BoooOOOooom Box Halloween Haunt 2016

From a past Free Comic Book Day.

Title: BoooOOOooom! Box Halloween Haunt 2016
Date: October, 2016

Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Shannon Watters, John Allison, James Tynion IV, Hope Larson
Artist: Carey Pietsch, Max Sarin, Rian Sygh, Brittney Williams
Colorist: Maarta Laiho, Whitney Cogar, Walter Baiamonte, Sarah Stern
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese, Jim Campbell
Cover:  Rian Sygh
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard, Shannon Watters, Jasmine Amiri

Ashcan format freebie with four stories: Lumberjanes, Giant Days, The Backstagers, and Goldie Vance.

The Lumberjanes story is an excellent short, featuring Mal giving a mix CD to Molly and Molly enlisting April's help to reciprocate. The interactions were adorable, and it has the typical Lumberjanes weirdness where no one even raises an eyebrow at a dance club inhabited by deer. Artist Carey Pietsch does a great job with the expressions and body language of the characters, especially Molly.

The other stories are more teases/introductions. They're effective, but don't do much beyond introducing characters and setting up the basic scenario for each book they are previewing. Giant Days caught, which is a college-life drama/comedy, caught my interest the most out of the three. The Backstagers and Goldie Vance both could have used a bit more pagecount to give a better sense of what they were all about.

Rating: 6/10

Lumberjanes Volume 2: Friendship to the Max

I liked the first volume of Lumberjanes enough that I went to New England Comics in Quincy MA and picked this one up, and read it in one sitting.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 2: Friendship to the Max
Date: October, 2015
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis
Artist: Brooke Allen
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Cover:  Noelle Stevenson
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

The second volume of Lumberjanes begins with dinosaurs attacking the Lumberjanes Scout Camp, and it proceeds to get weird from there.

This volume covers issues 5-8 of the comic series, plus a cover gallery and a preview of another Boom Box comic series, Giant Days. The Lumberjanes stories basically conclude the initial arc begun in the first volume (or first four comic issues), introducing some more well-defined villains, and a healthy dose of Greek mythology.

A game of Capture the Flag has much of the drama of real warfare, as the scouts learn to rely on each other under pressure, and they face down some serious supernatural forces by the end.

Character growth continues nicely, and the dialogue continues to be brilliant.

Giant Days, a comedy/drama about three women in their freshman year of college by John Allison and Lissa Treiman, looks like it has potential.

Rating: 7.5/10