The comic age of porn is back, like it or not.
EXPOSURE from Image sure SOUNDS like it should fall into this category. I mean, the first issue by David Campiti and Al Rio boasts a wraparound cover featuring two busty young women in skin tight clothing which reveals a little more than most comics would. With long legs and big guns in their hands, they stare back like wanton women while a topless dancer performs in front of an audience and a vampire licks blood from his fingers.
Oooh...scary stuff!
(NOTE: There is a digitized photo variant of this book, but I have not seen it. I have seen the variant for issue #2 which features two real life models in skimpy outfits posing in a cartoon background with cartoon guns.)
And the inside of the book gives us more lurid images. A nun steps out of the shower only to be attacked by a vampire. A policewoman gets her blouse ripped open, revealing her body; now covered by part of a bra. Throughout the book are cheap peeping type shots of women in very little clothing. You name it and it's here: upskirts, shower scenes changing room stuff, clothes being ripped off.
Boy...talk about titillating.
But guess what?
THE BOOK KICKS MAJOR TAIL! And that's NOT because of the sexually themed images. It's because it has a plot, a brain and killer art! Here's what you need to know.
We start at the convent where a big nasty vampire is attacking one of the nuns in a shower and demanding she gives him something. Interspliced with this are seems of Christ being crucified. Officer Shawna Diaz shows up to investigate the convent, which has been pretty well sliced and diced by the creature. Also called in is Dr. Lisa Shannon-a pathologist and researcher. While the investigation is going on, the vampire, in the form of one of the injured nuns, attacks again, this time trying to get his hands on a mysterious coin left on the collection plate some days before.
His reward for failure is to be eaten alive by the rest of his vampire brood.
Back at the station, Lisa and Shawna realize that they are childhood friends who haven't seen each other in sixteen years. As a young child, Lisa's brother became ill and her mother committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, Lisa developed paranormal skills which would allow her to "talk" to her dead mother. This whole thing led to a fist fight between the fathers and the breakup of a friendship.
Taking the mysterious coin with them, the pair head off to visit Alan Wong and Graham Burroughs: two friends with tremendous research tools at their disposal. While there, the vampires return; once again trying to snatch the coin. Once again, the creatures are defeated. But, at the same time, the monsters begin attacking the local hospital...which is being robbed simultaneously by black market organ sellers. More carnage ensues as the girls defend themselves and lose their clothing in the process!
The next day, back at the convent, where the girls are undercover as nuns, a priest is murdered and the search for his killer leads them back to one of the teachers there. The vampire is dispatched by a combination of waterguns loaded with holy water and a full Catholic mass, complete with the sacraments. With his dying breath, the vampire reveals that the coins they were seeking were part of the thirty pieces of silver that Judas was paid with to betray his teacher so many centuries ago.
Outraged by the way the police department handled this investigation, Lisa and Shawna quit their jobs and form Para Tech Research: an organization designed to investigate the paranormal.
Basically, THE X-FILES with breasts!
Over time, the business has grown and word of their exciting adventures has spread worldwide. Hollywood beckons as the final talks for a movie about them come to fruition. All the while, the battle against evil continues, both in and out of their clothes!
Despite the cheekiness of the plot, the opportunity to put the heroines in little or no clothing and the constant sexual innuendo that pops up, this is a rollicking good read. David Campiti has been in this business for a long time, working on such notables as HERO ALLIANCE(with the legendary Ron Lim) among others. He has honed his skills for this one book. The plots are intricate, the dialogue is real and the remarks are quick and cutting. The fact that Shawna calls the white coated doctor performing the autopsy "Dr. Morg" is brilliant. So it's not WAR AND PEACE, but that was a really long, and at times REALLY BORING, classic!
Al Rio: what do I say? His work on DV8 absolutely blew me away. And here, just like J. Scott Campbell did on GEN13, he gets to stretch out and do what he does best-women in sexy poses and provocative clothing. In the pool, in the shower, cruising around town with the wind blowing up their skirts, this guy draws well endowed sex objects like well endowed sex objects. Let's call a spade a spade, folks: if this book featured two guys in tight outfits, most of us wouldn't buy it for the plot.
Best of all, is the mystery which surrounds the girls. Despite the breakup by their fathers, why didn't the girls get together before this? What's the deal with Shawna's failed marriage? How did both of them end up where they are now? What tight outfit will they wear next?
Seriously, it's a fun book. Don't expect anything GROUNDBREAKING in comics literature. Don't expect any totally new concepts. Pop your brain out of the cavity and sit back and enjoy.
By the way, for you completists out there, there is also an EXPOSURE PRELUDE issue which fits into the continuity between issues #1 and #2. Available exclusively from Another Universe. Com, it tells of how the girls go about getting rid of a ghost as they set up their new headquarters..