I don’t know. I’m not sure what other response one should have to Sister Bambi’s conclusion, just because—well, first off, it has almost nothing to do with this series and instead serves to close off the entire Auteur franchise (unfortunately)—but because the comic is so strange.

Spears splits the (double-sized) issue between a script for what seems more like the final issue of Sister Bambi and regular comic story. The regular comic story has Rex battling it out with what seems to be his creator (only Spears only writes the book, so maybe it’s supposed to be Callahan). Is it a reflection on the state of the creator and the creation? Of the artist’s place in the twenty-first century? Or is it just Spears and Callahan being gross?

The comic works, to some degree, on all three levels, but never all the way. Even though Callahan puts a lot of work into the art, the story isn’t particularly engaging. Especially not when juxtaposed against Spears’s other script, which one can easily imagine visualized and it would be rather funny.

So, in the end, Sister Bambi’s conclusion seems to be a mercy killing, which is odd, because if readers made it through ten issues… they might want something better for Rex and company.

Spears and Callahan achieve irreverent and absurd; hopefully they weren’t going profound and sublime. Either way, it’s one heck of a way to end a comic.

I enjoyed this issue of Sister Bambi. The soft cliffhanger, especially considering the comic opens with a comedic bookend, is annoying but in a pointless kind of way. Spears is still chasing something with the series, even though once you bring in zombie triceratops, you’ve sort of given up.

Spears is no longer bothering trying to find absurd humor in Hollywood movie-making. He’s barely trying to find humor. He’s certainly not sensationalizing the reader anymore. Instead, he’s just running amuck on Bambi, which is fine, because it gives Callahan stuff to do. Unfortunately, even though the book’s best as an example of Callahan’s skill and inventiveness, the script forces Callahan to be too inventive. Spears doesn’t give him enough room for all the lunacy. So there are these battles between the serial killer guy and the zombie lions, tigers, and bears, and Callahan has to do them in these little panels. They’re great little panels. But I’ll bet he’d have done better not illustrating them on postage stamp scale.

Let’s see if I missed anything–some lame one-liners, lots of crazy action, a too obvious subplot–nope, I got it all. Sister Bambi has gotten to the point I don’t remember much between issues, which is good; I’d also remember when the series was a lot better.

Well.

There’s some good stuff in this issue. Rex pleading with Coconut to understand his position–he had to take the financing from the Nazis in order to get his picture made–all while the serial killer guy watches and comments on his failures. As serial killer guy eats a shark raw. Or something like a shark.

But Spears’s big reveal for the second half of the issue–when Rex tries to wrestle back creative control–is weak. Spears goes for a zeitgeist topic while commenting on going for a zeitgeist topic. At first, it seems like it’s going to be offensive. But then it just ends up being a little lame. He’s trying way too hard on it.

Callahan’s got some good art but his pacing is all off. The first third is too condescended, the rest isn’t condescended enough.

It’s closer to flopping than it should be.

Spears seems a lot more concerned with making this issue fun than anything else. The film crew gets to a jungle island and runs afoul of a giant gorilla, which the immortal serial killer brings to a graphic finish. It gives Callahan something to do because most of the rest of the issue is talking heads. Even when it’s the lead–whose name I still don’t remember–meeting with a dream plane script doctor, it’s talking heads.

A lot of the busy work of the issue has to do with the lead and his giving the part in his new picture to the Nazi girl, Isla, and not his girlfriend, Coconut. The Auteur needs more than lame relationship drama. It needs grandiose, absurd, awful relationship drama. It’s a tepid feature of an otherwise outlandish story.

Callahan’s noticeably light on backgrounds too….

It’s amusing, but Sister Bambi is definitely somewhat undercooked.

The Auteur is back and it’s a little different. The jokes are broader, it’s less actually offensive and more obviously offensive. Writer Rick Spears knows he’s got an audience now and he’s got some idea of what they want. Movie jokes. Lots of movie jokes. Like a Dracula’s Dog joke.

There’s still a lot of energy to the comic, regardless of how the dialogue gags work–James Callahan is a little light on details but there’s plenty of action.

The protagonist, whose name I’ve sort of forgotten (not sort of, entirely), doesn’t get identified in the issue by name. Spears is definitely writing for the returning reader.

There’s nothing exactly wrong with Sister Bambi, it’s just a lot more conventional. And not even in the conventions The Auteur made for itself last time. It’s hard to get excited about it; inventive, moderately effective movie jokes can only go so far.