By BILLY MAJESTIC, JORDAN JORDANOV, VEN DINKOV (IDW/Revenger Comics; 2011)
B-movie delirium and pictorial audacity unite in this altogether unique concoction. BILLY MAJESTIC’S HUMPTY DUMPTY debuted in 2011 as a 77 page graphic novel that was intended as an appetizer for an upcoming feature film, but that project was scuttled when the film’s prospective director died unexpectedly. Thus we’re left with the graphic novel, in which form the material arguably finds its optimal expression.
The story, credited to one Billy Majestic, is pretty standard grade-B fare, but the artwork by Jordan Jordanov and Ven Dinkov is something else entirely. Rendered in near-photorealistic digitization, the book is a constant wonder to behold, featuring what look like motion capture graphics made to co-exist with gore and mutation in a manner that could never be achieved in a film.
The setting is backwoods Mississippi, where an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashes one night. It disgorges several ghostly white aliens, most of which quickly expire. A beautiful female alien survives, but has the misfortune to be discovered by redneck brothers who hold her captive and subject her to all manner of rape and torture. She ends up impregnated, and birthing a vaguely humanoid fetus whose body is chewed up by raccoons, leaving an egg-shaped head that sprouts clawed hands and legs a la Humpty Dumpty—and, upon discovering that its mother has died in childbirth, embarks on the revenge trail.
Complex this book isn’t. There are no subplots to speak of, and the narrative never hits an unexpected beat. Again, though, the artwork is to die for, and the many gory and sexual elements, in the second half in particular, are authentically jolting—due, of course, largely to the artwork. Hence BILLY MAJESTIC’S HUMPTY DUMPTY receives an enthusiastic recommendation for thrill seeking grow-ups.
The book is impressive enough that I’m finding myself wondering why this is the only project I’ve been able to find by Billy Majestic, Jordan Jordanov, Ven Dinkov and the Revenger Comics label. If nothing else, their work here shows enormous promise, and should have led to bigger and better things. Perhaps it will yet.