Return of the Super Pimps #1
Dial “C” For Comics – July 2006 - $2,00
Written by: Richard Hamilton
Pencils/Inks by: Lilises Roman
Website:
http://www.dialcforcomics.com
Rating: 4 starts (out of 4)
My video collection is full of movies like
Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, Shaft, and
Black Belt Jones. I’m a monster fan of the blaxploitation genre and was very happy to read that
Return of the Super Pimps was a title that grows from those great seventies movies. When the cover of the first issue has a slew of heroes with Afros and purple limousine along with a tagline that says “Justice with a …STRUT!” you know you are on the right track.
The story starts off back in-or-around 1976 where an evil mind-controller named Darquefire is mesmerizing entire crowds in the hood to do his evil work. A kid on the street sees what is going on and finds them Pimpphone, dials P for Pimp, and alerts the Super Pimps who are…just sitting in their headquarters getting weeded out. Not to worry as they are already dressed in their mack-daddy pimp attire and get into their Pimpmobile (the purple limo with the license plate BTCHSLAP).
The urban avengers finally pull up and out walks Blackbeard, Ghetto Blaster, Homeboy, Sidekick, and Foxy Mama. All five bring a unique gift to the team and all five are ready to kick someone’s black ass. However Darquefire brings the heat and the team finds themselves in a weird position where even if they win…they lose. Thirty years into the future the Super Pimps are no longer the defenders of the projects and that is a shame when an old evil tries to hit the streets.
If the hood ever deserved superheroes then it deserves Return of the Super Pimps. It is an original idea that pays a great homage to those early blaxploitation flicks while bringing great, fun, and truly unique characters to the comic book public. There’s no jive turkeys here, there’s no ‘The Man’, there’s only the smooth pimpness of the Super Pimp crew and the terrific writing of Richard Hamilton who, no doubt, has grown up on
Scream Blackula Scream just like I did.
The artwork of Lilises Roman brings Hamilton’s vision to life but I find myself even more impressed by the coloring work of Jasen Smith and Maria Laura. The book’s colors are vibrant and while I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much purple in a comic book in my life, the book truly pimps it and that is a great thing. Color springs off the page and gives Super Pimps a glow that makes you feel like you are almost watching the book instead of reading it. The Super Pimps themselves are quite fun and each of them with their own unique power, like Ghetto Blasters radio gloves, make me envision how great this book would be as a live action flick. Until then I’m glad this book has hit the indy scene and is well deserved of a perfect rating. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more fun read out there, though I haven’t read issue two. It will be, however, hard to beat issue one’s $2.00 price tag which makes this an easy, perfect, and cheap buy.
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