Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead #3

By: Kurt Amacker
Review Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2005

EVIL DEAD how do I love thee, let me count the ways. My love of Sam Raimi's schlock-horror-comedy series is no secret. Unfortunately, while extremely well-drawn-and-colored and occasionally amusing, the ARMY OF DARKNESS comics have never been quite up to par with their cinematic predecessors. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the book and will continue to buy it. However, some things simply can't be emulated. Without the chemistry between director Sam Raimi and lead man Bruce Campbell as Ash, Devil's Due's AOD comics will remain pretenders to the throne. Harsh words, I realize, but I love me some EVIL DEAD and I have to be honest.

With my misgivings out of the way, here's the good stuff: both SHOP TILL YOU DROP DEAD and its predecessor, ASHES 2 ASHES do a nice job picking up where ARMY OF DARKNESS ended. And, believe it or not, there's gasp a bit of a story buried in the two miniseries. Granted, it's not Shakespeare, but it's a bit more involved than I would've expected. After the events of the last series wherein Ashley J. Williams stock boy extraordinaire at S-Mart killed many Deadites and wrecked half the store, he and his fellow employees are left to kill yet more Deadites when the store manager is possessed by the evil Necronomicon. Only this time, Ash is shot into the future, where the Neronomicon is a computer program. Essentially, it's ARMY OF DARKNESS (the movie) set in the future with a lot of pinch STAR WARS, a little TRON, and a dash of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. No points given for originality, but it's still a fun read. I'm almost embarrassed that I'm critiquing what's ostensibly a comedy book and a licensed title at that, so just take my nitpicking with a grain of salt. I enjoyed this issue like I did all of the other ones with some amusement and a gladsome sense of gratitude that Ash is in action in the funny books. I should also emphasize how great this title looks every month. The art looks like animation cells from an AOD cartoon that never got off the ground (no, there wasn't one; I'm just being emphatic). When the first issue of ASHES 2 ASHES came out, I didn't care for it. However, I think it really suits the tone and the material and I'm fine with it.

If you're a fan, you'll probably like this. If not, I'm not sure it'd do much for you (particularly if you haven't seen the movies). Still, it's worth a look.

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