It can sometimes be confusing to distinguish, “it” from “I.T.” when written and read. Since the advent of the Information Technology department at any company that uses computers, it’s been a pain. Luckily for those already in the know of characters created by Mike Allred, you may have an idea of whom I speak.
Allred has been on the comic scene since the early ’90s with titles such as Graphique Musique and Grafik Muzik. Stories that built his comic style and personality, that helped him create his most well recognized character to date, Madman. Born Zane Townsend and dubbed Frank Einstein after being resurrected from a car crash that killed him, Madman becomes the protector of Snap City. Thus is the basis from whence we start our journey. Just to catch you up to date, which It Girl and The Atomics does very well and concisely, foes turned friends, the Beatnik Street Mutants turned into the Atomics after their skin cleared up and super powers gained by outer space spores set in properly. Having their own comic didn’t last as long as it should have, the same that goes for another book by Allred, Red Rocket 7, which chronicles the history of rock and roll from the perspective of a clone that interacts with just about every heavy hitter on the scene from the ’50s on. But, for those hip to the scene, Daddy-O, this is just where it changes gears, but keeps on truckin’.
As the saying goes, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Just because certain titles may not have been mega hit, let’s-make-a movie-out-of-it extravaganzas, the characters that made up those titles are interesting enough to cross over into the other Allred titles and not be sequestered to their own books. The same goes for It Girl and The Atomics. Having been born of one title and mingled with characters from another like a middle school dance, It Girl goes one better and makes its creator a proud comic grandad. With the collaboration of Mike Allred, comic writer James S. Rich (Spell Checkers, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her) and illustrator Mike Norton (Battlepug, Revival) have taken up the mantle of revitalizing the ‘burgh that is Snap City.
It Girl finds our protagonist in a slump, stuck to her video game screen like a NEET who’s afraid to leave the house. Fear isn’t what keeps her in, it’s self pity caused by boredom since Madman, two of the other Atomics, and Red Rocket 7 left to go on an intergalactic music tour. Spurred on by fellow Atomic Dorrie (aka The Slug), she cuts the cord that tethers her to the internet and gets out on the street. She may have caused a bit more trouble than she planned, but at least she’s out there.
I’m hoping that handing over the reigns to some new caballeros doesn’t mean we lose that extra spice that Allred peppered his titles with, the little inside jokes that are only meant for those in the know, inside jokes like a character named Mott from the planet Hoople. We’ll just have to wait and see. Until then, this is all I have to say. This is IT.
