The Gold Standard- A Gold Digger Retrospective (Part 2)

Let the adventures begin!

Welcome back faithful readers to the next part of The Gold Standard! For this installment I'll be looking at the original one-shot, mini-series, and first fifty issue run of the franchise.

I know it took a while for me to get around to this, but I wanted to make sure I remembered everything correctly. Going back over the series took more time than I had initially anticipated, but I feel the investment has been well worth it. Making that conscious effort to refresh my memory has only helped to affirm even further in my mind why I love Gold Digger so much. I've found myself somewhat distracted from my usual obligations (such as this blog) because of the amount of gratifying entertainment I was experiencing from the magic that is GD.

In all honesty, it felt like I was transported back to that warm spring in 2004 when I first discovered the book. Seeing those old pages in my copy of Gold Digger Pocket Manga #1 was like meeting up with an old friend I hadn't seen in years. I remembered all those great feelings of adventure that Gina and Brit provided for me. It re-enforced in me the notion of how sometimes all a story really needed to do at the end of the day was to simply be fun. Most importantly though, it reminded me of all the inspiration this franchise gave me, and frankly it got me feeling that same inspiration once more. The energy that GD exuded on every page was truly contagious in all of the best ways possible.  

Admittedly, for a brief moment when I re-read the series, I did question if maybe my nostalgia had blinded me to any faults the comic could've potentially had. Thankfully I think those old school issues of GD have more than held up to the test of time. While they're not perfect by any means, they do have a certain level of charm, passion, and quality that I feel cannot be ignored. With that said, let's Scrooge McDuck this baby, and dive into a big ass pile of gold.

The adventure begins with the Gold Digger one-shot comic. Although the heroines Gina and Brittany have gone on several adventures before this point, this is where the comic introduces we the readers to the dynamic duo. Our intrepid explorers are on the hunt for Merlin's (yes, that Merlin's) mythic Time Raft. It is said that the Time Raft was an ancient device that allowed its user to freely travel throughout all of time itself. Super scientist Gina Diggers wants to find the time machine so that she may study it for scientific purposes. It's also humorously made known that Gina is a bit of a horn ball, who wants the artifact so that she can do a little time traveling to pick up hot guys. Her adopted were-cheetah sister Brittany Diggers on the other hand, has come along only as Gina's bodyguard in the event of danger.

The first adventure!

As the pair dive into a cavern in the mountains of England (that Gina had pinpointed as the Time Raft's location) they come under attack from a band of Goblins and Trolls. Brittany manages to make quick work of the assailants as they to go deeper into the cave thanks to her advanced martial arts training. Little do they know that the evil iron dragon known as Dreadwing has been making this place his home for the last several centuries. All the while keeping the Time Raft in his possession. Using magic to spy on them, he sees that Gina appears to have extensive knowledge of the ancient device. This is fortunate for Dreadwing as he doesn't possess the scientific know-how on using the artifact to it full potential (let alone enough to get it to even start) so he needs Gina's skills. Dreadwing sends his elven slaves Tark and Mesha to acquire the sisters under the pretense that he was once a servant of Merlin's. They believe the story, and Gina begins to help him to learn of the Time Raft's secrets. Being the evil dragon that he is, he wants to learn how to activate the machine so that he may use it to conquer the world. Our heroines catch onto Dreadwing's game plan rather quickly though when Tark and Mesha betray Dreadwing and reveal his true intentions.

Things ramp up fairly quickly with everyone getting into an all out fight against Dreadwing. While our heroes come out strong to start in the fight, it seems like the group is on the losing side of the battle when Dreadwing uses his deadly fire breath on Brittany. Thinking that her sister is dead, a vengeful Gina uses the self destruct feature she had found while working on the Time Raft to "kill" Dreadwing. After the dust clears, and Gina mourns, it turns out that Brit managed to survive Dreadwing's attack due to the accelerated healing her lycanthropy provides. As repayment for giving them their freedom, and for perhaps even saving the world, Tark and Mesha reveal to the sisters their former master's stash of immense riches. Thus the sisters leave with untold amounts of wealth.

