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spc 01 Tut Tut
Print Mint (1974)
Spaced #1 is Jim Pinkoski’s first solo comic, which he earned with a couple of solid efforts in other undergrounds and his friendship with the publisher, which happened to be his employer. He produced a nicely illustrated sci-fi/fantasy book that suffers from disjointedness and some clumsy storytelling. Pinkoski numbers each of the four stories and includes both a prologue and an epilogue, but the epilogue is not directly related to any of the stories.
The prologue does lead into the first story, “Sitting Pretty,” which turns out to be about two guys and a gal on a space ship. One of the guys is so obsessed with “getting the girl” he decides to murder the other guy so he doesn’t have any competition for the female astronaut. The joke is supposed to be on the murderer when Pinkoski reveals that the female is actually a lesbian! Ha ha, Mr. Murderer, she’s into girls, so you killed that dude for no reason! I’m sure that after the killer learns that the sexy, beautiful woman trapped on a space ship with him is gay, he’ll just give up on his obsession with fucking her. Or maybe not…we won’t ever know, because the story ends abruptly after we learn she’s not into guys.
The second story is about a sorceress who brings a mummified body back to life (or at least part of him back to life) by sucking him off. Then some other guy dies, it’s not really clear who, and the mummy waits around for a pyramid to be built so he can be laid to rest…without his dick.
The third story is about a creature named Kellinx who was apparently electroshocked or something and banished to an uninhabited planet for crimes against another race of beings. When Kellinx is visited by a space ship with some astronauts, he decides the people are a source of food and attacks one of them, resulting in his own death. I don’t read much more into the story than Pinkoski declaring that no matter what, we all die in the end.
The fourth story is very different from the first three, as it’s a parody of Green Lantern and a swashbuckling sidekick, though the sidekick looks nothing like any supporting character of Green Lantern’s that I’m aware of. Anyway, it’s a reasonably amusing story in which Green Lantern is mugged in an alleyway and has his magic ring stolen. The two-page epilogue that follows is unrelated to any of the previous stories and seems to compare living life “like Hell” or “like Heaven,” which apparently aren’t very different at all when all we have is ourselves.
Spaced #1 has some interesting stories, even if some of the endings make you ask yourself “is that all there is?” Pinkoski certainly shows he’s an accomplished illustrator and capable of building simple stories, but I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to read more into them than I first perceive. Perhaps we should just go along and enjoy the ride, which isn’t hard to do with the eye-catching graphic imagery.
spc 01 tut tut
