REVIEW: Full Metal Fiction #3

Creative team:
Everette Hartsoe, Rebecca O'Connor, D. Presedo, Darryl Sheakley, Hill & Gross, Pentzer and Rizzo

Review: Will Dubbeld

Did I buy this comic, hot off the Dollar Box, simply because the cover reminded me of a 1970s Grindhouse/Exploitation movie?

Maybe.

Yes . . .

Truth be told, I picked up the first issue of Full Metal Fiction some years ago thinking it was a book from Glenn Danzig's company.
Turns out I was thinking of Verotik, not London Night Studios, but I netted an anthology comic of dubious quality out of the deal.
As I'm prone to making poor decisions when it comes to comics, I came back for more when a few more issues showed up at the LCS.


London Night Studios was at the forefront of the 1990s Bad Girl movement, though not as popular a company as Chaos! Comics' Lady Death or Top Cow's Witchblade. Other than Everette Hartsoe's creation, Razor, it didn't seem like much from London Night's catalog survived the bubble bursting. After reading Full Metal Fiction, I can understand why.

There's four tales of middling distinction within FMF, both in writing and in art. The first is a Razor short and is perhaps the first comic I've ever read starring the aforementioned. The tale in FMF #3 deals with her seeking vengeance against a crew of kidnappers and inferred rapists, whom are dispatched with gory, black-and-white justice. I'm not sure if this was a one-off story or part of a serialized adventure, but the plotting was a bit rough and scattered.

The next three shorts were more of the same, full of dodgy story and mediocre art. There's some gratuitous nudity and more than enough violence to ride you over, but it is some fairly amateurish work. One of the stories featured a priest and a nun throwing down with a biker gang in a roadhouse, which was rad, but as it turns out the pair are in disguise and not really a man of the cloth and a bride of Christ. Disappointing.

All said and done, I can understand why the featured product in FMF didn't take the comics world by storm. I fully appreciate the moxie of the creators who created and produced this comic but they could've all used a bit more practice and some constructive criticism in their efforts. It's definitely a product of the post-Crow Indie scene and isn't bad, just full of rough edges. I've got a few more issues of FMF to read through and am curious to see how the series progresses, but I doubt I'll be combing back-issue bins to fill the gaps in my collection.