Welcome to the next to last chapter of this year’s annual coverage of everything Free Comic Book Day– ‘or to coin a phrase ‘the penultimate chapter’. I always think that has a nice ring to it. It’s ominious, dark and exciting – much like the eight books I will be reviewing a little bit later.
But first – let’s delve a little deep into one of my main functions of how I got the idea for this yearly format – which I’ve been featuring for the past seven years on this very webpage. The Hero Initiative is considered to be my personal driving force on the road for parting with nearly a work week’s worth of my personal fund to give to chartible contributions.
Ever since I festered a desire to complete a set of Free Comic Book Day offerings, I was growing tired of setting my alarm clock early in the morning and boarding a whole slew of city transportation buses spreading across three agencies (Culver City, Santa Monica and LA Metro), only to be stalled waiting for one store to open late and coming home late after hitting at least seven stores in total with barely half the haul.
I remember echoing my frustration to Carr D’Angelo at Earth 2 Comics that his store was the only place in the Valley that was really activately participating in the event. The places that I stopped previously: Universal City Comics in Studio City was nearly all given away and Things From Another World, nestled on top of the hill at Universal CityWalk told me politely to fuck off, because they didn’t bother to order any – so Carr and I came to a mutual agreement and a great smashing idea it was. Carr had made a suggestion that people make contributions to The Hero Initiative if you desire more comics than the allotted 5 books allowed for customers. So I threw a $20 bill into the coffer and I was allowed to select another 10 books. I wasn’t sure what exactly The Hero Initiative was. I mean, it almost sounds like the west wing of Avengers’ Mansion, doesn’t it?
Nah, as it turns out, nothing that complicated.
As wiki defines: The Hero Initiative, formerly known as A Commitment to Our Roots, or ACTOR, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers, and artists in need. Founded in late 2000 by a consortium of comic book and trade publishers, including Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Wizard Entertainment, CrossGen Comics and Dynamtic Forces Inc., the 501 charity aims to assist comic creators with health, medical, and quality-of-life assistance.
So I did a lot more digging and I got into reading the organization’s website and I found out a whole lot of information and read through some of the anecdotes and heaps of praise in how they helped such dear departed writers and artists such as Steve Gerber and Gene Colon with their medical expenses before they passed on, helped out a few creatives who were facing homelessness due to unseen circumstances such as hurricane and tornadoes damages to their studios or maybe help get Frank Miller get a molar pulled – but the story that really sunk deep was Timespirits (an old mid-80’s Epic Comics series) creator and animation writer of such shows as Thundercats and Batman: The Animated Series, Steve Perry who met a very unfortunate demise in the state of Florida because of his trusting nature. Steve also looked at the brink of being disheveled from his life and there were times he got within the organization’s good graces by endlessly volunteering to help collect donations at their booths at various comic book conventions. I find it to be a very worthwhile and enduring cause and I hope I can some way to keep this annual contribution to future Free Comic Book Day charitable endeavors.
Upon reading all this stuff, I immediately went to Carr and asked him, ‘what if I were to contribute a good sized portion of my paycheck, once per year to the organization – would I be able to achieve getting a entire set of Free Comic Book Day editions WITH a promise to increase it every year?‘
Carr immediately signed me up. Not only that, I felt an obligation to contribute to some meaningful charity in my life NOW that I’ve lasted nearly eight years doing the same gig – my longest ever job I ever had. My first cashier’s check made out for $125 was issued in 2016 and from there it increased from $25 – 50 per year until this year, I only increased it from last year’s $450 check by $25 by the ways and means of Joe Biden’s shrinkflation as a goof to play on Carr and comedian Jeff Garlin. It’s like getting two chips less in the bag – and essentially that’s way Free Comic Book Day played out this year. Last year there were fifty titles to review, this year, only 48. That’s two chips less in the bag!!
Okay, now that we got all that outta the way.
