Welcome back to the 2nd part of my 5 part overall coverage of all the Free Comic Book Day editions that were given away for free(natch!) last week at nearly all the comic book specialty shops all across the nation and maybe the entire world with the sole exception of Afghanistan.
Free you say?
Well, to me they’re not free and they’re certainly NOT free to retailers because they pay approximately a quarter a piece to distribute these books and you’re strongarmed into buying them by stacks of 25 and as I explained last week, in order to partcipate you have buy certain ones in a category called The Gold books in order to pass out the free ones catagorized as The Silver editions which is the remaining of the bulk of titles that are left for me to review and to talk about. So, The Golds acts as your gateway drug to get to the more eclectic ones from the smaller publishers and the 2nd one and even sometimes a 3rd one from the big sponsored companies. DC Comics may have a different disbursement system since they are no longer being distributed through Diamond Distributors and Marvel may follow suit with a new system next year as they’re moving their distribution model through Random House. I will be reviewing the 4 books DC put out in the final week of this diary.
And also as I touch upon last week – I donate a large sum of money to the charitable organization The Hero Initative in order to obtain an entire set of FCBD editions and am now in the process of trying to cover 11 books a week out of the 55 that were given out this year, although I was dismayed to find out this weekend that one book did make the cut and I originally thought I was dreaming when I discovered it missing, because this publisher has always been reliable in churning out a FCBD edition per year since its’ original inception.
However, I got a beef this year finding out about some unscrupulous shenanigans going on this year that I overheard two retalilers on a youtube video or podcast bickering back and forth about – AND that beef is, a small percentage of retailers taking stacks of FCBD edtions and selling them off on Ebay a week or two before FCBD officially take place.
All I have to ask is – WHY??
Only a small percentage of these titles ever rise up in value and a lot of these of books are mainly fill in material and wracked with house ads accompanying original five to ten page stories just advertising the next big thing. Over the years, there have been a few exceptions to the rule when it comes to free giveaway comics such as the first ever appearance of The Umbrella Academy in one Dark Horse FCBD Edition one year and Hellboy was first introduced in a comic book given out to all free attendees of The San Diego Comic Con in the mid 1990’s (I remember selling my copy for $40 to someone off of craigslist) – but this unseeming practice takes the fun out of the whole program – which is to drag in more customers and pump up traffic to your local comic book specialty store – not to alienate them. All FCBD editions should be available to a first come, first serve basis to those coming in the store on THAT DESIGNATED SATURDAY. If there are any left over the day after, then sell them – if they have the potential to become collector’s items. This year I asked Earth 2 starship captain Carr D’Angelo permission to pick up the books a day early so I could sort them out for review pecking order purposes of how I’m going to list them up on my preview blog and he said that was fine, but I did not officially started reading The Gold editions until the day after FCBD.
Ok, rant over. On to the first eleven books in the Silver pile.
ZOM 100 – VIZ MEDIA
WRITER: Haro Aso
ARTIST: Kotaro Takata
LETTERS: Vanessa Satone (also credited with touch up art)
TRANSLATION: Nova Skipper
EDITOR: Karla Clark
We start off with another manga book by one of the leading Manga companies in the US. You’d probably recall my position with the manga genre throughout my past coverage of FBCD comics- they’re really not my forte but I will tackle them with a open mind when it comes to reviewing. Why? Well, because they’re free. I’m certainly more aware how and why they capture the American imagination and I will strike a conversation with someone I see on a bus or train reading them. I’m quite familiar with other known old school properties such as Attack on Titan, Robotech, FullMetal Alchemist or Beastars because I’ve watched them all on Netflix. I have co-workers who are tremendous fans and they try to convert me to them and I do sometimes peruse the endless wall of titles at my local Barnes & Noble for noticeable titles. So with that omission out of the way, I’ll admit to liking this tale. It’s a Japanese nod to the zombie craze and I got a little chuckle out of it when the protagonist of the story’s only concern weighing on his mind as he’s being persued by a horde of brain thristy zombies is whether or not he’s going to be late for work. The artwork tales a real no-frills approach and renders the zombies to be very scary looking. At least to me.
