Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition

From Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition
Issue: 1
Date: 2025
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Rob Justus, Ben Clanton
Artist: Rob Justus, Cassandra Federman
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

This Free Comic Book Day giveaway previews two upcoming DC graphic novels for young readers. 

The title story, clearly influenced by the current Superman film, has Superman and Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) meeting Hawkgirl for the first time. Hawkgirl is wielding a sort of studded soccer ball instead of her usual morningstar here. We get the standard sequence of misunderstanding, fight, and team-up, but the team-up part gets cut to a cliffhanger just as the giant-robot villain shows up.

The second story is the more surreal Aquamanatee, who makes several sea cow puns while failing to address the issue that all manatees are, by definition "aqua" (though not the color aqua, but then, Aquaman isn't the color aqua either). The jokes were okay, as cow puns go, but it was hard to see where this was going. Is there a story, or do Aquamanatee and his fish sidekick just tell jokes?

I understand the need to market, but this book might have been better off devoting its full page count to previewing one of these books.

Rating: 4.5/10

Speed Racer #0

From Free Comic Book Day 2025 at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA.

Title: Speed Racer
Issue: 0
Date: 2025
Publisher: Mad Cave
Writer:David Pepose, Mark Russell
Artist: Davide Tinto, Chris Batista, Sabrina Cintron
Colorist: Rex Lokus, Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Buddy Beaudoin
Editor: Chas Pangburn

An updated reboot of the classic anime with two stories, one for Speed himself and one for Racer X. The setting is the fictional Palm City and the vibe is very definitely borrowing from the Fast and Furious films. Speed is a street racer, driving his heavily modified Mach 5 through the streets of a city obsessed with the anything-goes sport of "Formula X" racing. Spritle, updated as a youtuber, provides most of the dialogue here as Speed is more of the silent type, and is busy evading the police for most of the scene. A veteran cop clueing in a rookie on life on the streets of Palm City provides a bit of extra story perspective as well as giving some setting background. 

Speed as the outlaw street racer makes sense, although it makes so much sense that it feels like to most obvious possible direction that this reboot could have been taken in. The action was fun, though. Car chase scenes don't always translate well into comic panels, but the artists here did about as good a job as was possible to convey the pacing and movement of the action. The end of the story teased some of the other familiar characters who will have roles moving forward.

The second story has Racer X beating up some gangsters and keeping Speed from getting shot by a sniper. Pretty standard comic-vigilante jobber squash, but it kept the feeling of Racer X watching over Speed that was such a part of the show.

This was a good start to this new vision of Speed Racer, and it had enough action and plot development to be more than just a teaser.

Rating: 7/10

Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025 #1

Picked this up at Most Excellent Comics and Games in Enfield CT USA on Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025
Issue: 1 
Date: 2025
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Ryan North, Jason Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Chip Zdarksy
Artist: Humberto Ramos, Iban Coello
Colorist: Edgar Delgado, Brian Reber
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna, VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Martin Biro, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort

Free Comic Book Day freebie just in time for the upcoming FF film. The Fantastic Four story is adorable, featuring alien children engaging in some very familiar spooky fun and accidentally "summoning" the Fantastig Four from Earth. Johnny has... a mustache, apparently? Anyway, this was adorable.

The second story was a reboot of the New X-Men, previewing a, well, reboot of Giant-Sized X-Men #1. This was just Cyclops beating everyone else up in the Danger Room, and is probably the kind of thing that will generate a lot of outrage on the internet because Scott makes everyone from Logan to Ororo to Thunderbird (remember him?) look like jobbers. Oh, and Ms. Marvel is in it, just to give it a bit more of an update, I guess. She's apparently already made the team, so is saved the indignity of getting beat up by Cyclops.

The last story is Wolverpool and Deadverine, and it's just trying so hard to be even more meta than meta. This story has never "meta" fourth wall it didn't want to break. Nice to see a two-panel appearance by Ox, though. 

