Big Trouble In Little China Volume #1

Big Trouble In Little China (BTILC) volume #1 contains issue 1-4 is written by Eric Powell & John Carpenter, art by Brian Churilla, colours by Michael Garland, letters by Ed Dukeshire and published by Boom! studios. Big Trouble In Little China was originally a John Carpenter movie staring Kurt Russell released in 1986 and it is one of those terribly cheesy so-bad-its-good kind of movies, seriously if you haven't seen it go watch it, right now, this is a blog you can come back anytime, I'll wait. I was so excited when Big Trouble In Little China was announced as a comic the first thing I did was sit down and watch the movie. Fortunately the first volume does not disappoint.

I would strongly recommend seeing the movie before reading the comic as it introduces all the characters and, as the comic picks up almost immediately after the movie ends, makes the story much easier to understand. The story begins with Jack Burton finding the monster from the final scene stowed away in his truck, the Pork Chop Express. Jack learns that this monster is now bound to him as he killed its last master Lo Pan and names him Pete. Jack decides he will figure out what to do with Pete later as he is heading back to China Town for the wedding of  his friends Wang and Mao Yin and to seek the advice of the wise Egg Shen. Jack arrives just in time for the ceremony before it is interrupted by the Wing Kong (the rival gang from the movie) and their current leader Qiang Wu, a servant of the movie villain  Lo Pan, who kidnaps Wang. Jack, Egg Shen and the monster Pete have to journey through the "midnight road", one of the many Chinese hells, to retrieve the souls of the three storms and return them to Qiang Wu in exchange for Wang's life.

The comic perfectly captures the personality of the good old Jack Burton as though he was pulled straight out of the movie and pasted onto the page. He is the same arrogant, goofy, naive, lovable idiot that he is in the movie and still constantly refers to himself in the third person. The comic gives a little more background into the character of Jack revealing pieces of his past giving the character more depth without taking away the lovable fool aspect. Egg Shen is still the wise mentor who seems to be the only one with any real idea of what is going on. All of the different characters they come across in hell are both bizarre and hilarious keeping with the light hearted tone of the comic.

The art has a very grungy look with almost a rushed unfinished look to it with a lot of backgrounds missing details or missing entirely with just colours and no detail at all. I wouldn't classify the art as bad by any means, I expected a little more detail.  Despite my criticisms on the lack of detail the art still is enjoyable and the characters are clearly recognisable as the actors from the movie. Although one thing that does annoy me is Jack's disappearing and reappearing facial hair this for me is a little similar to changing eye colour and bothers me more than it should.

Big Trouble In Little China keeps all the fun and silliness of the movie and tells a new and interesting chapter that fits perfectly with the existing story. If you liked the movie then you will love the comic and the wider world and story it provides.

I give Big Trouble In Little China 4 out of 5 Pete kisses

Find out more about Big Trouble In Little China here.