DEMON SLAYER
WRITER & ARTIST: Kimetshu No Yaiba
LETTERS: John Hunt
TRANSLATION: John Werry
EDITOR: Mike Montessa
This is an excerpt from a 2016 Shonen Jump magazine collected in the first volume of The Demon Slayer and sadly I couldn’t follow along with what the heck was going on. No synopsis or background on neither the characters or the storyline, but the artwork is pretty and maybe it’s already been adapted in a anime series that I’m not aware of. Lots of endless demon slaying and tricky dimension hopping abounds.
10 TONS OF FUN PREVIEW – 10 TONS PRESS
EDITORS: Paul H. Birch, Frank Cirocco, & Chimp 9 for all four features.
RED DAWN
WRITER: Brandon McKinney
ARTISTS: Brandon McKinney & Bill Anderson
COLORS: Ross Hughes
Remember the days when you went into a supermarket and found on the shelf in addition to the proper brands of Cherrios, Oreo Cookies or Coca Cola (official sponsor of this year’s FCBD editions) that would find you shortchanged or unaffordable, you would reach over for the white box or bottle marked GENERIC. That’s what leafing through this comic book from the relatively new 10 Ton Press brand reminds me of in these quartet of stories. First up is Red Dawn – a superpowered heroine who has a comm link to The Pentagon on speed dial as they walk her through as how she would defuse a hostage situation with precise percision advise her of which of her super powers to use without making a mess of things. Red Dawn is not be confused with the original movie or its’ remake, but if I were to come up a original character for a super hero – I wouldn’t name him or her after a well known movie – but I do have a confession to make: when I was twelve years old I once approached famous Spider-Man artist John Romita Sr at the 2nd Marvel Comic Book Convention once held in New York City with a crude six grade drawing for a villain or hero who went around riding rocket powered skateboards and I just happend to call him Rollerball. Weeks down the line, I got a nice rejection letter from the Marvel offices saying they could not use my idea. C’mon, did they really take the mind of a 12 year old seriously (Yeah? well where did the idea for Rocket Racer come from then? Hmmm)? Anyway…
PAT McCORMACK’S CHARLIE & HUMPHREY
WRITER: Justin Sane
ARTIST: John Hageman
Okay, so I had to google this Pat McCormack guy because I was curious as to why his name was attached to a funny animal story that he didn’t write or illustrate and I found out that Charlie (a horse) & Humprey (a blue cat) are based on a local once upon a time children’s show from out of San Francisco that was created by a television station weatherman and host of the local broadcast of the Jerry Lewis Telethon – which explains the local San Francisco mascot posing as tour boat guides to the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island which goes tragically awry. Fun for kids of all ages although I felt the last page to be a little mean to the bumbling blue cat. I mean the poor guy was roped into it and was a tad inexperienced at swabbing decks in the first place.
ROCK ‘N ROLL BIOGRAPHIES: FIGHT!
WRITER: Greg Boucher (What? The same guy who writes for Deadline: Hollywood?)
ARTIST: Vic Moya
I just stumbled upon the realization that this is the same company that my friend Michael Aushenkar has written rock’ roll biographies for with titles such as Pantera and Testament in a format that’s been previously aped the format from my dear friend Jay Allen Sanford‘s black and white line of Revolutionary Comics that were once headquarterd in San Diego. This is an excerpt from the FIGHT issue – an offshoot band that was formed by Judas Priest‘s lead singer Rob Halford when he went searching for his heavy metal soul. Sorry, but this must be some kind of a suppressed memory when it comes to my chronological knowledge of heavy metal landmarks – which is practically none at all. The heaviest bands I listen to these days are down to four major acts: Dream Theater, Opeth, Porcupine Tree or Ulver. I approached an idea of about submitting a Porcupine Tree biography to Mel Smith, editor of these books and he told me flat out they weren’t popular enough to warrant an issue. These kinds of books are typically straight forward – if you’re a fan of a certain band then you’re going to enjoy these sequential profiles, if not, then you’ll wait around for some band that you are a fan out. I’ve only read a handful of Jay’s books myself (and my Deposit Man collaborator, Larry Nadolsky has worked on a few himself) of bands that I’ve been a fan of. There was once a proposed unpublished one of Yes that I wrote about in a separate blog about here.