Adventure and excitement awaits us in this week’s penultimate batch of eight titles that just happen to bookended by two Marvel titles, one which happens to be a Star Wars title to commemorate the non sequitur national holiday, May The Force Be With You to celebrate every thing Star Wars related.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY STAR WARS No. 1 – Marvel Worldwide
WRITERS: Charles Soule (Return To Echo Base) & Greg Pak (The Curse)
ARTISTS: Ibraim Roberson (Return To Echo Base) & Ramon Rosanas (The Curse)
COLORS: Rachelle Rosenberg (Return To Echo Base) & Guru-eFx (The Curse)
LETTERS: Clayton Cowles (Return To Echo Base) & Joe Caramagna (The Curse)
Standard Star Wars fare specifically designed not to advance the mythology without the proper say-so from the bigs wigs at Disney, otherwise you might think Kathleen Kennedy was pulling hers out. Charles provides us with a small inventory story going down Hoth planet memory lane in ‘Return To Echo Base’ where Leia, Chewie, Lando and Luke adhere to the old adage – ‘let the rebellion leave no rebel behind’ as they all suddenly realize AFTER ALL THIS TIME on their secret base that they’re like, four or five of them missing (hey, when you’ve got laser space battles and frontal attacks on Rebel bases happening on a nearly everyday basis – there’s literally really no time to take a headcount) , so it’s back to Hoth to gather them up from the storm troopers who are keeping them in cold storage. By the end of this story, you’ll realize how the Jedi can be just like Jesus when you can feed an entire rescued party just on a Leg of Wampa alone. Greg Pak scribes a Darth Vader related tale set in his current series’ continuity that involves Sabe, Padme Amidala’s personal handmaiden being beholden to a very important task by a fellow Jedi to deliver a certain box to a certain rendezvous point.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024: All Ages – Dark Horse Comics
WRITERS: Daniel Jose Older (Young Jedi Adventures) & Paul Tobin (Plants vs. Zombies)
ARTISTS: Andy Duggan (Young Jedi Adventures) & Luisa Russo (Plants vs. Zombies)
COLORS: Dan Jackson (Young Jedi Adventures) & Heather Breckel (Plants vs. Zombies)
LETTERS: Jimmy Betancourt & Tyler Smith (Young Jedi Adventures), Steve Outro (Plants vs. Zombies)
Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures was a good long fixture on my Saturday Cartoon Clusterf@*k until Disney+ just plumb ran out of episodes (two stories per episode, plus a handful of three minute shorts), so I found this lead story more than welcome in the pantheon of kid friendly Star Wars fare – sort of a quick reunion with Kai, Lys and Nubs in a story that zoomed by faster than a landspeeder. Nubs and his pal Qort get selected by Master Yoda to lead the Vector parade and of course, these two kids turn out NOT to be the Jedi pilots whom they claim to be. Writer Paul Tobin and artist Luisa Russo continue the all age parade with the original light brain eating fare of Plants Vs. Zombie, of which I’m sure I’ve encountered before in some other FCBD form or another, but my memory is faulty on what the concept behind it is (maybe someone took a scoop out of my cranium as well) but it features the main character Zomboss taking on a series of costume changes into various identitiles like a yacht captain, a cowboy, a professiona painter, etc, etc – he’s sort of like the Captain Action of zombies as he takes on various zombie eating plants. Kids will love it. Just make sure they eat their vegetables before consuming this story. You never know which side you’ll wind fighting on.
STREET FIGHTER VS. FINAL FIGHT #1 – Udon Entertainment
WRITER: Chris Sarracini
ARTISTS: Jeffrey Cruz, Edwin Huang, Joe Ng & Joshua Perez Panzer
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon
This year’s FCBD edition of Street Fighter had me entranced for least half the book until the story just started to deteriorate before my eyes as it got near the end. It’s like the whole story time jumped and I didn’t get advance word in warning. Kudos to Chris Sarracini’s masterful use of tv show like dialogue, as the words seems to flow like a river, pausing for a few words from our sponsor. For a second there I thought I was tuning in to on a brand new episode of The Mayor of Kingstown during the prison incarceration scene. If I understand the premise based on the old 80’s video game- it’s the story of Hagger, a clandestine operative who recruits a young troublesome juvenile lad by Cody, who’s a bit of a bad boy. Hagger sets him up to take a fall during a drug bust. Cody goes to prison, get all redefined to bust his chops then gets out and decides to become a legitimate cop to take on the vermin that is flooding his city with narcotics and imititating innocents with their maritial arts terrorist gifts. AT least that’s what I got out of the story that keeps jumping around in time.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024 – IDW Publishing
WRITERS: Juni Ba (Nightwatcher) & Paul Allor (Splinter’s Day Off)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe (Nightwatcher) & Andy Kuhn (Splinter’s Day Off)
COLORS: Luis Antonio Delgado (Nightwatcher) & Ronda Pattison (Splinter’s Day Off)
LETTERS: Nathan Widick
For a second there – I thought IDW was going to start touting to the FCBD community that reknown writer Jason Aaron was going to be joining the pantheon of previous TMNT hall of famers – but this issue merely announces the heralded coming with a ad on the back cover. The first story ‘Nightwatcher’ by Juni Ba with wonderful art by Fero Pe has some sort of vague connection to the Last Ronin series. One of the turtles takes it upon himself to channel his inner Batman vigilantism and go all ‘vengeance is the night’ on some scalawags with a Terrible Trio type of fetishism (or is it simply just a anamorphic convention is in town?). As much as it looked pretty, it just wasn’t my cup of green tea. However, ‘Splinter’s Day Off’ was more my speed that remind me of the fun times and escapism the early cartoon series used to specialize in, with a little light hot red pepper sprinkled in for bits of humor. Splinter can’t concentrate on his yoga duties while Raphael, Michalengelo, Leonardo and Donatello are each involved in their messy noisy habits that Splinter seems to scoff at and feel are beneath his level of intellect. So Splinter throws their shell asses out and then Splinter begins to realize that he can’t do the same special things that his students can do, like throwing pizza dough into the air. So the teacher learns a lesson and those moments of self-discovery made for a very adequate story.
