Path of the Planeswalker Preview

Free Comic Book Day turned out to be great fun. I spent most of the day at the Free Comic Book Day Festival, run by Jetpack Comics in Rochester NH. The whole town of Rochester gets involved, and there is basically a comic convention at a hall in town, as well as events in the store (it was a Magic: The Gathering prerelease weekend as well), and a town-wide scavenger hunt involving many town businesses. I also visited two other conic shops that day: Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, and the Manchester location of Newbury Comics.

Free Comic Book Day comics that I'll be reviewing fall into four categories:

1) Comics I bought that day.
2) Comics I got for free that were not among this year's official FCBD offerings. These include some regular back issues, some freebies by indy creators (like the mini I reviewed yesterday), and some freebies from past promotions that stores were including in their offerings.
3) This year's official Free Comic Book Day promotional books.

It's from that last category that tonight's offering comes.

Title: Path of the Planeswalker Preview
Date: 2011
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Writer: Brady Dommermuth, Doug Beyer, Jenna Helland
Art: Alex Horley-Orlandelli, Steve Prescott, Christopher Moeller, Kev Walker, Izzy
Cover: D. Alexander Gregory
Design and Lettering: Jino Choi

The story here focuses on planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker. We open with a brawl between Garruk and another of the original planeswalkers, Liliana Vess. Lilliana gets the better of Garruk after some back-and-forth action and Garruk vows to track her down because, well, I wasn't really sure. Actually I wasn't really sure why they were fighting to begin with other than that they both appeared to be so arrogant that it was impossible for them to be in a room together. Anyway, Garruk is apparently upset at having been whupped by a girl, and so he is searching the multiverse for Liliana so that he can find her and beat her up. Or maybe he wants to propose marriage. I'm really not sure.

What I do know is that all of this leads into a flashback scene in which Garruk is about to be drafted into the army at age 10. His father is apparently a war protester and decides that his son is going to give the local sheriff (of Nottingham?) the "hell no, we won't go" treatment. The son runs away into the wilderness where he befriends the beasties there. Years later he comes back into town accompanied by a baloth horde ready to take revenge on the Sheriff, who tries trickery without much success and ends up getting his just desserts.

The flashback sequence was considerably more interesting than the more current parts of the story. The artwork was good, but the use of so many artists contributed to it not having its own distinctive art style.

Rating: 6/10

Pro Tips For Tabling At Comics Conventions

Reviewing the first of today's haul from Free Comic Book Day.

Title: Pro Tips For Tabling At Comics Conventions
Date: 2011
Publisher: Trees And Hills
Writer: Colin Tedford
Artist: Colin Tedford

Short comic strips describing the "do's" (but illustrating the "don'ts" of selling your comics at a convention). There was some very funny material here, most of it dealing with situations familiar to nearly every comic book creator.

The individual jokes in this eight-page quarter-sized minicomic freebie range from one panel to eight. The longest ("Close the deal") is the one I found most amusing, but they were all pretty funny.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Lone Ranger #0

With Free Comic Book Day upon us, here's a Free Comic Book edition from 2007's offerings.

Title: The Lone Ranger / Battlestar Galactica Season Zero
Issue: #0
Date: 2007
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Brett Matthews, Brandon Jerwa
Artist: Sergio Cariello, Stephen Segovia
Colorist: Dean White, Inlight Studios
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover Art: John Cassaday, Stephen Segovia

Flip book.

Cue up the William Tell Overture! I'll start with The Lone Ranger.

The Lone Ranger opening action sequence with a caption narration recounting of the Lone Ranger's creed was surprisingly awesome. The exchange between Ranger and Tonto that followed was worth a decent chuckle without the humor seeming out of place or disrespectful to the original material. Tonto is a character who gets put under a microscope a lot, and I have to say that I was impressed with the glimpse we got here. Gutsy move to include the word "God" in the Ranger's creed too. I think that an upfront display of faith works for some characters, and this seems like a good choice. Sergio Cariello did a great job of telling a fast-paced action story with the artwork while the captions established the character. This was a really good start!

