More Bang For Your Buck? Money Shot #1 From Seeley, Beattie, Isaacs & Vault

When you’re entire scientific research team turns to pornography in order to crowdfund your research journeys into deep space, then things have gotten ridiculous, but that’s exactly the premise upon which new sci-fi comedy series Money Shot is built. Written by Tim Seeley and Sarah Beattie, with art by Rebekah Isaacs, Money Shot #1 sets up the series in flashback, having first been introduced to the gang in the opening pages as they embark on another salacious sex session with a willing alien. Definitely a comic that delivers more bang for your buck than other comics out there this week. Literally!
We learn that funding for the sciences is at an all time low, and so Doctor Christine Ocampo and her MIT team mates are in dire straits and in need of a boost from somewhere. Anywhere. And so, after a lonely dirty delve on the internet, Ocampo is struck by the opportunities she and her colleagues could take up, if they’re willing, of course. And they are! Especially one Doctor Doug Kochs, who surprises everyone, not only with his willingness to get stuck in – literally –  but his need for a stage name of Supermassive Blackhole, when his own given name is more than ample for this industry, you would think. And so, the space-faring sexual hi-jinx commence. 

It’s a series that can’t take itself too seriously, and it doesn’t. And, while it’s definitely a comedy, it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted, given the subject matter. Although, said subject matter is more hinted at than illustrated graphically. We get the thoughts of foreplay and the post-coital reactions, and that’s about it. oh, and the odd splash of fleshy parts too. But, it’s not what drives the comic, I’m glad to say. But, it’s risqué enough that you wouldn’t want to leave it lying about, that’s for sure.
Isaac’s artwork is a joy to take in and the complimentary color work of Kurt Michael Russell, together creates and sustains a bright, humorous tone for the whole book that definetley helps sell the book as a ‘funny’ book, as opposed to something more smutty. Even when it looks like the crew will succumb to a gladiatorial battle to the death, when you witness the big bad boss, you can’t help but laugh, thanks to the scripting of Seeley and Beattie. Sex seems to be a common currency across the universe and one that’s used here for laughs rather than titillation.  

Of course, behind this humour is a satirical streak, albeit well hidden. The very concept of the book draws parallels with your very own 45th President, by stating in the comic’s opening page that, thanks to an anti-scientific President, scientific funding has been slashed. That, and the fact that the rest of the universe seem to hate us. I mean, have you seen what we’ve sone to our own planet and our own people after countless millennia, righ? I wouldn’t want to make friends with us either.
Whether sleeping our way across the galaxies is any real answer remains to be seem, but it’s working so far, even if it does lead the crew into trouble. But, hey, this is comics. There had to be some conflict at some pout, right? It can’t always be dildos and alien dalliances, now can it? Sex sells, but comedy will always get a laugh, and it’s a great balancing act of the two that creates a fun-filled first issue of this new one from Vault Comics. 
Money Shot #1 is available now from Vault Comics.