Jim Rugg's Street Angel

I loved Jim Rugg's Street Angel, trade paperback so much I picked up a whole set of the 5 issue, 2004 run off of E-Bay recently.

It's hard to describe Street Angel to anyone who hasn't read it. It's got over-the-top action;

Humor;

Angst;

Skate boards;

Ninjas;

Blaxplotaion;

Satanists;

Homelessness;

Aztecs;

Jesus;

and even mad scientists.

Basically it has something for everyone.

"Orphaned by the world. Raised by the street. Jesse Sanchez is a dangerous martial artist and the world's greatest homeless skateboarder. In Wilkesborough, Angel City's worst ghetto , she fights ninja's, drugs, nepotism, and pre-algebra as Street Angel!"

She gets help from her handicapped, skateboarder friend Anthony who likes to go by the name of the Bald Eagle.

"Sanchez fights for the  poor, the forgotten, and  whenever possible, food."

Now Jim Rugg is republishing Street Angel in a hard cover edition under AdHouse Books, .

Jim Rugg said about Street Angel "I think it goes against a lot of popular trends in current comics. But it embraces other trends that have waned in popularity." "It's like a break from the monotonous onslaught of other superhero books. That's not supposed to be a slam, I'm not saying Street Angel is better or worse than House of M or Identity Crises, Street Angel is just different from them while still retaining some of the appealing characteristics of the genre."

One of the really striking things about Street Angel is the very unusual pink covers it sports. Jim says about this, "When we were putting the book together, Brian and I went to the local comic book store to talk about cover design. The local store racks all the new comics on a long wall. So we stood against the opposite wall and tried to spot colors that stood out and designs that stood out. From that process, we eventually arrived at the flat pink element that each cover has. In lieu of a consistent logo, we use pink."

In fact Jim brings his expertise as a graphic designer to his work by not only creating striking covers but even creating a cover design for the front and the back of the book. On the front he creates interesting designs using the trade mark pink while on the back cover he often parodies covers of some historic genre or past cliché in recent or past comics history.

This is the back cover to issue #1 parodying a 90's mainstream comic cover with it's sexy girl and emphasis on it's 1st issue collectability.

Australian directed by Lucas Testro liked Street Angel so much he made it into a small film.

So I highly recommend you to buy Street Angel hard cover edition and put it on your book shelf up next to your Afrodisiac hard cover edition.

Check out more from Jim Rugg at jimrugg.com