Back in the day, Basil Karlo wanted to be one of the greatest actors ever known. Who knew, though, that Clayface would instead spend his hours battling Batman? One Bad Day later, Clayface gets his moment in the limelight, or perhaps the ‘lime pit’! Freshly planted in Los Angeles, Clayface puts his best foot forward in his quest to realize his acting dream.
In this eight-dollar book from DC Comics, writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing take us along the Hollywood Boulevard of broken dreams, alongside arch-villain Clayface. But as Clay realizes, the basics of acting might be easy, but it isn’t so simple to navigate the behind-the-scenes drama.
Artist Xermanico shows us a transformational Clayface, one who struts his moment, gets wounded and butt hurt at transgressions and micro-aggressions upon his mighty ego. The pages, full of eight-panel vertical strips, splashes, and five-panel horizontal curtains, act as a ´script within a script´, as if created by a movie writer. There is a typed description on the written page, followed by the actual comic visual. Presto, a comic movie! It´s a device that has its moments but can also take the reader out of the story. Just who is telling us this story, is Clayface´s life being made into a movie??
The story itself is entertaining if a bit A-to-B. There are few surprises and little suspense. Clayface inhabits bodies a la Deadman and seems to have the movie lingo and personal history of his victims instantly available. Who knew? When things DO go wrong, we readers just shrug and don’t empathize. It’s all in a Bad Day’s Work, we suppose. Life ain’t a box of chocolates after all.
Colours are by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and letters by Tom Napolitano. Many variant covers are available for this title, but I choose Xermanico’s regular cover, totally awesome, that.
DC Comics, Batman: One Bad Day, Clayface. $7.99 for 60 pages of content
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