uninspired manual for the game. If Death Jr. the game is anything like the comic, than it's one weird, free-flowing game and it's one I want to play, because nowhere in this book do you get the sense of the characters "pressing A-B-up-down-A to solve the puzzle" or anything of that sort of nonsense. Whitta's structure is more a blend of exposition and gags, as we're introduced to DJ and his cast of characters and get a few very funny, quintessential schoolyard moments, like the science experiment gone horribly wrong, the confrontation with the bullies or the field trip.

Death Jr. has a sparkling sense of humor, occasionally dipping into the obvious (really, the "diet coke" gag is played out at this point) but usually landing in the more humorously comfortable zone of following structure. You may know that the science experiment is gonna blow up, you may know that Pandora is going to open the box she shouldn't, but because of the way it plays out, you still laugh. Relatively subtle concept and background gags abound, like DJ numbering his pets instead of naming him or the various puns in his friends' names, and there's also some terrific, witty dialogue, whether it's Death's working stiff narration, the escalating dare (mixed with trepidation) interaction between DJ and Pandora or the back-and-forth between conjoined twins Smith and Weston.
Another thing that Death Jr. has going for it is Ted Naifeh's artwork, even sharper in color than it is in black and white. His imaginative gothic design sense is very much evident in his design for Death (looking like an extra from a Mignola comic who escaped into this whimsical kids' book) or in the backdrops of the supernatural museum. Most of the book, however, is a strange mix between the simplicity of the "animated" look and the stylistic flourish most commonly seen in Mignola's work but just as evident in the work done by Naifeh in the past. There's a surprisingly bright color palette as well, although it's never too bright, instead working to contrast the more unusual trappings of DJ's world with the normal world he doesn't quite fit into. It's a terrific art performance that serves this strange, funny comic well. 9/10
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