IDW’s hardcover collection of Starstruck is some of the most dense comic reading you will ever do.
I say that because writer Elaine Lee, artist Michael Wm. Kaluta and colorists Lee Moyer and James Ratcliffe have teamed up to bring an astonishing amount of detail to this title. Page after page of small and large panels, all CRAMMED with figures, backgrounds, action, and dialogue.
The history of Starstruck, for those of you like me, who are not really familiar with it, starts in the late 1970’s when Elaine Lee wrote and produced it as an off-Broadway play. From there, and with the addition of Kaluta to the creative mix, it was developed into a comic series. Its issues have been created, printed and reprinted over the past 35 years or so, by various comic publishers. There are dozens of individual comic books in the world of Starstruck. This hardcover reprints the most recent six of those issues, originally published by IDW in 2017.
If you purchase this collected edition, you have signed up for a boot camp version of comic books. You will read until you are exhausted, and your brain and eyes cry out for rest. Then you will pick up that book, Proldier, and go at it again!! You hear me, Proldier??
Seriously, here is what you are in for: the basic plot involves Harry Palmer, a soldier/sailor in outer space, who resembles Popeye on steroids. He’s lost his synthetic girlfriend. He is looking for her. So, combine Fifth Element, Blade Runner, and Casablanca, and you have Starstruck. So, that’s it in a capsule. Just add the entire universe, consisting of every imaginable character, new vocabulary, and fascinating visuals, and you have Starstruck.
In addition to the six individual issues being remastered for this collection, there is page after page of character descriptions, an introduction by comic cover artist Rick Berry, an illustrated addendum, full-color cover illustrations without the trade dress (no logos or blurbs), posters, sketches, and more.
IDW Starstruck Old Proldiers Never Die, Hardcover $39.99 for 184 pages of content. Mature readers.
Newsdesk