In an earlier blog I mentioned that I had met Richard A Hamilton at the recent 2009 Long Beach Comic Con while he was at 'The Antidote Trust' (TAT) booth...

At that time he told me that the mini-series I had blogged about earlier, 'The Miserable Dastards' had been collected into a TPB. (Click here for that blog.)

While I was there at the TAT booth he also handed me his earlier mini-series that I had not seen before. That was "The Return of the Super Pimps".

Okay... I had really enjoyed reading the first issue of  his 'Miserable Dastards' series,  and if he wanted me to check out his earlier work, then I was up for it!

But what was it about?  I kinda had an idea from the mini-series title and the covers of the six issues in the series, but wanted to know more.  Here is what the Press Release said about the series: 

"During the 1970’s, five protectors - Blackbeard, Foxy Mama, Homeboy, GhettoBlaster, and Sidekick - known as the Super Pimps kept the Hood safe and delivered justice with a strut. But that all changed on one night in 1979, and the Super Pimps were no more.

Now, almost thirty years later, Detective Jackson Maple still believes in his childhood heroes and sets out to reunite the Super Pimps, just as a familiar evil returns to The Hood after so many years."

I think I need to 'flesh' it out a little more... Yeah, that's a bad pun... But here's how the story really is set up in the first issue.   The reader gets to see the Super Pimps through the eyes of a young boy in flashback mode.

The Super Pimps had lost one of their own in battle, which basically had forced the team to disband on their own.  Then in the next scene it's now today in modern times and back to that same boy who had witnessed the end of the Super Pimps and who is now a Police Officer of all things!

Maybe this comic started off a little stereotypical at first for me...?  But then again, I am an older white guy that has grown up watching several blaxploitation movies and what not during the years...

But then the Super Pimps grew on me.  It was funny to see that the Super Pimps are considered an 'urban myth' of the past, and how they act like they are out of touch with that much time passing.  The storyline improves with each issue, and the dialogue works out for each character.

So with a full set of this mini-series I appreciated the storyline more, and the dialogue.  There's something about Richard's writing that I find to be a fun read. Maybe a little more so in the 'Miserable Dastards' mini-series, but this storyline here grew on me quickly, and I found myself enjoying it before the end of the first issue.  The additional issues just added on to the story, and the ending was pretty good as well!

Ulises Roman, who does the pencils and inks for the first issue is a little 'rough' at first for me.  However his pencils grow and he does get additional inking by Rick Bonilla in issue #2 & #3.  Robert Roach comes in for lettering and layout design in issue #3 and stays till the final issue #6.  The art style was a little different for me at first, but I could see that it did fit the storyline and jelled for me reading into the issues as I went along.

It was the coloring that helped put this mini-series together for me.  Jasen Smith had a hand in it for at least issues #1 thru 3. 

The credits for who did what got a little expanded and then contracted for the mini-series.  I don't know the creative backstory to this series, but all in all I enjoyed the mini-series as a whole, and was entertained by it.  One of the hardest things to do in publishing an indie series is to publish all the issues that are figured to be in the story arc.  This creative group did it, all the way through to the final issue which was #6.

I shouldn't compare it to the 'Miserable Dastards' mini-series which Richard also wrote; which was a completely different storyline and setting, so I won't much, other than what I've said prior to this. 

Suffice to say that I did enjoy reading this mini-series written by Richard and developed further by those listed above and more not named here.  I look forward to reading a third mini-series written by Richard! 

Here's the direct link to the Dial 'C' For Comics online store where you could purchase this mini-series, and also the 'Miserable Dastards' mini-series that I previously blogged about:

http://dialcforcomics.com/shop/fs_shop.html !

Thanks to Richard for bringing this earlier mini-series to my attention!