Smax

Written by: Alan Moore
Art by: Zander Cannon

It's rare that spinoffs match the quality of their inspirations, but Smax certainly matches the quality if not the tone of Alan Moore's Top Ten. Smax follows one of the characters from Top Ten as he travels back to his homeworld with his partner to attend his uncle's funeral. The funeral, however, plays a very small role in the story. It's simply an excuse to parody The Lord of the Rings and various other fantasy quest stories.


The cover of the first issue of Smax.

This story is accessible to anyone who's taken a stranger back to their hometown and been embarrassed by it. That is to say, this story is accessible to everyone. The humor of the story--and there is a great deal of genuinely funny bits--simply draw the reader into a story that's much darker than is initially expected. Moore somehow mixes hilarity with larger messages taking on everything from bigotry to incest to infanticide. Moore's comedy is the grain of sugar that makes the bitter, bitter medicine go down.


"Don't I know you?

The mixture of comedy to tragedy remains flawless throughout, however, and the pacing is absolutely dead-on. The story clips about at a perfect pace so that it feels as if a great deal of ground is covered in just a scant five issues. Indeed, a lot of ground has been covered in these issues that lend a greated depth to Smax, a character that clearly needs a psychological outlet in Top Ten.

While those familiar with fantasy quest narratives will undoubtedly derive greated enjoyment from the references in the book, there are enough references dropped to give even those tangentially familiar with pop culture a good chuckle. The weakest point of the book is the art, but under Moore's direction--his legendary "novels" of script--it does a decent enough job of telling the story.

Despite the backlash toward Moore from the overwhelming critical praise from his work on Watchmen and From Hell, he remains one of the premiere storytellers in the comic medium and deservedly so. His wit and scope and pace are virtually unparalleled in the medium and it's a boone to those loyal fans who stick with comics that he continues to put out quality work with his entire line of ABC (America's Best Comics) line.

D

Like what you see? Drop us an email at: [Nick] bungalowjones@hotmail.com, [Drew] gronix@excite.com, [ESkalac] skalac@uiuc.edu or [Kate] katedickson@occultmail.com