NASCAR Heroes: Free Comic Book Day 2008

Another break from that Batman run to dip into the random unread comics. This is from FCBD 2008.

Title: NASCAR Heroes: Free Comic Book Day
Publisher: NASCAR Library Collection / Starbridge Media Group
Date: 2008
Writer: Jeremy Diamond
Artist: Peter Habjan, Rich Duhaney
Colorist: Peter Habjan, Rich Duhaney, Susan Menzies
Letterer: Thom Zahler
Editor: Jonas Diamond, John Gallagher

This was a random Free Comic Book Day pickup, and proved to not be at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a biographical book on NASCAR drivers. Instead, this is an all-ages superhero story set in NASCAR.

NASCAR driver Jimmy Dash is a former janitor who, along with his pit crew, gained superpowers from an explosion of a mysterious secret fuel formula. So now they do super-heroic deeds between races.

The origin of Jimmy Dash is the backup story in this book. The main story is a rather clearly Scooby Doo influenced tale of a movie set haunted by a headless ghost. After the third lead actor in a row quits the set of a racing film, Jimmy Dash is recruited to play the part, and he soon encounters the headless ghost.

There are some vehicular action scenes, but the ghost plotline fizzles out without any satisfying resolution, and we don't really get to see much of Jimmy or his teammates using their powers.

This story didn't seem to know how serious to take itself. The action was goofy enough that it wasn't very entertaining as a serious action story, but it also wasn't funny enough to be, well, funny.

I also felt like the story could have gotten better use out of its NASCAR connection. There was never any action that took place in an actual NASCAR race.

Rating: 4/10

Kids Love Comics: Comic Book Diner Special Edition

Title: Kids Love Comics: Comic Book Diner Special Edition
Date: 2008
Publisher: Sky-Dog Comics, Kids Love Comics
Writer: Rich Faber, John Gallagher, Art Baltazar, Franco, Scott Christian Sava, Diane Mulrenan, Off White, Ray Friese, John Gallagher
Artist: Rich Faber, John Gallagher, Art Baltazar, Franco, Scott Christian Sava, Kevin West, Mark McKenna, Ray Friesen, John Gallagher
Colorist: Lisa Lubera
Letterer: Erin Mulrenan

This Free Comic Book Day collection of all-ages friendly comics previews six different titles. First up is Roboy Red in a story where two siblings are debating the existence of the rogue robot title character. The older sister is so fixated on her opinion that Roboy Red is merely a "suburban myth" that she's oblivious to the actual battle that Roboy Red is fighting overhead. This was a bit predictable, but worth a couple of smiles.

There are two Patrick the Wolf Boy stoties here, which are both basically gag strips.

The Dreamland Chronicles is an epic high fantasy that evokes Peter Pan and the like. There are two scenes in the seven pages that appear here, which could have been better connected. This looked like a well-developed fantasy world with some fun characters.

Bananna-Tail is a humorous story about a monkey dream sequence that quickly turns into a nightmare.

Finally, ostrich Tybyrd Fearlessness tries to get himself a meal in spite of being flat broke. Like the other comedy pieces, this was pretty formulaic, but I liked a lot of the jokes along the way.

I was really impressed by the general attitude of this collection as it celebrated comics for all ages of readers.

Rating: 6.5/10