Ayre Force
Written by Adam Slutsky and Joseph Phillip Illidge
Art by Shawn Martinbrough
Bodog Entertainment
$19.95
Ayre Force is one of the silliest and most blatant examples of “comics as ego-boosting pr tool” I’ve ever seen. It’s an absolutely horrible, incomprehensible book, awash in tiresome cliches and abysmal dialogue, but at the same time I found myself admiring its chutzpah. That’s all I admired, but at least it’s something.
Perhaps Bodog can find a way to turn it into a blurb for the eventual paperback edition: “Chutzpahriffic! sez Chris Mautner.”
For those of you who don’t know (I certainly didn’t when I said “sure” after being asked if I wanted a review copy; the rest of the Blog@ team had to fill me in) is about the superspy adventures of Calvin Ayre, (Get it? The name of the book is Ayre Force and his last name is Ayre!) who in real life runs some sort of multimedia empire that involves poker, mixed martial arts and music. Throw in video games and Star Trek reruns, and you’d have Spike TV.
Let’s be clear about the book’s intentions, though. What we have here is the head of some company hiring a bunch of artists and writers to create a graphic novel where he is not only the main character, but a Steven Segal-type hero.
It gets better from there, as several members of “the Bodog clan,” as I like to think of them, have active roles in the book as fellow ass-kickers and cohorts. So folks with names like Bif Naked and Fawn Labrie put in appearances, making awesome poses, grimacing menacingly and spouting action movie phrases (”My mom hits harder than you.”)
But so what? If the (as he frequently reminds us) insanely rich Ayre wants to create a book reminding everyone just how incredibly awesome he and his loose collection of talent pool is — to the point where he has to create a superhero-style mythology for them — then go and God bless. After all, if the Wu-Tang Clan and KISS can do it, why not him? Of course, the central difference is that the members of the Wu-Tang Clan and KISS have the fame, talent and outsize personalities to justify that sort of project (Oops! Bodog represents WuTang. Oh well, I’d still rather read a comic about them than Ayre).
I mean, maybe Bif Naked is a fascinating individual who reads Sartre, saves baby seals and wears fuzzy bunny slippers when not rocking out, but you’ll never find out reading this book. I’ve read through it twice now, and I swear I can’t tell any of the characters apart. Not a one. Nor could I really figure out what’s going on. Basic exposition or any semblance of storytelling in general is either handled extremely clumsily or ignored altogether. A lot of that blame can be laid at Slutsky and Illidge’s feet, but certainly some must be dished out to Martinbrough, whose pedestrian layouts and nondescript character designs do nothing to spark the imagination.
I suppose I should try to mention the plot at some point, or at least what I could suss out. The book begins with Ayre and his team saving a bunch of bears from obviously evil exploiters whom he then shoves in cages and kills by firing off a grenade. I don’t know what happens to the bears.
Most of the book, though, involves Team Ayre Force America battling some nogoodnik and his group of kids who can turn into animals. Hey, I haven’t seen that done in about ten minutes! You know he’s a villain, by the way, because he has white hair. And a ponytail. And he makes pharmaceuticals. Boo! Hsss!
It’s obvious the book’s creators weren’t really interested in making an even mildly piece of slam-bang entertainment, let alone a work of art. Their objective is obvious from page one and was no doubt handed down by the man writing the checks:
“Make me look cool.”
Mission so totally not accomplished, dude.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Chris Mautner, for the win.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
You seem to have missed the fact that all the proceeds from this book are going to the Calvin Ayre Foundation, a charity for animal rights, education, disabled children, etc.
Sure, it’s a vanity project, but when it goes to a good cause it’s easy to forgive it all its faults, stop taking it (and yourself) so seriously and enjoy it for the over-the-top spy-fest it is.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Haha, these guys were by far one of the dumbest things I saw at NYCC. The preview comic was absolutely miserable ego-stroking, so I didn’t expect much more from the final product.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Plus, I mean, the guy’s name is Slutsky.
SLUTSKY!
May 16th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Rob — The fact that the proceeds go to a charity doesn’t absolve this book of its sins. It’s still a horrible book. And while I’m at it, “We Are the World” sucks too.
Trust me when I say I am incapable of ever taking myself seriously.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
And just think Rob, of all the children and bears who could have been saved if the comic hadn’t turned out to be a putrid heap of garbage.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
So out of all the commenters, how many people actually read the graphic novel, and how many people are just jumping on it for being a “vanity project?” I talked to the creators for a while at NYCC and they seemed like genuinely nice people, and the art was fantastic. And while I’ve yet to finish the full book, I’ve read about half and enjoyed it for what it is. Basically, The Unit if they were celebrities. Take it or leave it, love it or hate it, it is what it is. And it is very nice to see proceed go to charity indeed.
May 17th, 2008 at 2:27 am
“Take it or leave it, love it or hate it, it is what it is.”
Well, that’s certainly something that everyone can agree with.