While attending opening night festivities last night, I ran across yet another comic book about a rock band -- but this one is totally awesome, because it's about local goth punk band Calabrese .
The comic, Calabrese (Spookshow Comics), is written by Tucson resident Eric M. Esquivel, and features full-color artwork by Dave Baker. The first issue came out last October (Esquivel says #2 is on the way), and features the Calabrese brothers (Jimmy, Bobby, and Davey, who are really blood brothers) battling a character called Renegade Highlander in a no-holds-barred match.
Esquivel's writing is solid and features funny but realistic character dialogue ("I still say we should each specialize in our own exotic weapon. You know, for merchandising's sake," Bobby says at one point). Another great line (Davey this time) is: "You mangy mutt! You ripped my lucky jacket!"Baker's artwork is fun, too, and includes lots of color and sharp angles (his blue vampire is particularly eye-catching). About the only complaint I have with the Calabrese comic is that some of the dialogue bubbles are packed with so many sentences in super small type that it's hard to read -- especially when it's 2 a.m. and I've been drinking.
But really, I don't mind squinting at dialogue bubbles when Calabrese contains so much monster-rific eye candy, including vampires, zombies, and werewolves. Oh my.
