This week we are talking about how much sweating sucks and damn does it suck. Being one of the dark creatures that only comes out in the night, I find that on those hot, hot, days in Southern California, the best thing to do is to test out new comic books for my weekly pull list in the nice cool air conditioned comfort of my home. This week the new Peter Milligan penned “Greek Street” was on the list of things to read. Having several college degrees in various forms of English, I have always been drawn to retellings of classic stories and how much more classic can you get than the old Greek tragedies.

I sat and read “Greek Street” pretty rapidly and did enjoy most of the comic over all. I really liked some of the changes that were made to the old tales in order to get this thing to all fit together. The Greek chorus functions well as three very aggressive strippers who work at the Olimpya strip club, Agamemnon and other characters are well placed as various crime bosses and under bosses in the city. My favorite of all of the changes, though, was the way that the oracle is done; a poor, freaked out, shut in girl who seems cut off from the real world.

The one character that really didn’t work for me was the lead in the book, Eddie. Eddie is supposed to be a version of Oedipus, the man who killed his father and married his mother but there is one distinct difference between Eddie and Oedipus. Oedipus, of course, didn’t know exactly what it was that he was doing. In the case of our friend Eddie, though, he is completely aware that he is having sex with his mother before he does it (um, ewwww). I mean, as a reader, we can forgive Oedipus because he is unaware but Eddie’s behavior, in my opinion, makes him the least likable of everybody in this line. Seriously, what kind of grownup does that? This behavior aside, he may still win me over in time, I just have to try to ignore that action the best I can.

The art work in the issue is quite good over all. Davide Gianfelice does a good job of joining the ranks of artists like Eduardo Risso (“100 Bullets”) and R.M. Guera (“Scalped”). The characters are beautifully drawn from the very first panel in this first issue. The color scheme is the same green, orange, purple, brown secondary pallet first utilized to its full extent in “Watchmen” that tells the reader, this tale is part of the real world. It also helps that the tale takes place in a real location Soho, London.

I would say that over all I enjoyed the extended forty pages contained within this first issue of “Greek Street”. Plus Vertigo was kind enough to give the comic to me for the low, low price of one dollar. I’m not one hundred percent sold yet but I will be back for another visit to Greek Street next month.

3/5 - Might be worth a try...

writer