FCBD 2024 THE VALIANTS – Alien Books/Valiant Entertainment
WRITERS: Ryan Cody, Lysa Hawkins (The Valiants) & AJ Ampadu (Ninjak Vs. Roku)
ARTISTS: Al Barrionvevo (The Valiants) & Emiliano Correr (Ninjak Vs. Roku)
COLORS: Nobi (The Valiants)
LETTERS: Ezequiel Inverni (The Valiants) & Yasmin Govoni (Ninjak Vs. Roku)
Valiant Comics has undergone a massive change in the direction AND publishing of their books of late, Number one: they’re not really known as Valiant Comics anymore but rather Alien Books. Valiant has been pretty much on life support since their proposed movie universe set up at Sony Pictures came tumbling down like a proverbial house of cards upon the release of the Vin Diesel starring Bloodshot which unfortunately didn’t haven’t a chance to make a killing at the box office when it’s engagement was cut short by the pandemic. Plans for a Harbinger movie to follow fell short and all that massive losing took it’s toll on the publishing end as well. Over the past year, books were barely being trickled out other than the occasional X-O Manowar or Bloodshot mini-series until a manga publisher, Alien Books came around and bailed them out. Since then, the books I’ve ordered so far register high in quality with spiffy looking spines and now some of the old series are coming back out on a regular basis with pretty cardstock covers and some old 60’s style Marvel influenced trade dresses (you know, that small little rectangular box on the cover showcasing the star of the book in some iconic action pose?) in the left hand corner. The two stories represented in this edition are merely excerpts of two books in which the first story entitled ‘The Valiants” is from the first issue of that series which is ON SALE NOW! The 2nd half of this book showcases British secret agent/martial artist Ninjak trying to knock some sense into his ex-flame Roku (in fact, both stories feature Ninjak) who’s somehow gone rogue. Which begs the question: since when does a comic book character share the same name as my streaming device? What exactly is her secret power? Does she have buttons on her body that I can press to watch my Netflix, Paramount+ or Disney+ without coughing up a monthly payment? Regardless, I’m excited for the new look and books and I’ll be subscribing to each title as they are released on a more promised frequent basis (fingers crossed). Also, special congrats go to my facebook friend Lysa Hawkins (who just happens to be co-writing The Valiants mini-series with Ryan Cody) for being newly hired as Editor-in-Chief of The Valiant Universe line.
THE WORLDS OF JAMES TYNION IV FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024 – BOOM! Studios
WRITER: James Tynion IV (duh, who else would be writing?)
ARTISTS: Werther Dell’Edera (Something is Killing The Children), Eryk Donovan (Memetic) & Michael Dialynas (The Woods)
COLORS: Miquel Muerto (Something is Killing The Children), Adam Guzowski (Memetic) & Michael Dialynas (The Woods)
LETTERS: Andworld Design (Something is Killing The Children), Steve Wands (Memetic) & Ed Dukeshire (The Woods).
I could say screw James Tynion IV magnificent output from BOOM!, but I won’t, only because I’m more excited to hear the progress on how Something is Killing The Children adaptation is coming along for the new Netflix series that’s being developed by German horror show pioneers Baran bo Odar & Jantje Friese, the geniuses behind Dark and 1899. It seems to be the perfect match since both parties like to wander into caves enveloped into perfect pitch blackness. Sometimes whenever I’m reading Tynion IV’s work here or in the pages of Department of Truth, I get the feeling that sometimes Tynion IV is jockeying for the position of Stephen King‘s brother from another mother from the way he emits thrills and chills (even his Batman work was genuinely scary in some ways) for shock value. In addition to the aforementioned SiKtC lavishly illustratred by Dell’Edera, of which an excerpt from the current storyline is represented here. The next features are a sneak peek into a brand new project coming soon to further the stamp of Boom!’s longtime collaboration with Tynion IV. Memetic, drawn by Eryk Donovan and coming soon in the fall looks to be like the short lived Netflix series, Dark in tone with the constant back and forth flashbacking of alternative past and future realities, except there’s something ado about some hypnotising sloth embedded as wallpaper’s on some kid’s laptop that’s the direct root cause of it all. The next few pages is a excerpt from “The Woods” – another long gestating project from IDW Publishing that ran for 36 issues and has already been previously collected in trade paperbacks about a group of school who vanish from their schoolgrounds and wind up in a forested area on a moon on another planet. Please, Odar & Friese, make room for another pitch to Netflix.