Flip over and... There are those who believe that life here began out there... Oh, wait. That's the old version of the show.

Anyway, this takes place two years before the Cylon Holocaust. How do we know? The second caption says so.

Adama and Tigh take command of the (a bit the worse for wear) Galactica for a search and rescue mission in the Romulan Neutral Zone. No, wait. I mean, um... just plain "Neutral Space". I think that's located somewhere between the Positive and Negative Material Planes.

Anyway, just as I yanked myself back out of Star Trek (and D&D) paradigms, here's Commander Adama leading the away team in classic Kirk fashion. At least he's not taking the first officer, chief medical officer, navigator, and chief engineer.

They then exchange a bunch of tough-sounding military jargon. "We've taken a hit and we're going down hard." "Brace for impact!" "Weapons hot and eyes open." "We've got trouble. I'm getting multiple readings all around us." While this is happening, they are getting shot down, finding the marooned crew they came to rescue and then getting into a even more trouble as the "to be continued" looms ahead. This was full of sound and fury, and as far as I could tell, it signified nothing.

One good one and one bad one makes for...

Rating: 6/10

Reviewing from Free Comic Book Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow (Saturday 5/7/2011) is the Free Comic Book Day Festival, in Rochester NH. This event is part of the nationwide Free Comic Book Day, and is sponsored locally by Jetpack Comics, who get the whole town of Rochester involved. In the spirit of Free Comic Book Day, Dandelion Studios will be giving away free minicomics, including a Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire mini, an issue of our Unpopular Species series, and our latest Caravan steampunk newsletter (featuring the Perils of Picorna prose serial). I'll be there representing Dandelion Studios, and I'll be doing reviews of some of the FCBD freebies starting with tomorrow's column.

Plastic Farm #15

Another issue of Plastic Farm. I tend to buy a lot of different books, so this is one of my few chances to really work my way through a whole series from the beginning.

Title: Plastic Farm
Issue: #15
Publisher: Plastic Farm Press
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Rafer Roberts

Chester Carter wakes up late for his first college class, advanced physics with the strictest professor on campus. And the stairs are out of order. Meanwhile, inside Chester's head, the Kamikaze Kid is dealing with his own set of problems.

The art in this issue was gorgeous, easily Rafer Roberts' best work in the series so far, with three separate two-page spreads showing the college campus in all of its creepy glory, plus some beautiful wordless sequences involving the Kamikaze Kid. The plot was simple, but did a great job of building tension.

Really good issue.

Rating: 8.5/10

Plastic Farm #14

Continuing through the Plastic Farm run.

Title: Plastic Farm
Issue: #14
Publisher: Plastic Farm Press
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Rafer Roberts

Nice to see the letter column and editorial back, as well as clearly marked credits.

Chester continues his tale to his captive audience at the snowed-in airport lounge. This time, the flashback is to his college years. After some early hints that Chester is being taken to a college that is not-quite-normal by has parents, the experience turns fairly mundane.

Chester makes friends with his roommate, gets introduced to alcohol, and proceeds to get drunk and make an idiot out of himself in pretty typical college freshman style.

This was a good story in spite of (or in some sense, because of) its lack of some of the surrealism that characterized earlier issues. It was nice to see writer/artist Rafer Roberts devoting some space to teenaged Chester just being a kid, and the dialogue flowed smoothly and naturally.

Rating: 7.5/10

Plastic Farm #13

Another comic from our purchases at SPACE.

Title: Plastic Farm
Issue: #13
Publisher: Plastic Farm Press
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Rafer Roberts

Plastic Farm returns to minicomic format with issue #13. There's also no credits or contact information given. I'm assuming this is all Rafer Roberts' work.

Two stories. The opening is a fairly detailed set of scenes from Chester Carter's arrival at Greybridge as a baby and his baptism by the Brethren. This is as close to a detailed origin story for Chester as we've seen in the series. The artwork very nicely captures the flavor of the abandoned mental hospital, now being taken over by the Brethren, who may not be as united as they first appear.