Overall, I would say I really liked this one-shot. If this were how I was first exposed to the series, I would feel inclined to want to read more. As the introductory adventure it was fairly solid in establishing everything that would come to be expected of the series' later installments. This was definitely a text book case of big things having small beginnings. If one were to take a moment to consider that this was all done by a single person (who didn't have that much experience under his belt at the time) one can't help but be impressed.

What really made this comic work for me was the chemistry that existed between the sisters. Almost all of their dialogue felt natural, with the banter that Gina and Brit have at the story's beginning being one of my favorite exchanges between the two. Coming from a fairly tight knit family myself, I can honestly say that yes, siblings do talk to each other like that. Fred wasted practically no time in getting the main character's personalities and the goals for the plot established. Within the first two pages of the comic we already know what the setup is. The pace with which Fred laid out the foundation for the plot and character relationships was astounding to say the least. Fred made all of the important plot points come off to the viewer as naturally as possible through the clever use of his character's dialogue.

I will admit though that a few elements of the narrative did feel slightly glossed over, or underdeveloped. The battles resolved too quickly (particularly the fight with Dreadwing) and could've been given a more satisfying flow if their length was longer. A brief snippet of Brit's back story (the details on how she became Gina's adopted sister) came off as being no more than a cliff note, as well as feeling a little forced in its execution. While the elves Tark and Mesha were not exactly boring characters, I did feel that they were not nearly as interesting as Gina and Brit. Had they been given more time to develop I'm sure there wouldn't have been a problem. Of course, I do understand that when you do a one-shot like this, you've only got so many pages to work with when telling a story. Thankfully Fred addressed a lot of these problems in future issues that we'll get to in a little bit.

While the art can be considered a tad crude at times, I would like to reiterate that these were the formative years of Fred's style. Even with the flaws, I've felt that Fred's older work has aged surprisingly well. Everything was distinct, iconic, and energetic throughout the read. Being in black and white, the line weights were well handled, with only one or two panels ever feeling too busy with detail. Naturally everyone can't be on board with the comic's art style. Personally I think characters all showed a good range of emotion, and Fred's stylized anatomy was at least consistent from beginning to end. The panel flow did leave a little to be desired when it came to the action scenes, but they still had the required effects when the need arose. The more liberal use of fanservice was also quite tame (especially when one thinks of what is currently acceptable in comics today) and never felt like it was the book's only focus.

Kickin' it Gold School.

Going into the mini-series, our intrepid explorers are on a new expedition in Peru to find a lost temple that is said to be made entirely of gold. Using a relic called the Gem of Returning, Gina hopes to find the temple and unearth its history. For Brittany, her massive credit card debts need to be paid off, so she comes along to score some loot. A long time rival of Gina's (Penny Pincer) also joins the hunt for the temple, looking to claim the discovery for herself.

As the duo navigate the jungle, they come across Stripe. He is the prince of a cat-like race known as the Kryn, who have secretly been living in the city of El Dorado; the lost city of gold. Stripe's home has been taken over by the evil Atlantean sorcerer Gyphon, who has been using his magic to change almost all of El Dorado's citizens into mindlessly violent, rock-like creatures. Gyphon intends to end the centuries long war between the Kryn and the Atlanteans, by turning all of the Kryn into his slaves. With Stripe being one of the only remaining Kryn, our heroines agree to help him win back his kingdom, and free his people from Gyphon's curse.

Brit and Stripe are immediately attracted to each other upon meeting, with Brittany wanting to get Stripe alone so that she can be more intimate with him. They're caught by Gyphon's slaves though shortly after they go ahead to scout out El Dorado, with them being brought to face the sorcerer himself. With Gina being alone and vulnerable, another one of Gyphon's slaves strikes, and as the creature comes in for a killing blow, the Gem of Returning falls from Gina's bag. The stone's magical properties activate, transforming the rock monster back to their original Kryn form. Shortly after surviving her encounter, and realizing the Gem of Returning's powers, Gina crosses paths with Penny. After a humorous exchange involving wedgies, the two agree to set their rivalry aside in order to deal with the bigger threat of Gyphon.

