Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special

Bought from cover artist Jay Kennedy, who had a table at Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special
Issue: 1
Date: 2024
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: Kelly Thompson, Danielle Page
Artist: Veronica Fish, Veronica Johnson
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Colorist: Matt Herms
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald

Two stories here. The first one has Sabrina and a crew of girls at the Academy of Unseen Arts pulling off a bold plan to rescue a fellow student who was abducted by a batlike demon. Sabrina ventures into the demon's dimension while her classmates keep the portal open and prepare a reception for the demon. This was fun, tightly written and delightfully girl-powered. It was nice to see a serious-but-fun side of Sabrina.

The second story is a flashback to Hilda and Zelda as teenagers, and involves a less-confident Hilda calling up a trickster spirit that threatens to cause all sorts of mayhem on the Solstice. I didn't really have the background knowledge to fully appreciate this, and the level of the threat the characters faced seemed to be a bit ill-defined. I did appreciate the exploration of the themes of family and tradition.

It was also nice to see a holiday-themed comic that kept its focus fully on Solstice.

Rating: 7/10

Suicide Squad: King Shark Special Edition: Free Comic Book Day 2021

A previous year's FCBD edition that I got from Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for this year's Free Comic Book Day.

Title: Suicide Squad: King Shark Special Edition
Issue: 1
Date: May, 2021
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tim Seeley, Brian Azzarello
Artist: Scott Kolins, Alex Maleev
Colorist: John Kalisz, Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Wes Abbott, Jared Fletcher
Editor: Michael McCalister, Mike Cotton, Bixie Matheiu
Cover: Trevor Hairsine

This was released in anticipation of the James Gunn Suicide Squad film, which heavily featured King Shark, thus the hype here. And much to my surprise, this really lived up to the hype. Told primarily from the point of view of Defacer, a graffiti artist who somehow got lumped in with the supervillains at Belle Reve Penitentiary, the story follows King Shark as he goes on temporary release to fulfill his obligations to his father, Lord Chondrakha, the shark god. Why is Defacer along? Because King Shark likes her, and so Amanda Waller is using her as leverage to assure King Shark's return. Weirdly, this actually works really well, and the almost-certainly-doomed defacer has instant chemistry with King Shark. This was way more fun than it had any right to be, and I actually found myself interested in both characters.

The second story was also pretty good, although it didn't do much in terms of treading new ground. Told in first-person by Jason Todd, it recaps his origin, this time as Robin, and his subsequent return as the Red Hood, before placing him in (you guessed it) Belle Reve Penitentiary and introducing the storyline for Suicide Squad: Get Joker! The recap was effective for getting readers up to speed on what the deal is with Jason Todd, and Jason's voice is well written. The art does a nice job of using the shadows of the cell bars in Belle Reve to establish mood, and takes its time to let Jason's thoughts sink in.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Life of a Salamander

From the 2025 Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke Ma USA.

Title: The Life of a Salamander
Publisher: Adi E. Areaotsiaer
Writer: Adi E. Areaotsiaer
Artist: Adi E. Areaotsiaer

A salamander really loves their life, until they end up as a permanent guest in someone's terrarium. There are plots of revenge and some very subjective perceptions of time, and a bit of commentary on the general unfairness of life. We are definitely all this salamander sometimes.

Rating: 7/10

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Annual Spectacular

Bought from cover artist Jay Kennedy, who had a table at Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Annual Spectacular
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: James L. Rotante, George Gladir, Al Hartley, Dick Malmgren, Ian Flynn
Penciler: Holly G, Dan Decarlo, Al Hartley, Harry Lucey, Chad Thomas
Inker: Jim Amash, Rudy Lapick, Joe Sinnott, Marty Epp
Letterer: Jack Morelli, Bill Yoshida, Vincent Decarlo
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald

Two new stories and three classic reprints.

The main feature has Sabrina battling the Wicked Trinity of Amber Nightstone and her two new henchgirls Jade and Sapphire. They've kidnapped Sabrina's aunts as well as Salem and Enchantra. Sabrina is determined to rescue the captives (using the term "captives" a little loosely here as the Unholy Trinity have done a pretty inept job of securing their supposed prisoners). Sabrina ends up in Riverdale and gets a bit of reluctant help from Josie of the Pussycats.

From there we get a Sabrina origin story from 1962 that does into fairly interesting detail about Sabrinas powers and weaknesses. A story from the 1970s brings some definite Saturday morning cartoon vibes as Sabrina explores a haunted house with Archie and Jughead. The last reprint, also from the early 70s, involves Sabrina trying to teach Reggie a lesson in humility by enhancing rival Archie's basketball skill. Unfortunately, Archie as the star player proves to have an ego just as insufferable as Reggie's.

The book ends with a solo story featuring Salem when he was a human boy, and it's another haunted house adventure that brings the same Saturday-morning-cartoon-spooky vibe as the haunted house reprint.

I enjoyed the look at Sabrina's origins here, and the character profiles at the end of the book provide some interesting depth to Jade and Sapphire, who seem poised to be important recurring characters. The rest of this was the usual harmless fun that we expect from the Archie titles.

Rating: 6.5/10

Nostalgia Whiplash #1

From the 2025 Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke Ma USA.

