In TURKEY DAY (ONE-SHOT), available from Source Point Press on November 17th, 2021, the small town of Pilgrim Point, Illinois prepares for its annual Thanksgiving celebration when an alien invasion turns the tables on the feasting festivities.
The Details
- Written By: David C. Hayes, Brian Dunphy, Dan Gorman
- Art By: Brian Dunphy
- Colors By: Dan Gorman
- Letters By: Brian Dunphy
- Cover Art By: Brian Dunphy, James Couts
- Cover Price: $4.99
- Release Date: Novenber 17, 2021
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Was It Good?
Hmm… interesting. This is an odd comic to wrap your head around because there are two themes that are so distinct and strong, it’s difficult to tell if they’re competing with each other or blend so well they create something wholly original.
Without getting too much into the details (see the next section for more), TURKEY DAY (ONE-SHOT) is a satirical take on Thanksgiving presented as a B-movie horror film from the 1950s. At the same time, the story is an irreverent statement on Thanksgiving as a holiday of peace based on the disease, death, and destruction of colonialism.
As far as comics built around a message goes (and we get a lot of them these days), this is one of the better ones. The message is embedded so deeply in a wild, gonzo, sci-fi horror story, it’s tough to tell where the message ends and the mayhem begins. Comics with a message typically fail because the message points tend to pull you out of the story with the jarring rapidity of a punch to the kidneys, but here, the points are interwoven into the story itself as part of the plot. In effect, the message IS the story.
Is the message fair or accurate? Probably. Is it going to change any hearts or minds by reading this comic? Probably not. But if you take something away from the story that motivates you to do some research on the true events following the landing at Plymouth Rock, so much the better. If you don’t feel any such motivation, there’s still a wildly weird story here to keep you entertained.
The internal page art feels about right for the satirical take on a sci-fi horror story. The character designs are reminiscent of work done by Larry Siegel of MAD Magazine fame. The characters look just close enough to possibly be based on real-life people but far enough off to keep with the cartoonish style of the comic.
The one down point on the art is the coloring. The shading and blending look more like paint-by-numbers, and it gives the art an almost glossy aesthetic that doesn’t fit the visual tone.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Pilgrim Point, Illinois is on the verge of putting on its annual Thanksgiving play. Written, acted, and produced by the fine townsfolk. Brandon, the local history professor, is proud to have written the script to reflect the accuracies surrounding the devastation of the indigenous tribes caused by European colonialism. However, his pride soon turns to disappointment when he sees his script was completely reworked into something much more… commercially acceptable.
Meanwhile, an alien craft crash lands in the middle of a local turkey farm. Aliens that look like crawling eyes make first contact with the turkeys and decide to take over the fowl as host bodies so as to begin establishing their dominance over this planet. The possessed turkeys break out of their pen and head for town.
When the alien-eyed turkeys reach the town’s main theater, where nearly all residents are attending the Thanksgiving play, the Turkey/Alien hybrids use telepathy and brutal violence to decapitate, mutilate, eviscerate, and peck their way to complete subjugation of the town. Brandon can’t help but exclaim repeatedly that the aliens’ arrival is a form of karmic colonialism as retribution for the destruction caused by the arrival at Plymouth Rock.
We conclude the issue with a call for reinforcements, and a return to the classic Thanksgiving Day dinner table spread as it was meant to be.
Final Thoughts
TURKEY DAY (ONE-SHOT) is the weirdest B-movie, sci-fi, horror take on Thanksgiving you’ll likely ever see; wrapped around a social statement about recognizing the horrors of European colonialism. Strangely, both the message and the satire are so over-the-top, you wind up with a story that has a little bit of reading enjoyment for everyone.
Score: 8/10
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