Well, here's an odd little project.

Gus Beezer is Marvel's answer to the criticism that they don't do enough all-ages material.  The three one-shots, which all shipped this week, stories about an lovably overenthusiastic comics fan who keeps stumbling into contact with his idols.  The obligatory thing to do at this point is mention Calvin & Hobbes.  Since Gus' playacting is a recurring theme, there's pretty much no way around that, so there you go.

"All-ages", like "family entertainment", usually turns out to be a euphemism for "kiddie book".  And certainly, this is aiming to bring in a much younger audience than Marvel normally targets.  If you want to take it at face value, you get a relatively basic story about Gus being very excited when the X-Men come to visit.  But it's also very well observed when it comes to the kids, which is where most of the entertainment comes from.  The focus really is on Gus and his own supporting cast rather than on the guest stars; and they're an appealing group.

Granted, the idea of children who are hardcore fans of superhero comics has the ring of a bygone age.  Most Marvel books are very plainly not aimed at kids like Gus these days; their exposure to the characters comes more through the cartoons.  But that's not really the point.  It's more about the enthusiasm of it all.

Jason Lethcoe is an artist and animator best known  in comics for Zoom's Academy for the Super Gifted.  For the main story, he adopts a style that plays more to Gus and his cast  than to the superheroes' normal appearance.  But it works - the characters are coming to visit Gus, and that means they should be fitting into his style rather than vice versa.  It looks more like the illustrations for a children's storybook, with rough pencil lines (and occasion the odd erased prop) still visible.

Somewhat odder is the second story, which runs along the bottom tier of the page.  Incidentally, the book sticks religious to the six panel grid layout, always a hallmark of a creative team with an eye on new readers.  Doing parallel storytelling might seem to run counter to that, but that's why it's patiently explained on the front page - and frankly, since the back-up strip is largely composed of Gus' own hand-drawn comics, it'd get a bit wearing if it was taking up entire pages.

It's not as easy as it sounds to draw comprehensible stories in the style of a young child.  Anyone can draw badly, of course; the trick is to draw in a way which is superficially terrible but still tells the story.  Lethcoe nails it perfectly.  Complete with ruled paper and margins, it'd look pretty convincing if it wasn't for the computer lettering.  (It really should at least be lettered in a different font from the main story.)

If you're looking for an action-packed X-Men story, this isn't it.  And if you're looking for something in the style of Agent X, this isn't it either.  But it is a charming little story, which pretty much succeeds in what it's setting out to do.

Rating: A-

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