“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sprecken: The Destiny Dance

“Who can dance to this music?”

Sprecken: The Destiny Dance

Rorschach Entertainment (August, 2003)

WRITER: Brian Meredith & Brad Taylor

PENCILER: Rick Forgus

INKER: James Taylor

GRAYSCALES: Joe D’Adamo

LETTERER/EDITOR/”MODERN PULP UNIVERSE” CREATOR: Brian Meredith

(fonts from Blambot, where I get some of my fonts)

James Sprecken is a mystery man from the 1940s, known back then as Mr. Midnight, who was transported to 2025 (interesting timing given when this came out and when I’m reviewing it) by a mad scientist. Dropping the hero identity, Sprecken tries to leave the life and just be a private investigator. Unfortunately, someone wants him back in the hero game. I kind of don’t want to spoil the twists despite being an older comic given that this is an indy comic and, as of this writing, still up for free on Drive Thru Comics.

What they got right: I wasn’t sure why the hero had to be a time-displaced superhero from the “mystery men” days, but it does eventually come around. The villain’s motivation isn’t unique but it is something that doesn’t come up very often. Figuring out he was being suckered, though not why, shows he is a good detective, not letting the femme fatale take his attention away from what’s really going on. There’s also mention of other characters, two of which have their own comics in the “Modern Pulp Universe”, as advertised at the end of the book. I like a bit of continuity.

What they got wrong: The art style might not be to everyone’s tastes (there are a few panels I could critique but otherwise I was okay with it.) The real problem is despite being listed as an all-ages comic they have to drop the “s-bomb” at one point. That one panel, a swear where are no hard curse words, gore, or nudity, is so out of place and breaks the “all ages” label. Ever since South Park got it into one of their episodes to make a point, everyone forgot it’s still as much a hard swear as the others we don’t use in all-ages work. I could have let a kid read this until that panel.

What I think overall: Edit out the swear and you have a great action story for kids and adults with some good use of twists.