Rating: 5.5/10

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

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

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Free Comic Book Day 2014 All Ages

Title: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Free Comic Book Day 2014 All Ages
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Gene Luen Yang, Art Baltazar, Franco, David Lapham
Artist: Faith Erin Hicks, Art Baltazar, David Lapham
Colorist: Cris Peter, Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Michael Heisler, Nate Piekos of Blambot
Editor: Dave Marshall, Scott Allie, Jim Gibbons, Shantel LaRocque, Daniel Chabon

Three stories, featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender, Itty Bitty Hellboy, and Juice Squeezers respectively.

The Avatar story has Suki and Sokka dealing with the sexist owner of a collectible seashell shop, in an amusing commentary of the "fake geek girl" trope. The initial action is satisfying in a jobber-squash-for-a-good-cause kind of way, but the ending of the story is quite good and shows some real heart.

Itty Bitty Hellboy has some fun trying to teach a ghost how to do his job, and also plays on the old "cough syrup for the coffin" joke. Not much to it, but I give credit for bringing up a classic dad-joke I got told as a kid.

The Juice Squeezers story involved some kids braving a nest of giant ants to exact a bit of revenge on the local school bullies. I'm not clear on why there are giant ants, but the story did a decent job of representing the "kids on bikes" subgenre (ET, Goonies, Stranger Things, etc). I'd be interested in seeing what this series does when it has more to work with in the way of plot.

Rating: 6/10

Giant-Size Thrills #0

Another Free Comic Book Day flip book from Red Giant by way of the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Giant-Size Thrills
Issue: 0
Publisher: Red Giant Entertainment
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Benny R. Powell, Mort Castle, Kevin Juaire
Artist: Ricardo Jaime, Vincenzo Cucca
Colorist: Marlon Ilagan, Mariacristina Federico
Letterer: Zach Metheny
Editor: Brian Augustyn, David Lawrence

Flip book. First up is Darchon, an urban fantasy story focusing on a man who can see monsters that are invisible to most people. He sees himself as a friend of Darchon, a wizard/detective character from a pulp adventure comic magazine. How much of this magical world is real and how much is delusion is left somewhat unclear.

Flip the book over to find Shadow Children, telling the story of a boy and a girl growing up in a magical dimension, and eventually making their way back to our world.

Neither of these stories managed to hook my interest much. Both were going for a dark fantasy vibe, with Darchon in a straight-up world filled with unseen demons, and Shadow Children putting a dark spin on a fairyland type of setting.

The stories had some appealing visuals, especially Shadow Children, which also appeared to have some complex and well thought out worldbuilding behind it. But none of the characters in either story were all that engaging, and neither story hooked me with its plot.

Rating: 4.5/10

Spongebob Freestyle Funnies 2014

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2014.

Title: Spongebob Freestyle Funnies 2014
Publisher: United Plankton Pictures
Date: February, 2014
Writer: Graham Annable, Sam Henderson, Maris Wicks, Gregg Schigiel, Corey Barba, James Kochalka
Artist: Jacob Chabot, Sam Henderson, Maris Wicks, Gregg Schigiel, Corey Barba, James Kochalka
Colorist: Rick Neilsen, Mike Lapinski
Letterer: Comicraft
Cover: Graham Annable, Jacob Chabot, Rick Neilsen

This is the Free Comic Book Day offering for Spongebob Squarepants from 2014. It includes three main stories, plus some one-page gag strips, and activity page, and even an educational feature about marine life.

The first full story involves Squidward activating the "Relocate" feature on his house in an attempt to get away from annoying neighbors Spongebob and Patrick. Unfortunately, their houses also come equipped with the same feature. This was funny, and definitely in the flavor of the show, and it never wore out its welcome.

The other two main stories are aimed more at the geeky crowd.

There is a cute parody of Silver-Age (and 1960s TV) Batman/Batgirl featuring Mermaid Man and his sidekick Barnacle Boy as they battle Octopus Doctor, with some help from the mysterious Mermaid Girl. This did a nice job of mirroring Batgirl's debut, and featured some amusing action bits.

Finally, Underswimming Comics was a parody of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which was one of those things that I'm surprised no one thought to parody before this. It didn't completely hit the mark, but it was still good for a few laughs, and the overall flavor of it worked really well.

I liked all of the shorter features in this book as well, which is a pretty good achievement when so many elements have to come together to make a book like this. This was fun all around with plenty of appeal for younger readers as well as serious comic fans.

