
Insane Comics 2017
By Steven Pennella
Faith Fallon was America's Sweetheart during the fabulous '50s. She burst onto the Hollywood scene like a shooting star. Men wanted her. Women wanted to be her. Alas, as the fate of so many young starlets in Hollywood, her star eventually faded, and she fell out of favor.
Faith's career and personal life continued on its downward spiral until she was found dead in her home in upstate New York. She had allegedly committed suicide. Faith Fallon suffered a fate worse, and in some ways better, than death. This is her story.
From Famous to Infamous.
We all know i’m a huge fan of this book. I’m hoping there will be a trade paperback eventually i’d love the opportunity to sit down and read each issue back to back uninterrupted. While the pacing, flow and subject matter of this story continue to make the mind and imagination work overtime to have it all in succession has to got to be that penultimate experience.
This issue takes us on a whirlwind of classic Hollywood misdirection. In it’s heyday Hollywood would craft their stars from the ground up, changing their names, hiding their sexuality behind sham marriages and publicity stunts. They would create histories for them that were nothing like those they actually experienced. So the fact that Steven is able to craft this very issue where we have no idea what’s fiction and what’s reality and yet fascinates and captures the attention this way is stunning.
There are times I feel really truly lost reading this and yet like a train wreck I can’t turn away. There’s that fascination that comes with something so engrossing that no matter the subject matter, how it’s presented, wrapped up with a bow on it that is completely and utterly morally wrong and yet the kind of stuff we thrive on seeing. The seduction of the innocent is always something people dream of either doing or having happened to them to explain away certain aspects of their personality. I mean c’mon anyone remember Lolita it’s a story that was wrong in every way you could imagine and yet Jeremy Irons made it into a movie. So it’s kind of the same premise here.
Steven is a master of using mixed media to bring the words to life. The fact he is so talented using any of the types of art that we see here is superb. I mean there are those moments that I feel like we’re seeing photographs morphed into the imagery needed for that moment. The smoothness of the skin the uncanny the eyes look and the sheer amount of sexuality and vitality that we see is astonishing. The way he uses page layouts through angles, perspective and even backgrounds are stunning.
I love the fact that at some point Faith Fallon has gotten herself so in over her head that she begins to lose who she is/was and wants to be. Where does reality begin or end and the fabrication take over? This has brilliant kind of genius to the storytelling that will mesmerize you and leave you in a fugue state wondering what to do next.