Gold Digger Highly recommended

Publisher
Antarctic Press
Writer
Fred Perry
Artist
Fred Perry
Country of origin
Japan
Year
1993

Gold Digger 15th Anniversary Special “Sacred Library” #1 of #2

By David Rasmussen
15th Feb 07

2006 saw the 15th Anniversary of Fred Perry’s Gold Digger, not quite a Silver Anniversary (25th) and nowhere near the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek's (The Original Series or TOS) longevity, but a vital celebration, nevertheless. So it is with this in mind that we celebrate with Sacred Library (November of last year and January of this year), and ask ourselves one mighty musical question: What did we do to Fred Perry to deserve this, anyway?!

Most certainly, as any die-hard fan or a manga reviewer (like myself) will say, a complete compilation of the history of Gold Digger is vital. If you are a fan, you’ll need it to keep track of all the adventures that have come and gone by, while from my viewpoint as a reviewer, I need it so I have an easy reference guide to the series I can use while reviewing the latest Gold Digger issues. This is vital for both the "strong in the Force" fan as well as the technical reviewer… and that’s about it.

Comprised of a long series of dry, issue-by-issue data, along with a nice lovely gallery of cover images, the title just about does what it sets out to do (give you the 4-1-1 on Gold Digger's past), and that’s about it. I don’t know, but I was expecting something more…I don’t know…surreal out of a 15th Anniversary Special. Something big, something exciting, something naughty, something different than a long laundry list of issue content. I like the info, and reading it gave me a nice preview of what I’ll probably read firsthand once I check out the Gold Brick Collections ($50 or so a pop)… but it did no more than that.

And, not to nitpick further, it did it with a base minimum of info. Yes there is story data, but a few things could have been added.

1-Since I am certain only people with names like B. Gates, D. Trump and so forth can actually use this guide as a buying guide (since only they can buy the individual issues of the series), it would have been nice for the Library to have contained Graphic Novel cross-references (which Graphic Novel/Gold Brick Collection books contained which issues) for those of us looking to read these adventures firsthand. I would have liked that extra bit of depth. Ideally, this would have been in the back of the book or in the form of a pullout in the center (so you can check off all your acquisitions as they come in).

2-And while we’re at it, it would have been nice if you had an actual issue-by-issue accounting of every major plot, plot point, subplot and so on. Also, while we’re on that tangent, how about a chronological data list of issue releases (when the original issues were released as well as reprints or Graphic Novel releases), just for us nitpickers…. Again, that could go in the center pullout or back of the book list.

3-This is basically the Cliff’s Notes guide. I could go through the whole Princess Tanya’s Trap plot, for instance (since I have the graphic novel) and add all the minor little nuansical data that is omitted. (Hey! I just created my first word of the new year! Quick! E-mail Wikipedia!) Otherwise, basically, this two-volume set is a guide in the most general sense. If you think you’re getting the whole story from it, you're wrong. You’ll need to really read all of these stories to get the full story--which is not a bad thing, since Gold Digger is worthy of your time and effort to collect, in my opinion. (Being there is always better than hearing about it second hand.)

4-I wish there was some extra oomph in this release. I only have Volume 1 (have to try to get a hold of Volume 2... Sorry, Mr. Dlin), but I wish there was a little extra to it. I’m not terribly picky, maybe just an 8-page GD -18 skit? I would have been happy with that!

It is what it is, and (sadly) that is all that it is. No need for a comprehensive breakdown of this, since what you see is what you get. I’m not saying to skip it, because if you are a die-hard fan or a manga reviewer or
you just need a guide to help you figure out which issues contained what story so you can plan your Graphic Novel purchases, then this is for you. Sure, this does have the most complete information on Gold Digger including crossovers and so forth, and it features a full court press of Gold Digger covers from the past to look over, but otherwise, it‘s still nothing extremely special for a 15th Anniversary event…. Hey, did I mention there’s a great Halloween special that came out one month before this one? That one got a 5 out of 5 (aka the Gold Star Highly Recommended standard)--loved it; you should get that one. Really.

However, in this case? Sorry, Mr. Perry. Gold Digger 15th Anniversary Sacred Library #1 (and #2, if it is "2nd verse, same as the first" with no surprises or differences from #1) is a straight-up, you-see-what-you-get, middle-of-the-road, informational trip down memory lane, and thus gets a straight-up, you-see-what-you-get, middle-of-the-road score to accommodate its middle-of-the-road performance.

Sacred Library #1 gets 3 trips down the yellow brick road of my Gold Digger memories out of 5.

Gold Digger ® and © Fred Perry.

-- David Rasmussen 15th Feb 07