Rating: 7/10

The Tick: Free Comic Book Day 2014

With Free Comic Book Day coming this weekend, here's a book I bought during 2014's FCBD at New England Comics in Quincy MA, where I got it signed by the writer and artists.

Title: The Tick: Free Comic Book Day 2014
Publisher: New England Comics
Date: 2014
Writer: Jeff McClelland
Artist: Duane Redhead, Ian Chase Nichols
Editor: George Suarez, Bob Polio

Arthur and the Tick have to solve the mystery of the disappearance of their entire city. Fortunately, an alien that they find standing by the edge of the massive hole in the ground is able to provide a clue, which leads them to a showdown with a deranged alien collector known as the Hoarder.

This was an amusing and fast-paced story with some good visual gags and some nods to silver-age city-in-a-bottle tropes.

The backup story was also amusing, with the Tick taking on a new bearded identity as the Lone Santa. It was mostly setup for one visual joke, but the payoff was pretty amusing.

Good, silly fun all round.

Rating: 7.5/10

Giant-Size Fantasy #0

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2014.

Title: Giant-Size Fantasy
Issue: 0
Publisher: Red Giant Entertainment
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Elaine Lee, David Lawrence, David Campiti
Artist: Francis Nuguit, Jinky Coronado, Larry Tuazon
Colorist: Marlon Ilagan, Katrina Maehao
Letterer: Zach Metheny
Editor: Brian Augustyn, David Lawrence

Flip book.

The companion volumes, Giant-Size Action #0 and Giant-Size Adventure #0 are reviewed here and here.

Pandora's Blogs was an odd story, part medical thriller, part teenage soap opera, and packed with references to Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The title character, Pandora is the daughter of a doctor specializing in very unusual cases, and when her mom performs a seeming miraculous cure on her latest case, Pandora and the patient end up having a magical night at a popular dance club. But things soon go terribly wrong. All of the teenaged characters are gorgeous, and the school drama felt a bit mundane. The medical science in this is fantastical nonsense in spite of a liberal sprinkling of jargon, but the creepy, Twilight-Zone ending was fun and unexpected, and it was enough to get me interested in reading more stories of this world.

Flip over the book, and you get Duel Identity, the story of a woman whose extraordinary abilities make her a popular superhero by day, but she has another occupation as a deadly assassin by night. This was a fun take on the secret-identity trope. The main character makes an important decision here, to set up major plotlines, and it felt like it was a little bit rushed and lacking the full necessary motivation, but I still enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game as the assassin dealt with a two friends who happened to show up while she tried to stalk her quarry at a crowded business event. In spite of her powers, there is a lot of bad luck and bad timing that can interfere with the job, and I felt like the creative team did a good job of showing that. This story felt like it had a lot of potential, and felt fresh even employing relatively familiar tropes of superheroes and assassins.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sonic the Hedgehog: Free Comic Book Day Edition 2007

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2007.

Title: Sonic the Hedgehog: Free Comic Book Day Edition
Date: 2007
Publisher: Archie Comics / Sega
Writer: Ian Flynn
Penciler: Tracey Yardley
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Jacob Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Cover: Pat "Spaz" Spaziante

Eggman captures Sonic and uses a device to take control of him and turn him against his friends. Knuckles realizes that it's going to take a big punch to the head to get Sonic back in control of himself, and the fight is on.

This was fairly simple in terms of plot, and it could have worked just as well with fewer of the supporting cast, who didn't do much besides try to get in Sonic's way and get knocked down.

I did like the tease of a bit of intrigue between Eggman and Snively.

All in all, this was a decent look at what the series has to offer, and  should work well for a younger audience who knows the video games, but may not have read any of the comics.

Rating: 6/10

Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2008

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics via Free Comic Book Day 2008.

Title: Bongo Comics Free-For-All
Date: 2008
Publisher: Bongo Comics
Writer: Ian Boothby, John Bates, Chuck Dixon
Penciler: John Delaney, James Lloyd, Nina Matsumoto
Inker: Andrew Pepoy, Mike Rote
Colorist: Chris Ungar, Art Villanueva
Letterer: Karen Bates
Editor: Bill Morrison
Cover: Matt Groening, Bill Morrison, Mike Rote

Ashcan-format full-color freeby for FCBD 2008, containing three stories.

