Gina Diggers (aka Gold Digger) and her sister, the werecheetah Cheetah (aka Britanny), are archaeological adventurers. They are the female version of an "Indiana Jones"-type duo. Cheetah's the muscle, while Gina's the brains.
This issue finds the pair scouting out an old tomb that just happens to have a black market arms deal going on in front. They're noticed, and have a fun time losing the terrorists.
Inside the cavern, they come across the usual assortment of traps... lava floors, endless pits. The usual. The sisters escape and split up to try and find any treasure. Cheetah sees her boyfriend, Stripe, in a room just waiting for her. They begin to get intimate (which is a rarity because of Stripe's shyness) when he suddenly becomes demonic and attacks her.
Meanwhile, Gina stumbles across a machine that's a historical time-space recorder. She learns of how Cheetah came to be with the Diggers family. Many years ago when she was a baby, a werewolf slaughtered the entire werecheetah civilization. Theo Diggers, Gina's father, found Cheetah in a crib and adopted her.
Back to the fight, Cheetah trashes the fake boyfriend. It returns to its normal form of a gender-neutral rakshasa named Genn. Genn was only wanting to siphon off some of Cheetah's ethereal lifeforce, but needed to do it while she was immobile. (Sex usually renders people that.) First, Genn tried to seduce her, then scare her into fainting. Genn promptly apologized.
The werecheetah and the rakshasa then go off to meet up with the human, who asks the computer about the history of the tomb. It shows them that robbers took all the treasure 2000 years ago. The Diggers open the vault to find out for themselves, and notice an armlet.
As Gina picks it up, a curse goes off, and the girls find themselves in a mess...
What a great comic! Action, adventure, romance, breasts!! Err... I mean... well, c'mon! That's what the main attraction was for reading this in the first place, right??
Wrong. The story is great, a modern variation of the whole dungeon adventure idea. And although there is little history to allude back to, Fred Perry does a very nice job of giving a history of the sisters. He also includes past guests as well as introduces new ones.
The artwork in this issue is fantastic, with nothing along its lines for the era it came out in, except maybe "Transformers". Or Heavy Metal. Kinda both. Mr. Perry's style is very dynamic, and he can easily tell a thousand words with one picture.
The expressions detailed on each face comes across with a clarity that would make photographers jealous. You KNOW when Gina's sorry, or when Cheetah's in lust, or when Genn's in a world of hurt. Excellent style, keeping in true spirit of the Japanese style, anime.
The best part of Gold Digger has to be the banter between characters. Mr. Perry can make a bit person in the far background have an instant personality. It's so insane, it just works perfectly. For instance, we KNOW that the Diggers sisters have lived with each other all their lives. Basically, everyone in Gold Digger talks normally (with a hint of irrascible wit, of course.)
My only problem with this issue doesn't come from Mr. Perry's hand. Instead, it's the bad rewriting of words in the dialogue boxes that fails to enhance the comic. It reads like an issue of Cracked magazine, and typos aplenty make this an almost unbearable issue to get through. But when you get used to it, just like when a garbage man gets used to the smell of garbage, the comic elevates into a breathtaking experience.
And yes, there are the breasts. ^_^
(out of four.)
Instant Hole - from a Warner Bros, cartoon, although Wile E. Coyote seemed to make more of them, inadvertantly of course
"Go, go, Gina-backpack!!!" - Gina is a parody of Inspector Gadget with all of her toys
James Bond - Ian Fleming's fictional spy, Agent 007
Star Trek cartoon - either a great show or a horrible show, depending, based on the "Star Trek" television show
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