Title: Nostalgia Whiplash
Issue: 1
Date: February 2018
Publisher: Olivia M
Writer: Olivia M
Artist: Olivia M

Mini zine about internet culture in 2005-2007. I always enjoy a bit of geeky history combined with autobiography, and this was a really fascinating look at the teen girl subculture that grew up around early free webhosting sites like Geocities and Matmice. It also has some self-reflection from the author's experiences exploring these sites while part of a fundamentalist Christian household.

The zine is primarily a prose essay, and examples of website graphics from the era it is looking back on.

Although I was aware of some areas adjacent to the cultures described here through my own experiences on Livejournal, most of this was new to me, and it made for a really interesting rabbit hole of a very specific bit of subculture that is mostly scrubbed from the web at this point. I'm glad someone is remembering and recording this.

Rating: 7.5/10

Godzilla: The New Heroes

From Zombie Hideout, Springfield MA, on Free Comic Book Day, 2025.

Title: Godzilla: The New Heroes
Date: May, 2025
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Tim Seeley, Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Chris Gooch
Art: Nikola Cizmesija, Pablo Tunica, Oliver Ono
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Brian Kolek
Editor: Jake Williams

IDW's Free Comic Book Day offering for 2025 soft-reboots their Godzilla universe, which is not the same universe as Legendary's Monsterverse, and actually ends up feeling an awful lot like Pacific Rim, with some elements of the Toho films.

There are three stories here, each previewing a new series. The flagship Godzilla title introduces G-Force USA, which immediately feels like more like a superhero team than a military/science operation, and only becomes more so with the addition of  "G-mutant" Jacen Braid. Also on the team is Jet Jaguar (from Godzilla Versus Megalon; I'm not sure if he's made previous comic appearances), who is inexplicably providing comic relief by (*checks notes*) speaking only in rhymes that are apparently set to the tune of its theme-song. Let's just say that I've met Etrigan, and you, sir, are no Etrigan.

Building on the mutation theme, the second story introduces the Dead Zone, an area of the Pacific Northwest that has been turned into a mutant-populated wasteland by kaiju attacks. We really just get a glimpse of the setting here, but if you just picture "mutant-populated wasteland" you've pretty much got it. A mysterious being called the Wanderer is shown battling a maybe T-Rex-sized kaiju, but we don't get too much beyond a basic peek.

The third feature is Starship Godzilla, but it really seems to be Starship Mechagodzilla, and it feels a bit like Guardians of the Galaxy with a heist in space and Mechagodzilla as the getaway vehicle.

I wanted to like this, but it all felt a bit off from what I think of as a Godzilla story, and while I commend IDW for trying some different directions, none of it felt all that original either. Everything felt too reliant on superhero-team tropes, space-opera tropes, and post-apocalyptic tropes. Just a lot of tropes here, and only five pages of actual Godzilla. I think there's potential for this to still come together, but this was not as strong a start as it could have been.

Rating: 4.5/10

Monsters in Sweaters

From the 2025 Flywheel Zine Fest.

Title: Monsters in Sweaters
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Writer:Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

With there being so little truth in advertising these days, I am always thrilled to find something, like the Combined Gas Law, or the film Snakes of a Plane, that delivers exactly what it promises.

Monsters in Sweaters promises you monsters! In sweaters! And that is exactly what you get!

The monsters include a vampire, a werewolf, a skeleton, and some sort of wormlike thing with eyestalks. Sweaters include turtlenecks, and even a sweatervest!

Amusing micro-mini zine with seven very cute pieces of artwork, wordless except for the title because, really, what more needs to be said.

Rating 8/10

Batman #444

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Batman
Issue: #444
Date: February, 1990
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Jim Aparo
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Denny O'Neil

The Batman is on the trail of the mysterious Crimesmith. The only problem is, Crimesmith has rigged his henchpersons to explode if they try to rat him out. So the Batman goes into full-on detective mode, all while providing new associate Tim Drake with some Robin-in-training advice. The Crimesmith turns out to be closer to home than Bruce Wayne might have imagined, and he's holed up in a lair loaded with deathtrap-level security systems.

This was a solid story: Good detective work, some nice scenes with Tim, good action when it came time for that, and villains who felt human. This continues directly from the previous issue, but stands alone well while setting the stage for some future plot developments.

Rating: 7/10

Slayers Special: Spellbound

From the tbr shelf.

Title: Slayers Special
Issue: Spellbound
Date: 2001
Publisher: CPM Manga
Writer: Hajime Kanzaka
Artist: Tommy Ohtsuka

Collection of short adventures starring sorceress Lina Inverse and her frenemy Naga the White Serpent. The two rival sorceresses are constantly finding themselves on the opposite sides of local conflicts, including a reporter out to break the story of a nilfa who has survived extinction and a rivalry between competing carriage services. Their battles take on a kind of Spy Vs. Spy level of silliness, but when Naga goes missing, it;s Lina who (reluctantly) steps up to get her out of trouble.

The slapstick comedy was amusing, and the multi-story format did a nice job of giving us little glimpses of the world, which is nicely detailed in spite of not taking itself too seriously.

Rating: 5.5/10