HEY KIDS! HAPPY NEW FREE COMICS FOR YOU AND ME, but not so much for retailers who got to pony up the petty cash for these bundles of good customer tidings and joy.
2021 has got a fantastic selection this year – all 55 of them in fact. So each week for the next five weeks I’m tackling a stack of 11 books and if you’re near a calculator or a abacus, you’ll see how that all evens out if you multiply 11 x 5.
I’m running a little behind on my daily schedule of things to do on a Sunday, but I’ll start each entry this year with a rather truncated version of how we do things around here on Free Comic Book Day over at the fabled and well Yelp! reviewed Casa de la Coatney mainly in the areas of my mission statement to contribute a sizable chunk of my weekly work salary every year to the great cause of The Hero Initiative through the kind auspices of Carr D’Angelo and his terrific staff over at Earth 2 Comics in Sherman Oaks, CA (and the alternate location over at Northridge, too!). I believe this year will be my fifth in a row of doing this program. I will get around to touching base briefly on why I contribute a good amount of money to the organization along with similar related topics such as comparing the tv industry to the inner machinations of FCBD and why I somehow feel they’re related. Also, I’ll touch upon in weeks to come on how some of these past FCBD editions have influenced my comic book buying habits of today.
This week’s first 11 books happen to fall under the purview of GOLD COMICS. So I asked Carr yesterday when I went to pick up my haul is what’s the difference between the GOLD and the SILVER? When Bay Area retailer Joe Field first launched the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY program nearly 20 years ago, they changed a lot of the distribution categories since my days of working in the retailing field. Carr simply said that the difference between the two editions is that when you commit to participating in the Free Comic Book Day program YOU have to agree to carry the entire line of GOLD in order to order the titles from the Silver line. The GOLD editions are simply the ones the publishers have to invest in more time and money to put in more advertisments in oder to pave the way for the smaller companies to get involved (even though that in some way, the Silver line of books may seem cooler than some in the Gold line).
So with that being said, I’m ready to start reading and reviewing. Just to make sure that everyone understands, I list all the names involved in the creation of each title from writer, artist, colors, letters, and editing. Because, you know – Free Comic Book Day Rome wasn’t built in a day.
WE LIVE THE LAST DAYS – AFTERSHOCK COMICS
Writers: Inaki Miranda & Roy Miranda
Artist: Inaki Miranda
Colors: Eva De La Cruz
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Mike Marts.
So, bursting right out of the gate is from my local area publisher Aftershock Comics (they’re literally just down the street on Ventura Blvd from Earth 2 Comics in a high rise building where I once worked for Paramount Pictures) in a book that upon first impression reminds me of a homage to all those Joe Simon & Jack Kirby kid group gangs like Boy Commandos or The Newboy Legion, only this time they’re trying to survive in a Kamandi era post apocalyptic type world. Miller, Mongoose, Gorilla and Wheel set out on a Pokemon type quest to search their area of Earth for a magical type bracelet (of which only 5,000 were ever made) that will magically transport them to a better world, or at least secure them a ticket for safe passage on the space vehicle that’s going there. During their pilgrimmage they run afoul of mutated monster and pirates which in some aspects sort of remind me of a very well beloved Netflix animated series called Kipa & The Age of Wonderbeasts. Apparently this story is supposed to take place between They Live graphic novel releases – with the 2nd volume slated to come out this winter. The Miranda Brothers share extensive credits on DC Comics related projects including Batman Beyond and Catwoman while colorist Eva de la Cruz has been voted one of the seven best colorists in the business by San Diego Comic Con. It’s a hit right out of the box and is most in sync with Aftershock’s supreme quality of output.
A bonus feature, Rainbow Bridge by Steve Orlando, Steve Foxe and Valentina Brancati is a special all ages preview of the first book in Aftershock’s brand new YA Imprint, Seismic Print.
Also included are ads for Heidi MacDonald’s Comicsbeat Newsletter and a special invitation to work for Aftershock Comics anywhere in the world for them as a special ambassador.
ARCHIE PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE FUN – ARCHIE COMICS
CRISIS ON THE RIVERDALE EARTH
Writer: Bill Golliner
Artists: Pat Kennedy, Tim Kennedy & Bob Smith (inks)
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Victor Gorelick
Just in time for the second half of Riverdale’s fifth season on The CW Network.