BECOMING FRANKENSTEIN
WRITERS: Mel Smith & Paul H. Birch
ARTISTS: Frank Circocco (pencils) & Alex Shiekman (inks)
COLORS: Gerhard
If you’re looking for a CW Network sensationalized version of the early days of Victor Frankenstein before he went over the electrode-sided deep end and started tinkering with the forces of nature, you’ll become alive with this early biographical profile which this story is excerpted from. It’s revealed in this short tale that a lot of those Victorian era chicks really dug handsome looking Victor, but he was always busying dissecting frogs and attaching battery wires to them to spurn their advances. Special guest star: former Dave Sim‘s Cerebus collaborator Gerhard supplies the colors.
SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK – ABLAZE PUBLISHING
WRITERS: Leiju Matsumoto & Jerome Alquie
ARTIST: Jerome Alquie
LETTERS: Dezi Sienty
EDITOR: Kevin Keiner and Rich Young (managing editor)
Maybe I ought to amend my statement to ZOM 100, I can easily be swayed into watching old school anime like Gigantor, Marine Boy, Battle of the Planets and Astro Boy. Now having never never seen an episode of Captain Harlock Space Pirate, I can immediately tell that this would fit easily in the serialized category that attracted me to long draw out sci-fi mixed in with soap opera sensibilities. Ever since the lockdown began, I’ve managed to finish off Fullmetal Alchemist on Netflix, jumped on to Neon Genesis Evangelion, polished off that off in a span of few months and then found out that Robotech was on a free streaming service, Tubi. Then I guess the contract ran out with Harmony Gold – Robotech’s US distributor, so I had to switch to The Roku Channel to get through two entire season and then got jipped out the third and final season, and now I have nothing of old school anime to watch on Saturdays, SO if anything this book has done to serve me an idea of what to tackle next after reading this adaption of the classic Japanese show, I immediately want to search for all the episodes on any streaming service available because I know I would really dig it and it fits in that same type of serialized category that I’m so fond of! So thanks Ablaze out of Portland, Oregon for providing me with me my first Captain Harlock reading experience and his instantly likeable supporting cast. In the back are one page samples of other fine Ablaze products you can order from your local retailer.
TRESE: UNREPORTED MURDERS – ABLAZE PUBLISHING
WRITER: Budjette Tan
ARTIST: Kajo Baldisimo
EDITOR: Kevin Ketner and Rich Young (managing editor)
It looks as if Lady Mechanika is going to see some stiff competition this year in the category of FCBD best femme fatale with this fresh unique import out of Manila. This introduction to Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo‘s Trese and her special world of Filipino stylized horror and the supernatural really resonated with me as the one FCBD edition I was most looking forward to read since I was completely bowled over after watching the six episode first season of the anime currently now running on Netflix that is produced and directed by former DC Universe Original Movie director Jay Oliva. So I howled with delight when I saw the solicitation for this book. Trese is a young woman that travels all over her native Philippines to solve mysteries that stem from supernatural forces working behind the scenes like the mystery in this issue for example of Trese coming to the aid of a distraught actress whose career seems to be dictated by demonic forces. She’s usually savvy in solving these mysteries by using her knowledge of casting spells and summoning up a various array of fellow demon associates and informants to help her along the way including a pair of adopted twins called The Kambal Twins who put on ghost masks and wield a mean pair of .45 revolvers to shoot down evil spirits (like out of The Shadow pulps). It’s all incredibly fascinating and I walk away a lot more knowledgable about the Filipino culture and the myths and legends that accompany it than ever before and I sure hope that Netflix renews it for a 2nd season and beyond. The style of animation reminds me a awful lot of the HBO Spawn series that I used to enjoy even more than the comic book itself. After this sample, I will be on the lookout for the 3 volume collection (like I did with the Lady Mechanika trade collections) with the third one due out next month.
