Vanity (1984) #1-2

Will Meugniot is best known as the artist on DNAgents, which was written by Mark Evanier. So, once again (and for the last time), Pacific is launching a series created by somebody primarily known as artist.

Editor David Scroggy explains Meugniot’s charms.

And that’s Meugniot’s go-to pose: Smiling and with their hands in the air.

I thought this series was going to be horrible, because, well, you know, but it’s not that bad! I know, I’m heaping on the praise here. It’s quite readable: The storytelling is a bit choppy and abrupt, but it trundles on in a not-unamusing manner. There’s way too many plot strands for these two short issues, but perhaps it could have gone somewhere if it had been allowed to continue.

Some of Meugniot’s layout choices are just so random: Like sticking in a Vanity pose where he had a bit of space on the page left over, apparently.

Meugniot’s figure work is pretty dependable, but Vanity apparently has legs that can stretch out to twice their normal length whenever the layout calls for it. The boots stretch to match.

As there’s only 18 pages of Vanity in each issue, that leaves a lot of space to be filled by back-up features, and Jim Rolin is first out with a very standard twist end thing. The artwork’s not very exciting, but the layout’s OK.

Bjørn Ousland does a sci-fi twist thing. It turns out when they return to Earth, everybody’s been replaced by aliens (SPOILER WARNING), so these miscreants get their due.

The Vanity storyline is way beyond kooky, but in a very pleasant way. Instead of the standard epic turbo laser fight scene, we get this, and then things are resolved very sweetly indeed.

There was supposed to be a regular backup feature (taking up the remaining 14 pages) by David Campiti, David Ross and Dan Adkins, but since Pacific went bankrupt, it…

… stopped here. Avalone (a distant cousin of the Provalone, I believe) was never continued, which may have been a good thing, because I have no idea what that thing was supposed to be about. The pacing is all over the place, and I found it hard to pay attention.

Again with the R A Jones, who writes in Amazing Heroes #53, page 60

Hey, I’m a reasonably intelligent
young man, or at least I like to think
So; but after reading both a short
preview story and the first issue of
Vanity, I’m still not sure just what
the heck the strip is about. And I’m
not sure I much care.

[…]

Actually, we do know something
she does. She serves as cheese-
cake. Her shorts are cut high and
her blouse is cut low. We even get
to see her luxuriating in a bubble
bdth. This may prove to be suffi-
ciently titillating for those boys too
young to have discovered Nationa/
Geographic, but I daresay those of
us over the age of 16 would rather
pick up a copy of Playboy (and yes,
Virginia, I do read the articles).
Why do comics seem incapable of
s giving us a sensual, sexual woman
in a floor-length gown rather than
in a costume from Fredericks of
Hollywood?

Here’s the ad in Amazing Heroes:

Fun & Frolic.