Alien Implant Comics Anthology

Title: Alien Implant Comics Anthology
Publishers: donnamartinez.net, tacolicious.net, mobiusbandwidth.com
Writer: Donna Martinez, Joey Peters, Lindsay Moore
Artist: Donna Martinez, Joey Peters, James Mobius
Letterer: Joey Peters

Four stories makes up this anthology in minicomic form. The first and last are specifically related to the theme.

First up is "Among Us", a pretty clever twist on the alien conspiracy theories. The ending had an nice classic Outer Limits or Twilight Zone feel to it, which played well with the X-Files style buildup.

The second story was more of an autobiographical piece. "Natto Challenge" told the tale a group of American tourists in Japan and their encounter with a TV talk show crew who were looking for the reactions of foreigners to one of the local delicacies. I'm a sucker for geeky autobiographical comics, and I would have loved to see more of the adventures of these characters.

The third story, "The Lost Shadow" was more cartoony (in the Warner Brothers sense) and more surreal and humorous.

"Panic Attack", the last tale was done in a similar art style to the opening piece. It kept up the surrealism, but went for a much more serious storytelling style, and played around some more with the book's title theme.

All in all, a nice set of short stories, all of which leave room to be expanded into bigger tales.

Rating: 7.5/10

Attack of the Super-Wizards #1

Title: Attack of the Super-Wizards
Issue: #1
Date: 2010
Publisher: Superwizard.net
Writer: Joey Peters
Penciler: Joey Peters
Inker: Joey Peters
Letterer: Joey Peters
Editor: Joey Peters
Creator: Fletcher Hanks

Fletcher Hanks created a number of oddball characters during comics' Golden Age in the early 1940s. Among his creations were Fantomah: Mystery Woman of the Jungle, Big Red McLane: Earth's Mightiest Lumberjack (no, really!), and Stardust the Super-Wizard. Fletcher Hanks' characters have fallen into the public domain, and Joey Peters lovingly recreates Hanks' style in this tribute comic.

There is some amusing material here, as well as some things that will just leave you scratching your head. And that is exactly the reaction you're likely to have to the original stories. My favorite segment in this issue featured Stardust's hardboiled detective galpal Rosemary Redgrave. I love her line "Have you sold squids to any suspicious customers lately?" The fact that the book is loaded with Lovecraft references is a nice little touch.

A few of the jokes fell flat, but I had a lot of fun reading this and learning about Fletcher Hanks and his comics. Readers will need at least a little bit of context to really "get" this, but once you have that context, it's quite entertaining.

Rating: 7/10

When I talk about "finds" at conventions, I usually mean comics I discovered walking around the dealer hall. This one was a literal find at Arisia. I found it on the sink in an unoccupied mens room. I forgot to take a photo of the comic at the con, so the photo instead was taken with the comic on a bench next to my bag as we waited for the train at Boston's South Station. Back to Arisia tomorrow, so look for more reviews of comics I find (one way or the other) at the con!