From there, we return to the snowed-in airport for a short scene that serves mostly to introduce new characters to the cast. Oh, and there's more cannibalism.

Good start to the new format, although I'll miss the lettercolumns and Rafer's editorials and his spotlighting of guest creators.

Rating: 7/10.

How Dear To Me Is Sleep

A fitting title for the moment, I think.

Title: How Dear To Me Is Sleep
Date: 2009
Publisher: Drowned Town Press
Writer: E.J. Barnes
Artist: E.J. Barnes

Half-sized minicomic completed as part of 24-Hour Comic Day 2008.

Part science and part autobiography, this minicomic explores the concept of sleep from several angles. The opening discussion concerns scientific (lack of) understanding of the nature of sleep, followed immediately by a discussion of sleep in the animal kingdom.

From there, the comic explores EJ Barnes' childhood, the unusual sleeping habits and patterns of her parents, and her brother's struggle with sleep apnea. EJ goes on to recount the sleep study that she went through, and then ends with several pages illustrating a relevent quotation from Michelangelo (Renaissance painter, not mutant ninja turtl),

There is some clever art here, showing peoeple's different experiences with insomnia, and I liked the ending with the Michaelangelo quotation. Nice cover too! Gotta love the cat curled up in the blanket.

Rating: 7.5/10.

Batman #699

Well, this represents my first miss. Sort of. I actually did read this comic and write the review yesterday, and had every intention of posting it once I had a chance to get a cover scan going. But between the breaking news of Bin Laden's death and a deadline for my day job, I simply forgot that I hadn't finished.

Anyway, here's yesterday's review. I'll have a new one up for today shortly.

Title: Batman
Issue: #699
Date: July 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tony S. Daniel
Art: Guillem March
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Mike Marts, Janelle Siegel

The Riddler has been poisoned by an almost-fatal dose of Joker toxin. Or has he? All is not as it appears in this story that hearkens back to an earlier criminal conspiracy by Riddler, Blackspell the Magician, Firefly (the third-rate villain, not the Whedon TV show, but you knew that, right?) and some other villains who I guess don't even rise to the level of third-rate and who are dead by the time this issue starts up.

This had some good action, and the plot generally made sense. I particularly liked Riddler's escape from a guarded hospital room by good old fashioned bribery. Somehow the concept of a corrupt Gotham police force makes more sense to me than an utterly incompetent one.

The final battle with Blackspell got very silly, with Blackspell transforming into what can best be described as an angry ent. Which doesn't help at all against the Batman. Dude should have just decided to make like a tree and leave (sorry!).

This was complicated enough to make me want to read more, but logical enough to be entertaining without all the pieces of the puzzle.

Backup story introduced the new Green Arrow series. Gang chases lone woman into woods. Tackles her and then get shot in their respective hands and arms by Ollie. I'm not really a fan of gratuitous implied rape, or of the use of it to justify gory (but non-lethal) violence by the hero. But the final splash page is almost good enough to make me forget all of that. Almost. Welcome back, Ollie. Hope they give you some better writing once your new plot actually gets going.

Rating: 6.5/10

Plastic Farm #12

Continuing through the Plastic Farm run.

Title: Plastic Farm
Issue: #12
Date: December 2005
Publisher: Plastic Farm Press
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Rafer Roberts
Copy Editor: Nan Roberts

Chester Carter visits a fortune teller and gets all the answers. He just doesn't get to keep them. The final chapter of the first part of Plastic Farm doesn't wrap everything up, but it does give the reader some better insight into where Chester fits in all of the strangeness around him.

The dialogue is really strong in this issue, and the story has a nice even flow to it, as it concentrates mostly on a single narrative (with the framing story of the older Chester telling his tale at the snowed-in airport.

Rafer Roberts handles the art solo this time, and provides some really strong visuals, including a very nice final splash page.

A good breaking point, if not an actual conclusion.

Rating: 7.5/10