Fun tale of Archie getting visited by a Jughead from an alternative Riverdale to recruit him to fight villains with a little help from different variations of the Archie universe including the Baby Archies and then is given a hero’s welcome by different variations of Betties and Veronicas which provides him with estrogen overload to wake himself up only to discover it was all a dream. I don’t know about Archie himself, but there’s no such thing as a estrogen overload from having too many Betties and Veronicas in your dreams.
HAPPY ARCHIEVERSARY
Writer: Angelo DeCesare
Artists: Pat Kennedy, Tim Kennedy & Jim Amash (inks)
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Archie tries to determine which iteration of him over the past 80 years is the best iteration, which requires walking himself throughout the entire gamut of his entire 80 history until Papa Archie comes up with the perfect solution I was thinking to myself while flipping through this tale – could you imagine yourself being stuck in the same house under your parents’ rule for eighty freaking years?? You know my mom back in New Jersey gave me a life defining hint as to when I should move out of the house. While I was on the cusp of turning 21, she and my stepfather bought me a set of luggage for Christmas. I wish Archie’s parents would follow that same example. Archie turning 80?? Jeez, I even dread looking down the barrel of turning 60 in a few years.
GIGONMETRY
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artists: Dan Parent & Bob Smith(inks)
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Mike Pellerito
The third and final tale is a more traditional modern day Archie story of Archie trying to obtain a new guitar and figuring out a way to achieve getting such a guitar, so he goes to Betty for financial advice, because you know, girls are smart that way.
The rest of the title is filled with a Jughead page gags and lots of house ads. It’s all safe for kids and not in anyway sexualized for the adult market. If you’re looking for that other kind of racy saucy stuff, all you got to do is tune in to CW’s Riverdale to get your inner pervy on.
ENTER THE HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER – BOOM! Studios
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Werther Dell’edera
Colors: Miquel Muerto
Letterer: Andworld Design
Editor: Eric Hartburn with Jonathan Manning & Ramiro Portnoy
Author James Tynion IV is currently a reaper of Hollywood gold with projects left and right, especially with his Eisner winning Image Comics’ Department of Truth being developed into a major motion picture along with his fanboy crushing additions to the Batman mythos with his creation of Punchline, Ghostmaker, Clownhunter, etc; etc; being added to the ever expanding Batfamily cast. So here we have a sequel series to another best selling series of his, Something is Killing The Children, also published by BOOM Studios focusing on lead character Erica Slaughter as she cuts a swathe of mayhem and destruction all across America hunting down monsters who prey upon children while a clandestine organization called The Council assigns her missions and monitors her every move, even going as far as offering hush payments to local town sheriffs to look the other way. One thing I noticed about the Council in particular, is that in this trendy day and age of COVID-19, the members are great at practicing mask wearing and social distancing, even naming their heads at the top with monikers such as Black Mask and White Mask. Another thing I’d like to point out is that Tynion IV seems to have a lot in common with departing X-Men writer Jonathan Hickman, I notice that he employs the same technique of sharing faxes, e-mails, and redacted files to propel his story just like Hickman has been doing with is revision of X-Men. Werther Dell’edera’s art reminds me a lot of something I’m most likely to find in a now defunct Vertigo title, IF only they were still around these days. Nonetheless I find the premise to be intriquing and it makes me want to inquire for more. I do hear raves about Something is Killing The Children from youtube comic book retailer star Comics With Bueller and I’m sure he will echo the same appreciation for this follow-up due this upcoming October.
CRITICAL ROLE: THE MIGHTY NEIN ORIGINS – Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Taylor Walpole (who also provided the cover)
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editors: Rachel Roberts, Judy Khuu & Freddye Miller
I’m going to confess right off the bat: I’m not a big fan of a lot of the type of Dungeons & Dragons or Lord of the Rings type of genre UNLESS it’s being adapted into disposable media such as movies or television. I’m sure everyone’s looking forward to the overly pricetagged Lord of The Rings Amazon Prime adaptation this upcoming Labor Day weekend. So when I first saw Walpole’s cover to this: my immediate small dagger to the gut reaction was: ‘oh man, this is definitely not for me’ – BUT Walpole’s interiors grew on me and made me feel reminscent for the beautiful Dragon Prince animated series I’ve been following on Netflix and am dearly anticipating for its’ 4th season hopefully that will drop before the year’s end. So I thank Jody Houser‘s slightly amusing introductory script to fill in that longing void.
