SLEAZE FEATURE: 'CLOWN FATALE' #1-4 (2012-2013)

"My name is Chloe Tucker.  And I've just reminded my friends that in the circus hierarchy, clowns rank dead last—below the guy who shovels the elephant shit." — Clown Fatale #1

If Russ Meyer made a flick about down-and-out, combat-crazy clown-gals who get mistaken for Siberian assassins and dragged into a redneck drug war, it would've been Clown Fatale.

What more of a review do you need?  This funnybook miniseries is the Platonic ideal of Planet Motherfucker, man.

Okay, fine.  Clown Fatale is the (bad)touching story of four women—Chloe (the world-weary, leader-y one), Candy (the zaftig, sensitive one), Tina (the brutal, Nubian one), and Aya (the ain't-all-there, chop-socky one)—who work the worst traveling circus in the world.  They hate their jobs, their coworkers, and their lives, and see no escape from greasepaint hell...until One Big Score lands in their shapely laps.

Needless to say, Things Do Not Go As Planned.

Scribe Victor Gischler, author of crime novels and superhero comics (including runs of The Punisher, Deadpool, X-Men, Conan, and The Shadow), wastes no time getting to the gonzo, as by page 4 of issue #1, our girls are face-punching, head-kicking, and groin-crushing dudes in desperate need of attitude adjustments.  And he never slows, rocketing from one outlandish setpiece to the next.

Readers of delicate sensibilities [who should be nowhere near this blog in the first place...], be warned: the tale plunges headfirst into the exploitation landfill and drinks deep of the trash.  There's sadism, profanity, nudity, alcoholism, attempted rape, drug-use, misogyny, fisticuffs, carnality, strangulation, decapitation, incineration, gunfights, swordplay, carnivorousness, vehicular manslaughter, and violence, Violence, VIOLENCE!!!

There's also one of the greatest applications of ape-mayhem I've ever seen.  Trust me—as an esteemed and accredited gorillologist, I know of what I speak.

Penciler Maurizio Rosenzweig does amazing work.  He brings a welcome (essential?) cartoon / animation sensibility to the material, making each character uniquely expressive and larger-than-life. Seriously, the way he frames face-shots and eyes...man, that's just good comic-in'.

And a particularly nice touch is that each of the lady-leads has a distinct body type.  Yes, really.  All "bad girls" shouldn't be drawn the same.

Rosenzweig also knows how to lay out an action panel.  He captures the kinetic frenzy of a murder-circus gone nutzoid, while still being clean and coherent.

Inker / colorist Moreno Dinisio embraces the garishness of the premise, and Clown Fatale's pages are awash in color.  The lurid palate gives the book a sticky, drippy vibe.

Tim Seeley (of Hack / Slash fame) does the covers, and leans towards a lobby card / poster aesthetic. See the original art below, without the trade dress:

I really enjoyed this miniseries.  It's a drive-in movie in printed form, and hits every genre beat perfectly. But it's smarmy as hell, and grotesquely nihilistic.  And the "sexy women in ugly peril" tropes are cranked to 11.

Which I realize is the point...the grimy, slimy point.

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Favorite Out-Of-Context Quote:  "Aarrrgh!  Not my balls!  I need those."

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RPG Relevance:  There's an embarrassment of sick-riches for your Planet Motherfucker campaign. Bodacious clown-babes.  Kill-carnies.  Ramblin' circuses of the damned.  Greasers.  Greasepaint. Cotton candy.  Gore-illas.  Drug kingpins.  Gang wars.

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Final Review Score:  4 Great Milenkos out of 5