Reading Xenoholics #2 from Shadowline Productions and Image comics by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Seth Damoose fell short of my expectations. It reminded me of a truck stuck in the mud with its wheels spinning. I kept waiting for the wheels to get some traction and start moving. Unfortunately it didn’t.
The concept I thought was a great one. The idea of possible abductees bonding together to find out some truth to their shared situation. And the collection of different people from all walks of life reminded me of Gilligan’s Island. All are very interesting possibilities but I found myself wondering what it was that the book was trying to say.
If you’re a first time reader picking up the book it’s going to be hard to follow because while there is a fair amount of dialogue about what’s going on it doesn’t answer any questions. Who are these people are and why they are together? besides some vague clues that you only will understand if you read the first issue your left in the dark.
Seth’s art work is very fun and I enjoyed what he did visually but I don’t think it’s a good fit for the book how it currently if focused. Is Xenoholics supposed to be a humor book first? Is it supposed to be a UFO mystery? The answer is not clearly defined in the issue and so your left wondering how you should take it.
Despite the dialogue that seems to be simply there to fill space in some panels the action happens in hiccups and seems to be put in simply because they need action at this point. And the sci-fi party slash orgy, seems only in the book for the shock value of it.
This might sound a little silly but bear with me. If your interested in doing a humor mystery with a UFO twist I’d recommend that Mr. Williamson study some Scooby-Doo cartoons. They have been doing just that for nearly sixty years. They keep the facts simple and focus on the humor aspect of the story plugging in important details along the way. It’s simple to follow and that allows you to really concentrate on the focus of the cartoon. The humor.
I’m interested in where Xenoholics will go from here. I really like the concept of the book. I like the idea of some of the characters coming from backgrounds that you would never think of in association with little green men. Mr. Damoose’s art is fun and entertaining and I think will work if the story is more humor based. If you didn’t read the first issue of Xenoholics and came away wanting more, I would not recommend picking this one up.