WORLD OF ZORRO – AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY PRODUCTIONS
Credits Unknown other than the announcement of writer Don McGregor returning to write a new mini-series.
EDITOR: S.A. Check (credited as Managing Editor)
Once upon a time while I was living in a boarding house in the the mid 1990’s, I got into a heated argument with a fellow roommate, who happened to be from Mexico about Zorro being a cheap suited version of Batman. His proclamation of ‘Zorro is Batman‘ still resonates with me nearly thirty years later and he might have been right in some aspects. I believe most honored comic book scribe Don McGregor was writing Zorro back then for Topps Comics. I remember carrying all their titles back when I was a comic book retailer and he was definitely a big seller amongst the Hispanic customers who came into my store. Well, Don McGregor is back scripting a brand new tale called “Flights” and this book offers a generous preview of the book in progress for American Mythology which I will definitely nudge myself to put on my pull list. But here’s one caveat, and your mileage will vary depending on how well your store keeps track of its’ order: American Mythology is not a very reliable publisher. They ship a lot of their books late or sometimes not at all. I’ve had this problem with them in ordering some of their Edgar Rice Burroughs related titles, but I will give it another try for Don’s sake because he’s one of the last remaining Bronze Age talented treasures still living with us today and a super nice guy to boot. This FBCD is very informative in providing a concise history of the masked avenger of the old California west in a couple of text pieces (He’s 102 this year, created back in 1919 and one of the original pulp heroes still enjoying world wide recognition to this day). There are two other uncredited excerpted stories from Zorro: Swords of Hell which has Zorro facing zombies and a few pages from a foreign Zorro comic strip collection.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2021 – AWA UPSHOT
THE RESISTANCE: UPRISING
WRITER: J. Michael Straczynski
ARTIST: C.P. Smith
COLORS: Snakebite Cortez
LETTERS: Sal Cipriano
EDITORS: Michael Coast with Chris Burns (Production), Thea Clark (Assistant), William Graves (Managing) and Dulce Montoya (Associate).
AWA (Artists, Writers & Artisans) since their inception last year has been running a pretty tight knit operation in getting some of their real nifty high product out there and are diverse in their select of projects. They seem to follow the same model as Aftershock does out here on the West Coast. Once more I’m beaten to the punch as I already have both Resistence related series excerpted in this edition in my independent box to read and it seems that I get to read the first issue of the sequel mini-series to The Resistance (which was the focus of last year’s FCBD edition as well) in this FCBD edition. But that’s ok, I have four more issues in the series to catch up on as well. For the uninitiated, The Resistance takes a lot of cues from Straczynski’s Netflix created series, Sense 8 where it involves several main characters scattered all across the globe seeking to conjoin with each other after they get a rude awakening of being granted super powers in the face of a fatal pandemic ravishing the world with death and disease. Of course governments step in wanting to take control of those powers by any means necessary including executing those who willingly to conceal these powers – which also includes US President Ed Harris (or someone dolled up to look like him – I don’t know what the fascination is with C.P. Smith’s interpretation of Harris. Maybe it’s a Westworld thing?) Like everything that Straczynski touches, albeit comics, movies, or television – prepared to be riveted with concise tight plotting and appetizing melt in your mouth dialogue.
MOTHS
WRITER: J. Michael Straczynski
ARTIST: Mike Choi (also credited with Cover Artist)
LETTERS: Sal Cipriano
EDITORS: Michael Coast with Chris Burns (Production), Thea Clark (Assistant), William Graves (Managing) and Dulce Montoya (Associate).