The first one features Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson in their superhero identities as Stretch Dude, Clobber Girl, and Bouncing Battle Baby. It's a good quick-paced story that is pretty standard superhero fare, but it's loaded with good jokes and excellent comedic timing, so that the not-that-original plot never overstays its welcome.

The second story features Bart going on a "stink strike" by refusing to take a bath. Not surprisingly, he ends up discovering that there is someone in the household who is more than capable at beating him at his own game.

The third story is the strangest of the bunch. It's a manga interpretation of The Simpsons, really a parody of manga tropes, and much like the baseball game that it features, it's hit-or-miss. Some of the jokes are brilliant, while others felt mean-spirited or crossed the line into playing to stereotypes.

I did love Nina Matsumoto's manga interpretations of the Simpsons characters.

A mixed bag overall. It didn't have me ready to go out and buy more Simpsons comics, but it did provide some decent humor.

Rating: 5.5/10

Everest / Love Fights #1 FCBD 2004

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics and Free Comic Book Day 2004.

Title: Everest / Love Fights #1 FCBD 2004
Publisher: Oni Press
Date: July, 2004
Writer: Andi Watson, Greg Rucka
Artist: Andi Watson, Scott Morse
Editor: Jamie S. Rich, James Lucas Jones

Flip book from Free Comic Book Day 2004.

First up is a pencils-only preview of the Greg Rucka/Scott Morse graphic novel, Everest: Facing the Goddess. This is a short piece that introduces a team of mountain climbers as they attempt a never-before-done ascent in the Himalayas in preparation for the biggest challenge of them all: Mount Everest. The artwork hints at how good the fully painted final product is going to be, and there are enough hints of potential clashes between the characters to foreshadow the danger of the upcoming expedition.

Flip the book over for something completely different: Love Fights by Andi Watson is a comedy showcasing the lives of ordinary people in a world of real superheroes. This had a light sitcom vibe to it that was charming and amusing even when not laugh-out-lound funny. The romantic problems of the main character felt a bit cliche, but the small details of life in a world with superheroes and villains were intriguing.

Two decent previews for books I'd consider giving a second look to.

Rating: 7/10

Keenspot Spotlight 2007 / Wicked Powered

From the random stack of unread comics. This was the thickest book in the random stack. Tomorrow will be a catch-up-day reviewing marathon!

Title: Keenspot Spotlight 2007 / Wicked Powered
Publisher: Keenspot
Date: 2007
Writer/Artist: Chris Layfield, Pascalle, RC Monroe, Mark Shallow, Starline Hodge, Kel McDonald, J Grant, Mel Hynes, Dan Shive, Maritza Campos, Jeff Darlington, Teague Tysseling, Smith, Zuckerman, Risberg, Eisu, Thomas K. Dye, Ryan Smith, David Wright, Mike Rosenzweig, Owen Geini, Chris Crosby

Flip book. This is one of the more massive Free Comic Book items I've come across, weighing in at 104 pages.

I'll start with Wicked Powered, one of the two "cover features". This story reads a lot like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, with a high school loser visited by time travelers (of the cute manga girl variety) who inform him of his future as a great intergalactic hero. The only problem is that the bad guys have send a monster back in time, and they're planning to assassinate him now, while he is decidedly unheroic. Most of the jokes in this fell flat for me, but the bit where the three girls from the future try to pass themselves off as typical 21st century high school students ("My name is Brangelina Tomcat, and these are my friends, Suri Obama and Snoopdogg Clooney.") was genuinely funny.

Flip the book over, and you get a massive sampler from the webcomic site Keenspot. Sixteen comics are previewed here, and it was as much of a mixed bag as you might expect. I particularly enjoyed the geeky comedy Out There by R.C. Monroe. Dan Shive's El Goonish Shive was a nice bit of light urban fantasy that had a lot of fun-looking subplots going on. Maritza Campos had a bizarre series of "What Kind of Roomie Are You" strips what got some laughs from me.Something Happens by Thomas K. Day had a pretty funny gag strip involving ants and an Etch-A-Sketch.And I loved the art style and dialogue on the high school drama Everything Jake by Mike Rosenzweig.

