Publisher: Archaia
Date: 2014
Writer: David Petersen, Royden Lepp, Adam Smith, Sean Rubin, Tom Hammock, Ramon K. Perez
Artist: David Petersen, Royden Lepp, Kyla Vanderklugt, Sean Rubin, Megan Hutchison, Ramon K. Perez
Colorist: Ian Herring
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Gotta hand it to Archaia. They know how to do Free Comic Book Day right. This is a beautiful full-color hardcover anthology, and yes, it's a freebie.
This book has six stories, some complete short graphic stories and others just teasers. Archaia's deal with the Jim Henson Company is represented with stories set in the world's of Labyrinth and Farscape. The rest of the stories represent Archaia's stable of original creations.
First up is "The Tale of the Axe Trio", an absolutely wonderful Mouse Guard short that tells the tale of three sisters who inherited the fabled Black Axe together, and wielded it as a team. This is a really fun bit of lore for the Mouse Guard universe, and it's the most complete story here.
I also enjoyed the Labyrinth piece, although I must admit to not having seen Labyrinth since, well, probably since the 80s.
Rust was a visual treat, although just a tease in terms of story, and Bolivar was a fun quirky bit of surrealism.
The remaining two stories, Farscape and Will O' The Whisp, got a bit bogged down in the complexity of their respective universes, and these felt more like standard Free Comic Book Day preview fare.
Still, this blows away anything that I've seen any other publishers doing for FCBD, and I found it to be worth a read just for the Mouse Guard story.
Rating: 8/10
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