THE WITCHER: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WOODS
Writer: Bartosz Sztybor
Artist: Nil Vendrell
Colors: Miquel Muerto
Lettering: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editors: Rachel Roberts, Judy Khuu & Freddye Miller
THE WITCHER is widely regarded as a cottage industry within Dark Horse itself. I would venture to surmise that the Netflix series wouldn’t have been a possiblity if it hadn’t been for the giant omnibuses I’ve seen all over comic book specialty shops and at a few Barnes & Nobles I’ve been tempted to pick up some myself (however, I’ve been easily swayed by all the Hellboy ones I’ve recently snatched up to put that desire aside). Now with that being said, I think this is my first real exposure to a Witcher comic book story and I was really befuddled to disover that the character is depicted to be much older than the one that Henry Cavill portrays. Bztybor’s story was very enjoyable as The Witcher is thrust in a middle of a common bounty hunter kerfuffle to decide on whether who gets to kill a pig snatching demon that they have surrounded. The outcome is not what you expect it to be.
STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC ADVENTURES – IDW PUBLISHING
ATTACK OF THE REPUBLIC FAIR
Writer: Daniel Jose Older
Artist: Nick Brokenshire
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letterer: Jake M. Wood
Editors: Riley Farmer, Elizabeth Bret and Heather Antos
Let me clarify before starting this review: don’t grab a copy of this title just for the art and story, but use it a tool the next time you’re involved in a Mos Eisley Catina drinking game, because on the inside cover is a very useful timeline graph of every movie, tv series or animated fare you can pull out to settle any Han Solo or Greedo blaster under the table grudge. Any questions I have about Star Wars I go to my roommate to ask, because he’s usually the scholar when it comes to studying all the ships and Death Star schematics. In fact, he didn’t want a copy of this title or the anime version that Viz also released because as he stated to me, these are not the characters that are from the video game or the planned animated series, Rather this is based on a series of YA Novels that are supposed to take place two centuries before The Phantom Menace, in the days when Yoda was merely a spry strapling young Jedi Master stud leading a group of young Jedi Knights on a series of adventures against the alien viking race, The Nihil. So the brand new lead story mainly deals with the team trying to prevent a dragon attack on a peace celebration at a Republic fair.
COLLISON COURSE (EXCERPT)
Writer: Daniel Jose Older
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letters: Jake M. Wood
Editors: Riley Farmer, Elizabeth Bret and Heather Antos
This is a partial reprint of the first issue published by IDW Publishing. If you like your small sized jedi masters buffed and scintillating while in the midst of mortal combat with gigantic island spiders and pirates, then you’re invited to purchase the rest of the story in the first volume of the paperback collection.
LADY MECHANIKA – IMAGE COMICS
THE DEMON OF SATAN’S ALLEY, Excerpts from The Mystery of The Mechanical Corpse, La Dama De La Muerte & The Monster of The Ministry of Hell #1
WRITER: Joe Benitez, & Marcia Chen (Co-Writer)
ARTIST: Joe Benitez, Martin Montiel (La Dama De La Muerte & The Mystery of The Mechanical Corpse)
COLORS: Peter Steigerwald
LETTERS: Michael Heisler
EDITOR: Marcia Chen
Like clockwork, Lady Mechanika creator Joe Benitez REPRINTs the same origin story year of year that I could probably recite the lead story as a soliloquy by now ONLY this time it falls under the cloud of the mighty IMAGE COMICS banner (I think this is the fifth time I’ve seen this story reprinted). It’s no secret that I’ve already been seduced by the half human half streampunk mechanical lady for the longest time from the very first time I made her acquiantance through a earlier free comic book edition. In addition to the lead story, there is other material I’m also familar with from the previous six paperback volumes that are currently available now and a special preview of a new Lady Mechanika project from Benitez and through the kind auspices of Image Comics that will hopefully delve more deeper into the origins of this very alluring character.
For those interested, a few years back, I managed to dedicate an entire blog of my unfettered loyalty to all things Lady Mechanika here.
INVESTIGATORS ANTS IN OUR P.A.N.T.S. – FIRST SECOND
WRITER: John Patrick Green
ARTIST: John Patrick Green
COLORS: Aaron Polk
Hey, I think I’m going to use my copy and paste cheatsheet for this one. First Second came out with a FCBD edition of INVESTIGATORS last year. This new edition focuses on the 4th volume that’s coming out next month (only this time agent InvestiGator Mango is teamed up with a robot version of his partner, Brash, named naturally ROBOTBrash.). It’s still the same high quality from last year’s edition and is packed with the same type of tongue and cheek humor that little tykes willabsolutely adore. If your kids want to grow up to be comedians one day, I recommend they steal their material from here.
