Review:

Chaos Campus is an original spoof comedy created by Bart A. Thompson, CEO and Editor in Chief of an indie comics label by the name of Approbation Comics. The concept itself was inspired by a funny conversation he once had about the late “zombie movies” and “versus movies” fads of the earlier half of the 2000s (it feels strange being able to say that already, ne?). Thankfully, he abandoned his original idea of pitting scantily-clad catholic school girls against zombies in favor of pitting scantily-clad sorority girls against zombies – I daresay child pr0n wouldn’t have been too helpful to his career.

In spite of the impossibly infinitesimal size of the waists and gargantuan size of the knockers donned by our three heroines, Chaos Campus is a comic I found that, even as a feminist, I could enjoy. The three girls have well-balanced (albeit a tad cliché) personalities, Britney being the classic promiscuous ditz that has become a prerequisite for pop-cultural satire, Jamie being a strong, aggressive fighter and pragmatist who never holds back, and Paige fitting somewhere in between as the trio’s tranquil, moderate factor. What also impressed me was the curious lack of fan-service – not a single breast was exposed, not a single woman was groped, and the closest thing to butt exposure in the whole comic was on the front cover. There was plenty of pin-up art to look at after the meat of the book was finished, but even those pieces had nothing more to claim in the way of obscenity than the oversized lady parts of the threesome.

And at the end of the day, a spoof is a spoof after all.

Thompson knew it would be difficult to write comedy, but he tried his hand at it anyway and did a pretty good job. While some of the moments intended to spark grins simply didn’t fly with me, there were definitely moments of pure gold that deserve kudos, one being the climax of “Video Ho” during which Britney was documenting her perceived last hours of life a la Blair Witch Project. The second Thompson and writer of the segment titled “Gothic Makeover,” Michelle, didn’t really do it for me with her story (but then I have a soft spot for goths). In all fairness, she did do her job well, and it had been a while since I’d giggled at the classic destruction of the “fourth wall.”

The artists Andy Screen (“Video Ho”) and Louis Bernal (“Gothic Makeover”) both did excellent work and had distinctive styles to call their own; although Screen’s style is uncannily similar to the look of Totally Spies. Both have similar issues with anatomy; however, Screen’s arise when it comes to drawing the characters from certain perspectives while Bernal’s issue is with natural posturing and motion. Screen (bless him and his endearing style) also had a couple of minor paneling problems that made the sequence unclear. I’ve no complaints about the pin-up artists, Martheus Wade and Eddie Wilson, and the cover art, a collaborative effort between Christian Duce and Martin Coccolo, is simply stunning. Chaos Campus earns a 7 out 10 for being a skillfully made and scripted indie comic despite the kinks it contains.