Most of the other stories had at least something that caught my attention, although a lot of the jokes failed to hit my sense of humor.

Still, this is a solid collection with a lot of intriguing samples.

Rating: 6.5/10

Dabel Brothers & Del Rey 2008 Preview

From the random stack of unread comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2008. After this review I have 17 comics left in the stack, which is convenient because we have 17 days until departure! A few bonus reviews are also on the docket. I've got one last graphic novel checked out from the school library and the final date for library returns is Friday, so that will be coming soon. I've also got 3 more graphic novels on the to-read bookshelf. These are lower priority compared to finishing up the stack of unread comics, but it would be nice to get them read in the next two weeks and start this blog with a clean slate when I get to the US. I'm looking forward to reading some current releases for a change!

Title: Dabel Brothers & Del Rey 2008 Preview
Date: 2008
Publisher: Dabel Brothers
Writer: Jim Butcher, Daniel Abraham, Dean Koontz, Chuck Dixon, Queenie Chan
Artist: Adrian Syaf, Eric Battle, Brett Booth, Queenie Chan
Editor:Mike Raicht, Brian Smith

Dabel Brothers specializes in comic adaptations of popular SF/fantasy prose. This collection previews four of their adaptations, featuring popular authors George R.R. Martin, Dean Koontz, and Jim Butcher.

Butcher is the only author who is actually writing completely original material for his comic series, and the only one of the authors who is doing the writing solo. Based on his Dresden Files series, the story involves a murder at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Butcher does a nice job referencing Upton Sinclair's writing, which adds a nice bit of literary fun to a fairly standard crime/horror opening sequence.

Daniel Abraham scripts The Hard Call, set in the Wild Cards shared universe created by George R. R. Martin. In the world of mutant "jokers" and super-powered "aces" is a man who awakens with different powers and a different appearance every time he sleeps. The character is an interesting concept, and nicely introduced here. The apparent murder of his love interest as the story's inciting incident was something of a disappointing cliche. I did snicker a bit when the McGuffin (remember, this was written in 2008) turned out to be something called the "Trump Virus".

The last two stories are co-scripted by Dean Koontz, based on his novels. His modern Frankenstein story had some good dialogue, but not much in terms of plot here. And I liked Queenie Chan's manga art style for the adaptation of Koontz's Odd Thomas quite a bit.

Everything here was slickly produced. In terms of my interest to read further, the Jim Butcher story was the only one that really intrigued me, although everything here at least felt like it had potential.

Rating: 6.5/10

Ape Entertainment's Cartoonapalooza

From the random stack of unread comics and Free Comic Book Day 2008.

Title: Ape Entertainment's Cartoonapalooza
Date: 2008
Publisher: Ape Entertainment
Writer: Kevin Grevioux, Brent E. Erwin, Chad Lambert, Matt Anderson, Christopher Mills, Joe Staton, Steve Bryant
Artist: Robert Duenas, Tim Lattie, David Hedgecock, Mark Stegbauer, Steve Bryant
Colorist: Diego Rodriguez, Brent Schoonover, Brian Mead, Melissa Kaercher
Letterer: David Hedgecock, Mike Hall
Editor: Molly McBride, Kevin Freeman

This is the 2008 Free Comic Book Day book from Ape Entertainment, and it contains samples of five of their titles.

First up is Monstroids, a humorous superhero story with a group of gorilla villains planning to change the entire human population of a city into apes, and a team of cybernetic gothic monsters out to stop them. This was a fun throwback to Silver-Age DC with their "all-super-gorilla" issues, but the actual product here was hurt by an overly-busy art style that was a challenge to follow. There was simply too much going on, and it was probably fine for readers who have been following the story, but this book's purpose is to hook new readers, and as I new reader I was having to go back over the pages to figure out who was who and what was going on.

The second story, continuing with the simian theme, was Go-Go Gorilla and the Jungle Crew. This was more in the realm of parody than Monstroids. I found the humor to be a bit uneven. An early joke about "terror bombings" seemed out of place and left me wondering who the target audience was supposed to be. The story felt like kids' fare, except that there was a lot of jokes that relied on breaking the fourth wall. The actual story, involving an anthropomorphic bear with a "Mister Freeze" gimmick, was more satisfying than the Monstroids story because it felt more complete.

