Everything But The Art: Intergalactic Nemesis

Billed as a "live action graphic novel," The Intergalactic Nemesis is kind of a unique experience. Larger-than-life comic book panels are projected onto a large screen accompanied by three live actors performing a variety of different roles in a pulpy sci-fi adventure story about alien invasion. There's musical accompaniment and sounds effects produced live by a foley artist. 

It's not too often that the art of the voice actor is presented live. On a purely theatrical level, this is a lot of fun. Christopher Lee Gibson steps in and out of multiple accents and attitudes with impressive celerity. He's a heroic Frenchman. He's a sinister arch-villain. He's a heroic leading man from the future. He's an artificial intelligence speaking through a bit of tubing. Danu Uribe plays the scrappy Lois Lane-type intrepid reporter who gets lost in weird otherworldly adventures. Then she's the genocidal queen of the evil, invasive Zygonians. Brock England is a gee-whiz Jimmy Olson-type sidekick, but he gets an opportunity to play a few other things including a pretty convincing Peter Lorre. 

The rest of the audio mixes quite well into the performance. Buzz Moran's sound effects design is fun to watch and it blends pretty fluidly into the backdrop of the action. Kenneth Redding Jr. accompanies the performance on piano. His performance of the opening theme got spontaneous applause opening night in Milwaukee. 

The story itself is a mishmash of different pulpy sci-fi elements that have a very long and distinguished tradition going quite far back. There's very little here that is very new, but it IS still kind of fun to see the old pulp fiction conventions being taken for a spin in a slick format like this again. 

The only real problem I had with the production was the artwork. The pen and ink work by Tim Doyle was a bit stiff in places. More than that, it looked downright ugly in places. The biggest problem, though, was its lack of dynamic impact. Doyle's work here isn't very good at telling a story.Some key reveals are muted in an unappealing way--even alien landscapes and things come across a little dull. Even in action sequences the flow of action felt kind of stilted and awkward. If nothing else, the artwork in a production like this should feel like it's delivering mood and action that is amplifying the performances of the actors. Doyle's work does a pretty good job of that in certain places, but for the most part it feels like a weak schematic backdrop to serve as a reference point so that we have some idea of what the characters are reacting to. Not that the artwork is without some merit. Paul Hanley and Lee Duhig did a good job with the color work on it. Very vivid work there that lends some impact to some of the more elaborate visuals. 

To be fair, these images ARE being blown up to a scale absurdly larger than the scale that Doyle would have been working on them with. So what looks good on a piece of bristol board might not look as good blown-up large enough to be seen from the back row of a theatre. I think part of the reason for my reaction to the art has to do with my childhood.

I haven't thought about this for a long time, but sitting there watching Intergalactic Nemesis I was reminded of being a very young kid in '81 or '82 and listening to Power Records. The experience of seeing this show feels a lot like that listening to Power Records at 5 and 6 years old. Power Records was a short-lived project that did licensed the major comic book companies to do full-cast audio adaptations on 45 and LP phonograph records that would accompany high-quality reproductions of those old comic books. You'd put the record on and listen to it while reading the comic book. Intergalactic Nemesis is that exact experience with really charismatic live actors and well-mixed sound. Only instead of getting the work of legendary artists like Neal Adams doing a Batman story or John Romita doing a Spider-Man story, you end up with the stiff, heavily-inked work of this guy Doyle. And so I didn't want to feel the need to compare this guy's work to some of the bigger-named artists in the silver age, but I have to because the format of the show reminds me of those old Power Records . . . 

So I guess that was a really, really long digression. So I guess the point is that it's a fun show with a format that shows a lot of potential, but Intergalactic Nemesis is only reaching for that potential. Still--it would be nice to see more of this sort of thing done, so I'm hoping this touring show continues to be successful. 

The Intergalactic Nemesis closes its commitment here in Milwaukee today with a matinee performance at 2pm and an evening performance at 7:30 pm. For more information, visit the Marcus Center online.