Director Russ Meyer may be gone, but his memory lives on in Tramps of the Apocalypse #1 written and drawn by Alice Darrow with colors by Hugo Blanc. Yep, good old Russ Meyer, director of over-the-top, violent and erotic drive-in fare of the ’60s and ’70s such as Vixen, Mudhoney and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls would love this book, which feels almost like a sequel to his legendary film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, with the three main characters transferred to a post-apocalyptic setting in the year 2094.
What’s the book about, you ask? Well, if it were a film I imagine the trailer would sound something like this, barked out loudly by a guy whose hoarse voice sounds like he just pounded down a bottle of 120 proof whiskey:
“Baby, Belladonna, and Babette are bad news, but so is fascism baby, and this trio of titillating tempests are here to wipe it out! These women aren’t handing out love, brother, they’re stacked, fully loaded and delivering death, free of charge! Kicking, shooting, stabbing, slashing, maiming! This one has it all! Belladonna’s karate gut buster! Hooded freaks and psychos! Babette’s Lethal Lasso and a map that’ll lead you to your wildest dreams! Or to your worst nightmares? For total satisfaction, see Tramps of the Apocalypse tonight!”
I loved this book so much because it channels the fury and playful sexuality of Meyer’s films while injecting a bit of modernism into the mix. Writer/artist Alice Darrow does a magnificent job making the book feel like a true ’70s drive-in experience in book form and I imagine the great Tura Satana would’ve LOVED to play Belladonna, the most vicious of the three main characters. Belladonna looks very much like Tura. Maybe Belladonna was modeled after her?
Dark Horse
Ms. Darrow’s art and the sparse use of color makes the post-apocalyptic vista feel scorching, vast and barren, where a threat could be waiting just around the next bend of the road. She fills the book with wonderfully bizarre characters and vehicles that at times push the book into surrealist territory. All the characters are drawn in an exaggerated style, especially Baby, Belladonna and Babette, who tower over all the men in the book and are so buxom they make Dolly Parton look positively lanky by comparison.
I enjoyed the dynamic between Baby, Belladonna and Babette, who always seem to be a few seconds away from tearing into each other as they roll across the desert landscape in a Volkswagen Beetle, perpetually arguing over who’s in charge or who’s got a cigarette. It’s an alliance of convenience because as much as the trio bicker with each other, they have to deal with the draconian patriarchy in power. In a world where no woman is safe, Baby, Belladonna and Babette are evening the odds in the most violent ways possible, especially in the book’s tense middle section, where the three women encounter a group of strange (and armed) men in the middle of the desert.
The book’s guaranteed to anger misogynists, but who cares? The brutal violence and vicious dialogue could be considered a parody of grindhouse films but I also feel it represents the primordial rage many women are feeling at the current state of the world. We live in a time where women’s bodies are being regulated by predominantly male lawmakers, where women STILL make less money working the same job as men and where women feel less safe as each day passes. Baby, Babette and Belladonna embody justice, they embody power and the freedom of an unrestricted life. They unapologetically live life the way they want and they destroy anyone who gets in their way, and the book’s incredibly satisfying because of it.
The book has the spirit of a Russ Meyer film. Violent, surreal, sexy and incredibly fun to read.
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