Third, and my favorite in this collection, was White Picket Fences, about a group of kids and a deadly race with a ghost car. This was a fun creepy story in the vein of Stephen King's It, and it definitely left me intrigued by the characters and their world.

Fourth was Femme Noire, about a female pulp-adventure vigilante. This introduction didn't really get into plot, but the story has an awesome look to it, and the little glimpses of the setting shown in a series of flash-vignettes were definitely fun. If this has a story to go with its look and feel, it could be great.

Last up was Ursula Wilde, the story of a second-generation jungle adventurer character. The sample here focused on backstory and origins. It was interesting, but wordy and slow, and it didn't really give enough of a look at the title heroine, instead focusing on flashbacks to her parents. It has potential if it can pick up the pace a bit.

So this was a mixed bag. I liked the serious stuff here better than the attempts at humor, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of White Picket Fences.

Rating: 5.5/10

FCHS Free Comic Book Day 2009 Edition

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: FCHS Free Comic Book Day 2009 Edition
Publisher: Adhouse Books
Date: 2009
Writer: Vito Delsante, Lamar Abrams
Artist: Rachel Freire, Lamar Abrams

FCHS (Forest City High School) is a high school soap opera, resembling a slightly more mature-readers version of the Archie gang. The story begins on the last day of junior year, as students make summer plans and look forward to being seniors when school starts back up.

There are a bunch of subplots going on, but the story doesn't focus enough to give much depth to any of them in this sample, and the changing character perspectives happen so rapidly that it wasn't until toward the end that I felt all that engaged with the story.

It doesn't help that characters are mostly shoehorned into stereotypical roles, and that there's not much diversity in the cast. This high school class is white, good-looking, and straight, and that makes things a bit dull.

The dialogue had some good moments, and I liked the art style. Hopefully this will develop a bit more of a personality as it gets going.

The backup story is Lamar Abrams' Remake, starring a robot boy named Max Guy, who is having issues with making friends that he doesn't want to shake hands with (one is made of lava, the other is always sick and dripping snot). This had some amusing moments, especially the bit with Max Guy getting frustrated with his video games, but it also had a tendency to drag out the same couple of jokes over and over.

Rating: 4/10

Shonen Jump Special: Free Comic Book Day 2009.

The second of two Shonen Jump Free Comic Book Day specials that ended up in the random stack of unread comics. I reviewed the 2008 special here.

Title: Shonen Jump Special: Spring 2009 Edition
Issue: Vol. 2 Issue 1
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Stan Lee, Hiroyuki Takei
Artist: Hiroyuki Takei
Editor: Elizabeth Kawasaki, Yuki Takagaki, Grant Lowery, Joy Ma, Alaina Yee, Urian Brown, Michelle Pangilinan, Joel Enos
Cover: Hiroyuki Asada, Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Eiichiro Oda, Kazuki Takahashi, Hiroyuki Takei, Yoshihiro Togashi

Unlike the previous year's sampler from Shonen Jump, this special focuses on just one series: Ultimo, the collaboration between Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee and manga artist Hiroyuki Takei. As with most Stan Lee collaborations from this time period, he is given "original concept" credits rather than having a hand in the detailed script.

Ultimo is the story of a pair of shapeshifting robots, awakened in modern Tokyo after a thousand years in limbo, and emerging to do battle. The sample pages are well executed action scenes that have a familiar feel to them, with similar sequences seen in the introduction of many, many super-powered beings in various stories over the years. I can see the Stan Lee influence in the style and pacing of the story, which wouldn't be out of place in an early issue of Fantastic Four, or one of the old Marvel monster books from the 1960s.

The artwork is definitely manga, though, and the shapeshifting gimmick of the two robot characters is visually interesting, especially in a sequence where the evil robot sees a modern gun for the first time and responds by simply copying it, and then some.

In addition to the sample story pages, this volume contains a brief interview with Stan Lee, conducted by Hiroyuki Takei, as well as checklists and descriptions for Shonen Jump's separately published manga volumes.

