GFT Retrospective #104: Oversized Cosplay Special 2012
a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.
Weirdly, Ticketholders, this is another issue that I'm glad to have the time to talk about in depth in a positive light even though it has no real bearing on the main story and isn't meant to be taken seriously.
Access and research proved difficult for this review, as the comic is unavailable through ComiXology (so I had to resort to other means of reading it on short notice...only to find it available on ComiXology two days before posting this), and most efforts to track down the real identities of the main characters ended in frustration because this is a thirteen-year-old comic book, obscure searches give Google a digital aneurysm, and Gemini/Lens is more artifice than intelligence. So big thanks up front to Reddit user u/heelsonholiday for coming in clutch where the technology bigshots failed.
GFT Oversized Cosplay Special (2012)
Starting off, we have the instantly recognizable work of EBas with Nei Ruffino on colors, showing the five main characters of the issue in their cosplay outfits (Autumn Ivy as Druanna and Carita Ho as Calie Liddle were the only Zenescope characters I could identify, but Lessa Michelle is the one in red armor with a whip, Rosanna Rocha is the legally distinct Mortal Kombat ninja, and Jettie Monday is the cat-girl). This also received a sketch variant for Jesse James Comics (now High Score Comics) in Glendale, Arizona, and the ladies did a photoshoot cover in costume for a special booth signing event at Phoenix ComiCon that year. Speaking of photoshoot covers for the Con, Jessica Nigri as Britney Waters, anyone? Getting back to the artist covers, we also have Elias Chatzoudis with a fanservice convention exclusive of Lessa Michelle (I think?) deciding whether purple lingerie goes better with a Snow White cosplay or an Alice cosplay. Considering her hair color and that we soon find out that her first cosplay was Alice, I think we have our answer. And finally, in no particular order, we also have Alfredo Reyes and Ivan Nunes spoiling that Baba Yaga will be in this issue, as well.
The Oversized Cosplay Special starts out with your basic, unreliable ensemble narrative (think The Usual Suspects) with our five cosplayer leads telling an unseen interviewer about themselves and the sequence of strange, forgotten events that led to them murdering someone.
Having seen all of Supernatural and having not read this comic in quite some time, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone had cursed their cosplay outfits to make them act out of character because they were acting in character, if that makes any sense. But we quickly learn that each of the women has been acting strange (more honestly about the amount of shit they can take in their day jobs and toxic relationships, in particular, which is a sentiment that I can get behind, minus the blunt-force murder, of course) without being in costume. Add on the two-page spread of lesbian fanservice in a suddenly-appearing kiddie pool full of chocolate pudding, and it's clear something...odd is going on that is directed at these five, specifically.
Putting the bonkers start to this thing aside (and trust me, it gets even more insane later), next comes what I think is my only real complaint about the Special: how blatantly unsubtle it is about glazing Phoenix ComiCon. The ladies (when they're not reminding us that Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" was still kind of popular four years after its release, or doing weird stuff, or talking about how they can't remember why they did weird stuff) will not shut up about how great the Phoenix convention is, and it's the main setting for the issue. It's like the 40s and 50s when sitcoms, soap operas, and game shows were owned by the businesses that owned the television studios that aired them, so the writers were allowed (forced?) to make the characters stop the plot of the episode to pose with a can of soup or a pack of cigarettes, or spend extra time doing laundry so we could get a really good look at that new GE washer & dryer, now on sale at Macy's. It's unnatural, unnecessary, predatory, harmful to the quality of a given narrative, and cringeworthy down to the soul. So please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so I can maybe afford to attend a Con before I die, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.
But I did appreciate the little cosplay cameos of Zenescope characters and legally distinct facsimiles of other publishers' characters (blue dwarf Wolverine is a genuine treasure), and the story quality soon returns when Carita visits the Zenescope table and picks up...the Grimm Fairy Tales Oversized Cosplay Special‽
Yep, the walls between truth and fiction have been utterly smashed, and the issue abruptly turns into a meta-smoothie that's part In the Mouth Of Madness, part Duck Amuck, and part Final Destination (comics, Bloodlines), thanks to Baba Yaga giving Raven Gregory and Eric Basaldua reality-warping powers in exchange for Raven's necklace (a Gateway item like Esmeralda's ring) so that she can travel to the future and read Grimm Fairy Tales #100 (which looks like The Return, but with 100 on the J. Scott Campbell cover instead of 75) so she knows what to expect...except that she shouldn't need to do that because she was born with precognitive abilities and trained from birth on how to use them.
The events we've read in the issue so far could still happen, though, because Baba Yaga isn't the only character doing things out of...character. Samantha Darren (who had been dreaming the bulk of the issue so far because she's the precog now, apparently) ignores a sensation of Baba Yaga being nearby despite her Dream Eater Saga and Myths & Legends experiences thus far having twisted her into a perfectionist with a savior complex.
As a result of this, we get Samantha being distracted by children who want to have her boobs when they grow up, and Baba Yaga and Raven Gregory heading off for a date and fairytale discussion at Five Guys, which is definitely the better ending gag (despite it being more blatant product placement) because it's surreal and meta and it doesn't have single-digit-aged children obsessing over an adult stranger's mammal-bags. Trust me; I saw a mother who let her elementary school-aged son go out in public wearing a "TICE NITS" t-shirt last week, so I know creepy bullshit when I see it. And...I'm ducking fun talking about that for the rest of my life, so let's move on.
Spoilers for an over-ten-year-old comic, but there would later be a Grimm Fairy Tales #100 (that I will get to in due time) that was the first milestone issue to also lead into a major event miniseries. So if we are meant to take this reality-shattering comedy special seriously (and I don't think we are), Baba Yaga now knows about Zenescope ripping off Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet story.
But I digress, and I know that the Oversized Cosplay Special is pure, fun insanity, so I'm letting it slide on things like continuity, derivative structure, and inconsistent characterization because when it's not being a Phoenix ComiCon commercial, it is genuinely fun to think you know what's going on and be more wrong than you could have ever imagined.
I went back and forth this week about whether or not I would review the 2012 Swimsuit Edition next week or save it for the super-sized Omnibusted, and I decided there was enough to say that I would do it as its own review after all.
Ticketmaster,
Out.
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