The year was 1976, and EVERYBODY was kung-fu fighting. Fortunately, Sugah Rollins is a love machine, an expert in handling super-freaks, backstabbers, and even the occasional devil woman. He’ll tear the roof of this love rollercoaster and take it to the limit! Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Bay City Jive #1 awaits!
BAY CITY JIVE #1
Writer: John Layman
Penciler: Jason Johnson
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colorist: David Baron
Letterer: John Layman
Editor: Aaron Watanabe
Publisher: Wildstorm Publishing
Cover Price: $2.95
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $3.00
Release Date: May 2, 2001
Previously in Bay City Jive: Once upon a time, twenty-five years seemed like a LONG time. A quarter-century before this comic book hit the streets in 2001, it was 1976, the year of America’s Bicentennial. The first supercomputer had just been completed, while IBM had introduced the laser printer, and Rick Dees gave us Disco Duck. These events are equally important, by the way.
By contrast, this comic came out nearly a quarter-century ago, in a time that, aside from being four PlayStation models ago, is basically today with slightly larger cellular phones. That’s not to say that there isn’t a 2001 comic book aesthetic, however, as this issue’s cover shows off one of the hallmarks of the era, with 3-D modeled logos and truly garish computer coloring.
Bay City Jive #1 opens on Nathan “Sugah” Rollins, described as “playboy, raconteur, daredevil, adventurer, and lover” of epic proportions. The streets of San Francisco are Sugah’s turf, and wherever he encounters trouble, as a young woman named Nirvana Freebreeze discovers when he saves her from being assaulted by a group of criminal schmucks. He even invites her to come back to his apartment to turn his date night threesome into a foursome. As Sugah attends to his debauchery, Nirvana rushes off to a strange seance, but both conclaves end in disappointment. Our man Rollins leaves his lady friends behind at the sound of an explosion, following the noise to an active crime scene!
It’s interesting to compare this debut issue of Bay City Jive to John Layman’s 2009 signature book, Chew, but most of those comparisons are going to be only surface-level. Where cannibal detective Tony Chu is quietly capable and prefers to stay under the radar, eating people, Sugah Rollins is loud and impossible to miss. I actually prefer Jason Johnson’s art in these pages, but I absolutely loathe the wild coloring throughout this issue.
Though Sugah gets thrown out of the crime scene, he manages to steal a tiny jade statue from under the nose of Lieutenant Halloran. He then crosses paths for the first time with Zhoa Mei Xia, a leather-clad, foul-mouthed thief who stole another jade figurine but didn’t get away.
Returning home to find his lady friends long gone, Sugah shows his new jade lady to his hippie neighbor, Kenny. After Kenny manages to put his eyes back in his head, he relates to Rollins exactly what he has on his hands: A legendary artifact, one of the Four Ugly Ladies of Huang-Ti!
Oh, man, I sure hope that Kenny isn’t up to anything shifty! (Spoiler Alert: He totally is.) As for the Ugly Sisters, the word on the street is that local tech bro/CEO/alleged crime lord Victor Fang has long been in possession of one of them and is rumored to have come into possession of another. Sugah Rollins is not a subtle man, though, and so he stomps his way to Chinatown to confront the mysterious Fang, only to end up face-to-face (and staff-to-skull) with Zhoa Mei Xia once more. As the duo clashes in the streets, Sugah starts to lose his cool, threatening to break his rule about punching out a member of the fairer gender.
Mei Xia warns him to think twice, but it’s not because she’s afraid to take a punch.
Despite having spent a large portion of 2001 working in a comic store and no doubt stocking this comic, I had no memory of Bay City Jive #1, but I found it to be an enjoyable comic book experience despite coloring that seems to want to hurt me, earning 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. The three issues of Bay City Jive are actually worth digging up, should you get the chance, especially if you’re a fan of Layman’s work on Chew, Tek Jansen, or the subtle madness of Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness.
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BAY CITY JIVE #1
Sugah's blaxploitation and martial arts movie influences will naturally evoke bits of Luke Cage, but somehow the tongue-in-cheek approach sets it apart. Aside from the disagreeable coloring, this one is worth checking out.
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Writing7
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Art6
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Coloring3
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.