After facing down Gyphon in the throne room of El Dorado, our heroes defeat him, and send him packing back to Atlantis. Gina uses the Gem of Returning's powers to return everyone in El Dorado back to normal, and Stripe reclaims his place as prince. Gyphon takes several dangerous magical artifacts back with him though, so Gina and company decide to give chase. From there, a globe trotting adventure ensues with everyone fighting desperately to defeat Gyphon. They must thwart his plans to unleash Armageddon; a massive magical monster he hopes to use to conquer the earth. With tons of twists, turns, and revelations along the way, the group manages to ultimately succeed in stopping Gyphon's diabolical machinations in just the nick of time. I wish I could go more into the details of the mini-series' plot and characters, but it would pretty much take up the rest of this installment if I did. If you happen to wish to know the rest of the story, I highly recommend reading the mini-series yourself. You won't regret it, as it is one hell of an entertaining ride.

I will say that this was where I felt Gold Digger truly began to find its voice and come into its own. The scope of the adventure extended beyond a single area by having plenty of new fantastical locations used. Starting from a jungle in Peru, to then going to El Dorado, Atlantis, Shangri-La, and finally the Garden of Eden, this adventure was friggin' huge. The addition of several new (and eventually recurring) characters allowed for Gina and Brit to get some interesting chemistry in as the story progressed. We also got to delve further into both of our heroine's respective back stories, as well as some of the extended cast's. The comic's universe became more fleshed out, with plenty of good mysteries being left over for future story arcs.

Having the space of four full length issues gave Fred's writing plenty of room to breath, and I don't think I could be more thankful for that. This adventure was (simply put) tons of fun to go on!  Fred kept the humor and the sense of adventure at a good height, with only a couple of moments feeling like they either resolved too quickly, or were just not that funny. I will admit that the climax of the arc with the crew having to destroy Armageddon was over way too fast. The fact that the Armageddon monster was destroyed in literally a single page felt a bit underwhelming, considering the threat level it was supposed to have. Thankfully everything that lead up to that point was such a hoot that I almost didn't mind. The good far outweighed the bad here as far as I was concerned.

Fred's art style noticeably improved and became more refined from the original one-shot too. Panels had more fluidity to them, the fight scenes were more kinetic, and the implementation of gray scale shades gave the art some much appreciated depth. Sadly I did feel that the gray scale made some panels a little tough to read, but it wasn't so egregious that it made things bad. With the introduction of new characters and races, the breadth of the comic's imagination only increased. Due to the story taking in place in multiple locales, Fred really got to show off his skills on designing interesting backgrounds. Elaborate set pieces like the library of Shangri-La, or the portal room of Atlantis made for some really unique looking locations. While not everything was technically perfect, this was where Gold Digger really started to resemble the comic it would eventually become today.

Brianna Diggers: The third sister!

Finally we move into Vol. 2, the first fifty black and white issues of the continuous series. Again, as much as I'd like to detail absolutely everything about this volume, I'm going to have to keep it fairly brief. I'm only going to touch on the bullet points that I felt made this run of Gold Digger such an incredibly fun read. Check the stories out here if you want to see them for yourself.

The opening arc introduces us to who would eventually become the third Diggers sister Brianna, one of my favorite characters in the series. Through some humorous mishaps, our favorite pair of sisters meet up with the rakshasa Gen, but are hit with a bad luck curse while exploring an ancient temple. Not one to let a small thing like a curse get her down, Gina uses her super science abilities to trick the curse into leaving them. By creating a fleshy blob that possesses the duo's DNA, the curse does in fact leave them and enter it. Incidentally the combination of nasty magics, and genetic super science don't exactly mix right, resulting in Brianna's birth. The luck curse that created her makes the composite clone want nothing else but to see Gina and Brittany die. Thankfully with a little help from their father (Theodore Diggers, one of the world's most powerful mages) they manage to free Brianna from the killing intent of the curse. She finds immediate acceptance within the Diggers family and friends, with her becoming a regular part of the continuous adventures.

Brianna quickly established herself as one of my personal favorite characters in the series, and for good reason. The unique circumstances surrounding her creation, coupled with the combination of Gina and Brit's personalities, made for a constantly entertaining person to watch. I loved seeing her obsession with technology grow, along with seeing her utilize her enhanced physical prowess for fights. Her eventual turn to using power armor also added a cool dynamic to some of the adventures. She got some of the best developmental moments in Vol. 2, that focused on her struggles with identity. Considering conflict is the root of all storytelling, Brianna was constantly filled with great story.

