Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards are best known for creating the smoking-hot superhero comic-book Bluntman and Chronic—a tour de force of the dick and fart joke genre. For Holden, it’s a way to pay the bills, but he longs to create the kind of art he and Banky did at the beginning of their career. Something personal. Something that means something. Enter Alyssa Jones. The coolest girl in the world, and someone who means something. This is the comic Holden wrote about her. A comic about love. A comic about insecurity. A comic about growth. A comic about Chasing Amy. Quick Stops Volume 3 #1 finally reveals the comic Holden gives Alyssa at the end of Chasing Amy and the reveal is… a letdown.

I’m a pretty big Kevin Smith fan. Clerks came out at a time when I was a clerk. Mallrats is my sort of humor. And Chasing Amy was an attempt at an adult romance comedy, when I was starting to enjoy those sorts of movies. His characters experiences were mine in so many ways and though they’re a bit older than me, my life mirrored so much of theirs for quite a while. It’s been 28 years since that last film came out and I’ve wondered at times what the comic Holden McNeil gave Amy at the end was like? We have that answer in Quick Stops Volume 3 #1. That answer was not worth a 28 year wait.

Running 20 pages the comic is 18 pages of recap of the film Chasing Amy. It goes so far as to use the dialogue (I’m pretty sure word for word) though truncates scenes a bit. It’s 18 pages of a Cliff’s Notes version of the film and Holden’s ups and downs when it comes to Amy. Then, we get one page that’s a recap with new dialogue and then there’s that final page from the Chasing Amy comic from the film. It’s a page you can buy autographed from Smith’s site. Arguably, there’s little of the comic that’s original and it’s hard to believe this is the comic that Holden would produce. Beyond it being a recap of the film, it feels more like an illustrated diary than actual comic.

For as bad as the comic’s narrative is, the art by John Sprengelmeyer is really solid. It captures the film’s visuals really well with a great likeness to the actors and great reproduction of the scenes. If you’ve seen the film, the visuals with the dialogue will have it all playing in your head. That’s the one good thing about the comic, it does capture the film well. But, it literally just copies the film and then mashes in that last page.

There was an interesting opportunity for Quick Stops Volume 3 #1‘s take on Holden’s comic. It’s been 28 years which has given Smith time to reflect on the film and the fans haven’t seen the interiors. That’s 28 years for Smith to think about what Holden learned and deliver a real apology. But, it seems, Holden isn’t that reflective and instead just recounts the story with an “I’m sorry” at the end. For a mystery so long in the making, the answer is a massive disappointment.

Story: Kevin Smith Art: John Sprengelmeyer
Ink: John Sprengelmeyer Letterer: John Sprengelmeyer
Story: 6.0 Art: 7.75 Overall: 6.0 Recommendation: Pass

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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