“Bloch Party”
Creative Staff:
Story: David Avallone
Art: Silvia Califano
Colors: Walter Pereyra
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Elvira is back, and she’s going PSYCHO!
The Mistress of the Dark has discovered that films create their own pocket dimensions, and now she’s lost in the Multiverse of Movies! Will she find her way home, or is it just a big Hitchcock-tease? Join writer David Avallone (Elvira Meets Vincent Price, Bettie Page: Unbound) and artist Silvia Califano (the upcoming “Death of Elvira”) for a comic you shouldn’t show mother: she just goes a little mad sometimes.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the most recent miniseries having wrapped up with some good fun from David Avallone as Elvira was paired with Vincent Price, it’s time for Elvira to move onto new things. And while she’s not exactly thrilled with how Avallone is handling this, tossing her directly into the world of Psycho, it’s at least something she knows how to manage. For this series, we get Silvia Califano on board for the artwork and this is my first time seeing their work. It’s definitely really good and fits this kind of property well and as the book progresses you get a sense that they’ve got an even better handle on Elvira and working her expressions a lot. Some properties take a bit of time to get a handle on but Califano nails it pretty quickly here and is sitting alongside the other greats that have cataloged Elvira’s shenanigans.
Having her dropped into a black and white world is from the start as she’s already concerned about her colorist, but mostly she segues right into figuring out how to get out of here. And that’s mostly tied to the device that’s now missing, so she figures rightly she has to go through some of the motions. This plays out fun as Norbert shows up to play the leading role but Elvira keeps stepping in front of him with his lines, which is making him even more unhinged as it progresses. But we also get Elvira trying to make sure that the leading lady when she shows up doesn’t get into hot water herself, quite literally. They make for a fun fake-out in order to stop Norbert for the moment and then get to exploring the Bloch Motel itself to try and find her device. The self-awareness of it all is fun, especially as she comments sideways on the real-world drama of the leading lady at the time.
Having the two women work together, we see them investigate the house while avoiding mother for a bit and the banter between them is fun, especially since it’s Elvira that’s frightened as she knows the truth of the whole thing. When they do find mother she is, of course, the desiccated corpse but has what Elvira needs. Yet this is just opening the story up to more fun as the Hitchcock inspiration shows up and is playful in his own restrained way about things as he tries to get the real story back on track. These bubble worlds may shift out of shape when Elvira is there but they need to get back on track. Of course, Avallone is going to have fun with it all first – such as bringing in the frame-by-frame remake version with the lad actor from that popping up in full color while everyone else is black and white, which throws a delightful if brief complication into things.
In Summary:
The Elvira books have been firing on all cylinders for a while and this new miniseries carries on in the same tradition. It hits the right notes in placing Elvira into the situation she’s in and the humor, while obvious at times with its being referential, is exactly what you’d expect out of Elvira in these kinds of situations. The use of the Psycho setup here makes for a lot of fun in seeing how she handles being in this world and without the device she needs while Califano puts together a great looking book, one that Walter Pereyra does a great job of pulling together with its color design. Really enjoyable stuff all around.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 25th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
