Lulu and Mitzy: Best Laid Plans

The grimy streets of San Francisco prove to be no place for a lady in this impressive debut about a pair of illegal immigrant streetwalkers who get into trouble trying to better their station in life. Lulu is (as she's described on the Web site they finally persuade a geek customer to put up for them) “a Latina goddess of brickhouse stature,” while “little Asian hottie” Mitzy “is like a shot of sake: sharp, light, and leaves you very thirsty half an hour later.” What this boils down to is that Lulu is big, optimistic and able to pummel into submission any who stand in their way (including a trio of tattooed bikers in one particularly impressive throw-down), while Mitzy is a mouthy, temperamental font of complaints. Drawn with a goofy verve that owes quite a bit to Peter Bagge's toothy, overexcited style, Bell's surprisingly engaging and funny comic follows the women as they try to make an easier, safer buck. Finding that pimps and strip clubs aren't going to cut it, they flirt with going legit, with dramatically different results. The Bay Area–specific satire is on point, the humor easy but genuine, and the ending surprisingly emotional. A fun debut with definite series potential. (Nov.)