I can see from here that skeptic look on your face when I confine in you that I consider Investigators the best book of the week? How you can sit there and doubt me? Just the title alone oozes brilliance even as I approached reading this book with trepidation. Is this something that’s too kiddie friendly even for me? Well, my immediate first impression was: this has a certain Dangermouse savoir faire to it. Practically everything is cleverly tongue’ n cheeky. My real favorite laugh out moments pertain to the farce names Green comes up with, like tv news reporter Cici Boringstories or invoking such stating the obvious Tick homage with villains such as Crackerdile – once whom you meet, you can immediately figure it out . So you get to meet Mango and Brash, two top secret underground sewer alligators who work as secret agents for S.U.I.T. (Special Underground Investigation Teams) who get to their mission destinations via through high speed sewer pipeline activated by toilet flushes. They fight the bad guys with all sorts of fancy gadgets they wear upon their person through their V.E.S.T.s (Very Exciting Spy Technology!) It’s simplistic, it’s fun, and it’s done right. Ordering the three previous graphic novels at www.InvestiGatorsBooks.com is highly recommended.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2021: AVENGERS/HULK – Marvel Comics
THE TOWER AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING
WRITER: Jason Aaron
ARTIST: Iban Coello
COLORS: Brian Reber
LETTERS: VC’s Cory Petit
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort & Martin Biro, Alanna Smith (assistants)
Every year on Free Comic Book Day is a Marvel day event. In fact EVERYTHING Marvel releases these days is always constantly being scrutinized by a Hank Pym public cry quantum microscope and this bold new direction that writer Jason Aaron and artist Iban Coello are taking the Avengers in is already being clashed about on the internets which begs the question: which came first? Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator or Deathlok, the time hopping mad cyborg Destroyer (hopefully he’s come to erase the entire timeline of that horrid Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tv show that ran for seven seasons, along with J. August Richards‘ wooden portrayal of said character). Get your first glimpses of The Atlantean Avengers and the future Masters of Evil before the new storyline begins in Avengers #50 before they’re totally annihilated.
IGNITION
WRITER: Donny Cates
ARTIST: Ryan Ottley
COLORS: Frank Martin
LETTERS: VC’s Cory Petit
EDITOR: Wil Moss with Kat Gregorowicz (assistant)
You know, it’s getting hard these days to read anything that M.O.D.O.K.’s appears in without hearing the voice of Patton Oswalt bouncing back and forth inside my head since finishing the 10 episode Hulu computerized animated series (and fingers crossed it DOES gets renewed for a 2nd season) and not to mention that Patton also wrote a four limited series that waiting right on top of my Marvel reading queue – so here’s the humpty dumpty inspired deranged super scientist coming right of the starting gate of newly assigned scripter Donny Cates’ first issue poised and ready to rumble with ol’ Greenskin, with me only undecided on whether to take him seriously or not. Well whatever the end result, it’s merely a prologue for big things to come in November’s Operation: Smashtronaut, the first big green giant storyline to emerge in collaboration with former Amazing Spider-Man artist and character designer and co-creator of the hit new Amazon Prime animated series, Invincible, Ryan Ottley. I would venture a guess that this title will be reverted back to The Incredible Hulk from the recent lamented departure of The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, which were quite the best Hulk comics I ever read since my days of salivating over Peter David‘s and Todd MacFarlane‘s run back in the late 1980’s when I was living in San Diego.
WHO SPARKED THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT? – WHO HQ GRAPHIC NOVELS, an imprint of Penguin Random House,LLC
WRITER: Insha Fitzpatrick
ARTIST: Abelle Hayford
COLORS: Hanna Schroy
Harking back to my grade school days in Parsippany, NJ, I distinctly remember in my fifth grade class, that some company sent over a display box of Popeye comics that were specifically geared towards educating children to select a career choice. There were comics of Popeye narrating what on how to approach making a career choices in law enforcement, nursing, engineering, and firefighting. I usually read some of those during lunchtime and enjoyed them. Flipping through this book and in past true event earlier FCBD editions such as March detailing the trials and tribulations of Georgia Congressman John Lewis and his fight for civil rights. I wish books like that and this one about NAACP activist Rosa Parks that got the ball rolling for the big match-up between the ACLU and the outrageous racist Jim Crow laws in most southern states were on prominent display back in my day instead of educational comics endorsed by a mean bicep spinach chugging sailormen. My educational curriculum back in the day glossed over this dark period of our American History – it wasn’t even touched upon during my high school social studies class. I have no doubt at next year’s Eisners, writer Insha Fitzpatrick, who does a tremendous job of breaking down the facts of the case for younger audiences to comprehend i bite size pieces and Abelle Hayford‘s YA graphic novel art style that’s most familiar to me in a lot of DC’s YA graphic novel line will most likely win a hefty ton of praise and accolates when award time comes around again.
