The World of Ginger Fox

by Mike Baron

Peppertree Studios used to be one of the biggest players in Hollywood, until the somber 1970s saw ill-conceived, big, worthy movies almost bankrupt the company. Now the dissolute boys-club of greedy old men who own the company are so desperate that they hire a woman to save or kill the studio. After all, they have nothing to lose… Amidst a welter of rumour, innuendo and open hostility, Ginger Fox blows into town and into a storm of trouble as she drags the company kicking and screaming back towards profits and safety. Along the way she encounters psychotic, crazed art-house directors, rowdy martial-arts prima donnas, drugs and thugs and sabotage from within by two-faced back-stabbers who don’t like taking orders from a pretty young woman and especially not a single-mom, Hollywood outsider… The tale takes a swift side-step into the weird – and lavishly violent – when a Martial Arts secret society threatens to kill anybody connected with the new movie that inadvertently reveals their sacred Negative Kung Fu technique to anybody and everybody with the price of a movie ticket.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

63 pages, Comic

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the most 80s comic I ever read. The art style, the clothing, the products, the film references, what the characters discuss just screams of that decade. Ginger Fox is hired to take over a failing film studio and has to deal with terrible films, exhaustive egos, drug addicts, a love affair, and a violent kung-fu cult hellbent on taking the studio down. Quite a lot to pack into 63 pages, and because it brevity, the story often feels rushed. But artistically it is amazing work.

[Leesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read... but only very partially because of the Writing. Mike is a good writer, but also someone who tries a little too hard to be "Edgy." It can be a little distracting.

For me, the Artwork by Master Designer Mitch O'Connell, is the real reason to dig this. It's wonderful and wonderfully perfect for this tale. I've been aware for decades that O'Connell is force to contend with in terms of design... but it turns-out his Storytelling Chops are just as exemplary.

REALLY nice stuff<

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An 80's throwback. Mike Barron tries to write Get Shorty, but fails. The Art from Mitch O'Connell is great and really gives those 80's vibes in the best way.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott McCloud often talks about the balance of comics; of the writing and the actual narrative. There are some writers who outshine their artists, and artists who shame their writers. Occassionally you have that synthesis of Morrison & Quitely, Gillen & McKelvie, Ennis & McCrea, Brubaker & Phillips, Wolfman & Perez, Claremont & Bryne, Loeb & Sale, Lee & Kirby--etc.

Sometimes however the artist makes the writer seems 10x smarter. Some examples of this are JH Williams. Liam Sharpe, Frank Quitely, most of the artist that were on Grendel, etc.

Truly is the case of the Pander Bros here. Overly stylized tha must have seemed cutting edge in the day, now adorably retro.