Quick Rating: Stop Dragon My Heart Around
Title: Trip, Trip, To a Dream Dragon

Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Zander Cannon
Inks: Andrew Currie
Color: Wildstorm FX Colors
Letters: Todd Klein
Asst. Editor: Kristy Quinn
Editor: Scott Dunbier

Let’s face it- without E. O. Wilson, you wouldn’t be reading this review. Along with his colleagues, Wilson developed the idea that an ant colony could be viewed as a single organism. The World Wide Web was probably envisioned in the same manner when it first blossomed in the mind of Al Gore (or CERN (or …)). Countless horrific creatures have been born of contemplation of the multi-bodied single-minded creature. Every pack of rats in every horror story for thirty years has acted with one mind, to say nothing of every swarm of bees and horde of editors. Your ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Comixtreme staff is really just a hundred hands at fifty terminals typing with one grand mind.

Smax is a spin-off from Top 10, which translates the police station drama to a world of super-powered beings. Everyone in this world has some sort of super-human abilities. The conceit is that almost all still have regular jobs and live in regular places. Smax is a large, blue officer on the Top 10 police force. He grew up on a parallel fantasy world, Earth 137, where he has returned for his uncle’s funeral. He brings his young police force partner, Toybox, with him, mostly so that she can pretend to be his wife. Earth 137 is a third world planet in Smax’s view. It is pretty much Middle Earth, which would qualify it for significant foreign aid, no doubt. Much to his dismay, it transpires that Smax must go on a quest to face the dragon, Morningbright. This penultimate issue brings Smax face-to-face with Morningbright, who proves to be the sum of many parts.

This issue, more than the previous three, mixes horror and humor. On a number of pages, the horror perpetrated by the dragon has been brought front and center. Yet, we are given some distance by the laugh-out-loud jokes. It’s always a difficult mix, in that the two do not mix. The humor must simply slide across the top of the horror, easing the pain and allowing the pathos to seep through. Alan Moore succeeds here. The art is direct and does not sidestep the bare reality of the situation. I have enjoyed this series more and more with each passing issue.

December, 2003