Clown Fatale TPB Review: Lacking

People like clowns. There are also people who are either afraid of clowns or downright hate them. What about clowns that dress like exotic dancers and they do hits? That’s the basic premise of Victor Gischler’s “Clown Fatale.” With Dark Horse releasing all four issues in a trade paperback everyone has a chance to see one great idea turning out to be terrible.

The comic follows four down on their luck female clowns who hate their job. One day they unknowingly accept a job for a hit. After the hit they realize they enjoyed it very much and now become hitmen.

The story sounds like something that, if utilized properly and not taken seriously, can be fun. Unfortunately, the story is about as C-grade as you can get. Sloppily written story, characters that the reader does not care about and dialogue that reads like it was written by a fourteen year old. The story can be summed up as bang bang, f- f- and “oh look: boobs.” It’s not even camp level so bad it’s good.

The characters aren’t even characters. They’re walking clichés of female characters. There’s the all American blonde, the foxy black gal, the reformed prostitute and the Miho from “Sin City” ripoff. All they do are drop f-bombs, kill people and get nude. That’s their character traits in a nutshell.

There is also a difference between a well written anti-hero and a character you want dead. An anti-hero may not have the qualities of a “good guy,” but their personalities and ability to make the reader take their side is what makes them good characters. Characters that just kill for the sake of killing and acting like a-holes will make the reader want terrible things to happen to them. When they do, the reader is more “she got what she deserved” than sympathetic. Even by the end the reader will be more disappointed than satisfied. That can also be because the ending is feels rushed and unsatisfying.

The art by Maurizio Rosenzweig is decent. The character designs are passable and the breasts look real enough even if they exaggerated. The colors fit the world’s dark done fine. The major complaint is that the facial expressions are ugly to look at and can be too goofy for this kind of style.

The only extras in this TPG are character sketches. They look OK, though not all that exiting to look at. They’re there only if you’re interested in some sketches of the characters.

“Clown Fatale” is poor attempt at shlock that completely misses the mark. The characters are generic, the story is below “so bad it’s good” level and the art is passable. This is a perfect example of an out there creative idea that is flushed down the proverbial toilet.