ASSASSIN’S CREED DYNASTY/ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA BLOOD BROTHERS – TOKYOPOP
ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA BLOOD BROTHERS
WRITER: Feng Zi Shu
ARTIST: Feng Zi Shu
TRANSLATOR: Tay Weiling
PROOFREADERS: Karen Lam & Alex Lam
EDITOR: Lena Atanassava
I was confused at first on whether to open this book from the back or the front to read, but once you open the front page, there are arrows pointing on the inside front cover to direct you to start reading from the back. Although, probably if I downloaded the QR scan code on the back of the book, there would probably be more instructions included on approaching on how to read this book. There’s going to be further manga in this year’s batch of offerings that probably won’t abide by the standard manga tradition of starting from the back of the book and reading your way to the front of the book. Each, I suppose will be explained on a case by case basis.
The only familarity I have with Assassin’s Creed is with the movie released some years back and it didn’t really wow me as it has with hardcore gamers. So technically this is not for me, but I do appreciate the fast read which by estimates takes a good five minutes to breeze through. It seems the first story is a back story retracing the origins of one of the assassins and a flashback to the days when he challenged a viking to a wolf killing contest which would more than likely piss off the people at PETA if this sort of challenge were conducted in this modern day and age.
ASSASSIN’S CREED DYNASTY
WRITER: Xu Xianzhe
ARTIST: Zhang Xiao
TRANSLATOR: Karen Lim
PROOFREADERS: Tay Welling & Alex Lam
EDITOR: Lena Atanassova
Now for those who get disparged by the sight of flower and plant abusers, they may be the tale for you. An assassin gets vengeance on some pillagers who slaughtered a bunch of farmers who stole their flower crops. Simple slice and dice and directly to the point. I consider this entire offering as a half glass full for me.
BLADE RUNNER 2029/BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS – TITAN COMICS
BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS
WRITERS: K. Parkins & Mellow Brown
ARTIST: Fernando Dagnino
COLORS: Marco Lesko
LETTERS: Jim Campbell
EDITOR: David Leach
I’ve already steadily been following The Blade Runner comic book for around a year now ever since Titan announced they were doing them. My roommate is also a fan, so I order up an extra copy on my pull list as soon as they hit my LCS (what hipsters and millennials refer to as Local Comic Book Shop these days) and from the first five issues of I’ve read of Blade Runner 2029 so far, they are sensational reads as they take the concept of hunter and replicant to a whole new explosive level that I don’t think the movies could even replicate. So here, for the first time we have two collaborative stories in a single book that sort of interlock for a span of forty years on a single thread of a small supporting character.
BLADE RUNNER 2029
WRITER: Mike Johnson
ARTIST: Andres Guinaldo
COLORS: Marco Lesko
LETTERS: Jim Campbell
EDITOR: David Leach
Whereas the first story featured LAPD Detective Cal Moreaux, who probably was the mold or progenitor of what will become the model of a Blade Runner that hunts down escaped replicants , seeing as the story is set in 2009, 12 years into the past is then carried over into the future with former retired Blade Runner Aahina ‘Ash‘ Ashina hunting down a replicant posing as a sculpter. I got the chalk up the quality of these two titles due to the involvement of all three writers: Johnson, Perkins, and Brown as they share extensive sci-fi and fantasy television show writing cred amongst each other on shows such as Star Trek: Picard and American Gods which makes the pacing of the stories absolutely engaging. K. Perkins is even one of the developers of the upcoming Paper Girls series based on the comic book by Brian K Vaughan to debut soon on Amazon Prime. So I recommend you treat this issue as a appetizer to the main coarse of the two wonderful series. After reading this issue, I felt this was more like a pick off the dessert tray.
So there goes the opening salvo of the Gold Editions and not really a disappointing one amongst the bunch other than I could do without the umpteenth reprint of Lady Mechanika (I’m already a fan, Benitez, you don’t have to twist my arm any further!) and that first half the Assassin’s Creed manga.
Next week: I’ll be tackling the first 11 Silver Editions!
PPGuru 