The fun in Gold Digger doesn't stop there either, as we see Brittany go up against the Kryn priestess (and Stripes former fiance) Tanya. Boiling with jealousy, Tanya formulates a plan to have the were-wolf Jetta kill Brit, by posing as her in the kidnapping of Jetta's son Pojo. Tanya's plot fails though when Theodore gets into the fray, and has her arrested. Shortly after that, Brit faces off with the super powered mob known as the Crime Syndicate. With a little bit of help from her old friend Danielle (who has taken up the super hero moniker Avenger) they manage to put the Crime Syndicate behind bars.

Another great adventure includes the Diggers family having to face down the likes of the diabolical Lich King. Once their former grandfather Johnathan Diggers, the Lich King emerges from the Netherrealm, wanting to place his essence into Gina's body. His powers are dwindling, and by placing himself into a living host of blood relation, he can maintain his rule over the damned. It is here that we also find out about Julia Diggers (Gina and Brittany's mother) and how a curse from the Lich King keeps her in the magical realm of Jade for all but one day a year. Utilizing the same science that she used to remove the luck curse, Gina is able to remove the Lich King's curse over her mother. With Julia now being able to travel freely through the realms again, the Diggers family stands united against the Lich King.

Several revelations come at our heroes quickly as the circumstances of Brit's adoption into the Diggers clan become more clear. A run in with a super intelligent time traveling dog shows that time travel is possible, but almost brings the reign of mankind on earth to an end. The introduction of the Dynasty of the Stars brings with it the knowledge that the Kryn, Atlantean, and Amonian races are all in fact alien. Star Wars caliber battles ensue, with the heroes coming out on top, but just barely every time. After numerous issues, Brittany and Stripe finally tie the knot, with all of the cast coming together for one huge wedding bash. I can go on and on about all the great issues that were in Vol.2 of Gold Digger, but we'd be here forever if I did that. While the mini-series was where GD started to really come together, this was where it truly became awesome! The spectacle of fun and adventure that just kept coming from each issue was almost mind boggling.

Even though there had been a clear emphasis placed on sex appeal throughout GD, I believed that Fred's writing managed to shine past the fanservice by leaps and bounds. The Diggers sisters are depicted as being far more than just three gorgeous women. They are fairly complex characters who have solved their own problems time and again. I will concede that Gina has been displayed as having a bit of an overactive libido throughout the series, but that was only one part of her character. She also has been shown to be an insanely smart women who is capable of many an amazing feat using only her wits. When something like a sex drive has been written into a character, then I'm perfectly fine with it. It's when that is the only aspect of the character that it can ever become a problem with me. Had Brittany been no more than just a big bruiser type character that just ran about hitting things, I would have taken just as much an issue. Thankfully much like the art, any and all sexual innuendos were done mostly for the sake of comedy. None of the material became raunchy, nor did anything feel done to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The humor was very strong throughout, with a good variety of jokes, and several clever references being thrown in for the more nerd savvy crowd.

Fred's work on backgrounds and fight scenes only grew during this period of Gold Digger. His work on aerial battles stood out to me as some of the best I've seen depicted in comics, and his sense of martial arts choreography is notable as well. There are few comics out there where I've felt that I can say that each hit in the fight had impact. There were plenty of times it just felt like the action scenes were jumping off the page. Vol. 2 was where I think Fred hit his stride and truly mastered his work on paneling, and line weights. He opted to drop the gray scale shades, and stick with a more simplistic black and white scheme. I think this worked out perfectly, as there was no major point where I couldn't tell what was going on in a panel. With the ever increasing number of cast members, the scope of GD's vision only became more cool. As I've said before, I love worlds where it feels like anything can exist in it, and Gold Digger continuously proved that to me. With the inclusion of super heroes, galactic dynasties, evil lich demons from hell, and time traveling dogs, Fred essentially made what some could consider to be a nerd's biggest dream come true. I constantly felt that the sky was the limit when reading these issues of Gold Digger.

So with that said, we wrap up on part two of The Gold Standard. Tune in for the next installment, when I take a look at the first fifty issues of the color series. I'm sorry that I went into cliff notes mode for this, but I've already taken up far too much space to even get to this point. Until next time, happy readings and see you on the flip side! PEACE OUT!