Ultimo looks like it could be fun, but it will need to find some ways to be more original to distinguish it from the rest of what's out there.

Rating: 6/10

Imaginary

From the random stack of unread comics. I skipped yesterday, so as of the publication of this review, I have 37 days to go before we leave Vietnam, and 31 comics left in the stack. Only six more "skip days" if I want to finish before we depart. And that's not counting graphic novels from my school library and from my unread books shelf that will also get reviewed here.

Title: Imaginary
Publisher: Radical Comics
Date: May, 2008
Writer: Sam Sarkar, Steve Moore, Steve Niles
Artist: Jim Steranko, Admira Wuaya, Alexander Alexandrov, DCWJ, Garrie Gastonny, Henryz, Jennyson, Junkman, Leos "Okita" Ng, Mr. B, Rub-A-Duck, Svetlin Velinov, Wraithdt, YJL, ZID


This is a Free Comic Book Day preview book, introducing the entire line of comics that are published as a collaboration between Radical Comics and Imaginary Friends. The book is standard comic format with full color artwork throughout. The dialogue and captions have been removed from the previews, presumably to let the art do the talking. This choice had mixed results for me. I got a bit frustrated not having more preview of the stories. On the other hand the artwork is all lovely and it helped keep my interest.

Previewed here are two stories from mythology: Aladin and Hercules. Both look like interesting takes on these frequently-retold tales, and both look to be visually spectacular.

Also previewed are the Arthurian western, Caliber, which sounds like a clever idea from the description, but whose artwork, while visually striking, seemed to indicate a fairly generic plot.

There is also a manga-influenced racing/mecha story called Freedom Formula, which seemed to be going for a mashup of Fast & Furious with Big Hero 6.

The remaining title to get some space here is Khrome, a dystopian SF story set in a world where imagination is discouraged, and religion outlawed.

As mentioned, the artwork is all beautiful, although it all looks to be similar in style, and it is all very dark. The editing on this book could have been better, but overall, this is a nice preview of books coming out of this collaboration

Rating: 6/10

Comics Go Hollywood: Free Comic Book Day Edition

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Comics Go Hollywood: Free Comic Book Day Edition
Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing
Date: 2008
Writer: Mike Manley, Danny Fingeroth, Roy Thomas, John Morrow, Peter Sanderson
Editor: John Morrow, Danny Fingeroth, Robert Greenberger, Jeph Loeb
Cover: Mike Manley


Not actually a comic, this is a magazine printed in standard comic book dimensions as part of Free Comic Book Day 2008. TwoMorrow Publications produces books and magazines on the comic book industry and the history of comics, and this volume is a sample of articles from across their line of publications. The theme here is the intersection between the movie and comics industries.

There is an introduction to storyboarding by Mike Manley, which gives some insights into how he broke into storyboarding for some of the DC animated features.


Next up is an interview with writer Jeph Loeb, focusing mostly on his work on the TV series Heroes. Danny Fingeroth conducts the interview.

A second interview feature sees Roy Thomas interviewing Gerry Conway about the script that they collaborated on in 1984 for an X-Men movie that didn't end up happening. It includes a nice synopsis of the plot, and provides a funk look at what might have been.

John Morrow gives an overview of Jack Kirby's contributions to film and TV, including his work on Thundarr the Barbarian.

Last up is a retrospective on the character of the Joker over the years written by Peter Sanderson.

This was enjoyable reading, and I learned quite a bit that I didn't know. Even the article on the Joker, a topic which has been discussed quite a lot over the years, provided some insights that were new to me. I'm not a fan of either Heroes or the DC animated universe, so I probably missed out on some revelations in the articles concerning those, but they still held my interest. The interview about the old X-Men script suffered a bit from Thomas and Conway not remembering some of the details that might have made the story better, and the Kirby article probably could have been expanded considerable from the couple of pages it got here.

All of the articles had accompanying bits of classic artwork from the respective properties under discussion, but the print quality on the artwork reproduced here varied quite a bit in quality.

Still, this was a good read for anyone with an interest in fandom or comics history, and it did leave me with a good impression of the types of articles I can expect to find from TwoMorrows' books and magazines.

Rating: 7/10