TONS OF STRANGE FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024 – 10 Ton Press
WRITERS: Justin Sane (Sip N’ Saber), Cole P. Sander III (Oarsman), Mel Smith & Sean Hood (Becoming Frankenstein: Elizabeth’s Tale)
ARTISTS: John Hageman Jr. (Sip N’ Saber), Matt Richie (Oarsman), Mike Gustovich & Vic Moya
Here is the sole independent book of this week’s installment and mostly it’s a mixed bag of mediocity. Sip N’ Saber is obviously a parody on the original Star Wars Mos Eisley scene already been parodied by better sources. If I remember the story correctly. the characters parodying Jedi Knights in this tale, Charley (Horse) & Humphery (Hambone) are based on a couple of puppets that used to have a local show based out of San Francisco created by puppeteer Pat McCormick, who couldn’t make it out in Hollywood, but his talents wound being fully utilized in the 60s amd 70s by KGO-TV in San Francisco and later KTVU out in Oakland. They probably gained the same type of loyal followers like legendary local icons like Chicago horror host movie Svengoolie or the lost vaudeville act of New Jersey’s Uncle Floyd . I wasn’t quite moved or entertained by it. Oarsman was interesting in a abstract way. It reminded me of wordless material I would usually scope out in a Rip Off Press or Fantagraphics book. It’s a relatively short tale of a sensai pirate buster who goes around with his martial arts schtick rescuing trapped boys in cage. The third and final story, an excerpt of a forthcoming graphic novel showcasing the widow of Doctor Frankenstein that delves into the details of what happened after the death of her husband and the monstrosity he released upon the world was the most intriguing read out of all the three tales. I know a little about writer Mel Smith from his days of writing heavy metal biographies partnered with my pal Michael Aushenker, and if I happen to see him down in San Diego this summer, I’ll pester him for more information on this title.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024: ULTIMATE UNIVERSE/SPIDER-MAN No. 1 – Marvel Worldwide
WRITERS: Zeb Wells (Spider-Man) Deniz Camp (The Ultimates), & Al Ewing (Venom)
ARTISTS: Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer (inks) (Spider-Man), Juan Frigeri (The Ultimates) & Iban Corello (Venom)
COLORS: Sonia Black (Spider-Man), Federico Blee (The Ultimates) & Frank D’Armata (Venom)
LETTERS: Joe Caranagna (Spider-Man) Cory Petit (The Ultimates) & Clayton Cowles (Venom)
This particular Marvel FCBD title may be the only one out of the entire 48 book pile that is certain to escalate in value. Lately everything with the word ‘Ultimate‘ on the title will jack up the book another $25 over cover price. I had a real ballbreaking time when the first issue of the latest “Ultimate Spider-Man” came out. My LCS supposedly had a ‘allocation‘ problem when the first printing came out, despite me pre-ordering the book weeks before the official release date. I had to settle for a fifth printing variant or some other crazy nonsense. What that being said, the eight-pager Ultimates tale penned by Deniz Camp presented here may be a game-changer, as it’s a prologue to an upcoming ongoing Ultimates series that alludes to a Ultimates version of The Invaders. The Spider-Man story that opens this book has Spidey going out on a cheap date at a Chucky Cheese knockoff eatery and ends up facing off against some serious anamorphic automatons because Parker is too cheap enough to leave at least a 15% tip and it fits square peg into the current continuity going on with The Amazing Spider-Man title of which I’m seriously lagging behind going back to the Gang War magnum opus that stretches across other various Marvel Knights related titles and now in the present time, it’s in ‘The Return of The Green Goblin’ territory. Zeb Wells is writing great follow-up work to Nick Spencer’s run, which I sorely admired. Sad that Al Ewing didn’t get in his customary Judge Dredd FCBD tale in since 2000 AD didn’t release a FBCD edition this year, but for the moment, he’s busy playing around with Venom and this four page teaser tacked on to this end of this issue eludes to the upcoming Venom War storyline that’s going to be occupying all Venom related titles for the foreseeable future.
That’s it for now! Be back next time for the unmistakable conclusion of this year’s Free Comic Book Day coverage from Ultra Duck to the four DC Comics titles handed out.
PPGuru 