Moths is a sidebar series to The Resistance that delves more deeply into some of the characters just discovering their powers, that there are in a sense, Moths because each one new recipient gains a momentary power of flight. This is only a six page appetizer and it doesn’t in any sense spoil the main coarse of which I have three issues lined up in my independent box cue. Which reminds me: in a couple of days, I’ll be reading the one-shot The Resistance: Reborns which is a bridge story taking place between both mini-series.
NOT ALL ROBOTS
WRITER: Mark Russell
ARTIST: Mike Deodato Jr.
COLORS: Lee Loughridge
LETTERS: Steve Wands
EDITORS: Michael Coast with Chris Burns (Production), Thea Clark (Assistant), William Graves (Managing) and Dulce Montoya (Associate).
Another six page preview from the delicious demented mind of Mark Russell detaining a glimpse of the future of which robots have fully taken over the entire work-force with the sole exception of hairstyling. It’s a family friendly dinner affair from the ex-writer of Red Sonja in which you have to imagine if Game of Thrones was written out as a situation comedy. I honestly gave up on all the Red Sonja related Dynamite Entertainment titles after Russell left.
BLACK MASK, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2021 – Black Mask Studios
BLACK: INTERLUDE
WRITER: Kwanza Osajyefo
ARTIST: Yasmin Flores Montanez
TONES: Jean-Paul Csuka
LETTERS: Jim Campbell
Black is a series that sort of reminds me of being loosely based on the X-Men television series from a couple of years back called The Gifted in tone and execution, only in this premise, only people of color have been strangely gifted with super powers that keep metamorphosing from day to day. Captured by some unknown dark agency, lead character Kareem Jenkins is revealed to be endowed with Hexaquarks. One day he’s impervious to bullets, the next day he’s superfast and in this small excerpt, he’s a time traveler visiting his past self being imprisoned. Interesting premise, but not enough shown to me to entice me to run out and buy it, even though the company hypes this series as one of their best selling.
CALEXIT: OUR LAST NIGHT IN AMERICA
WRITER: Matteo Pizzolo
ARTIST: Carlos Granda
COLORS: Brad Simpson
LETTERS: Jim Campbell
Normally, I’d be on top of the clay rooftops of haciendas screaming the virtues of such a unique comic book reading experience such as Calexit is from the fantastic first two issues I have read (they were given to me one year at the front door of a Los Angeles area comic book convention by representatives of the company) and it’s definitely a book that speaks volumes about my politics. Imagine a California being invaded by a Trump touting supporting militia sequestering their basic Californian citizen’s human rights and there’s a rebellion just waiting outside just to fuck up their every move by them and you come up with CalExit. If you’re angry about the current Governor recall, no matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, then this is the book for you. We don’t need East Coast nutbags like Donnie Douchbag Trump and Blackhairdye Down Rudy Giuliani flying out here to tell us Angeleos how to live our lives in an futile attempt for fuddy duddy Republicians to grab power. Unfortunately this story doesn’t really preach that mantra that I just described. This story that takes place before the cataclysmic events of CalExit’s first issue with a few of it’s supporting cast making a drug run down to Oceanside, just outside Camp Pendleton. And yes indeed, I DO know where that Denny’s is located just off the I-5.
The same creative team also provides a short 4 page preview of it’s spin-off title Emmie-X which is described by Rolling Stone magazine as about ‘a young woman fighting DHS internment camps through the power of pirate radio‘. Yep. That’s how we roll here in Cali.
JUST BEYOND: MONSTROSITY – KABOOM! STUDIOS
WRITER: R.L. Stine
ARTIST: Irene Flores
COLORS: Joanna Lafuente
LETTERS: Mike Florentino
EDITORS: Sophie Phillips-Roberts & Byrce Carlson
For those looking for something slightly resembling Scooby-Doo for the little tykes, this might serve as a pleasant alternative since this is from the all ages KABOOM! Studios label, an imprint of BOOM! Studios from out of Los Angeles (located directly across the street from the main headquarters of SAG-AFTRA, of whom my current daytime gig is closely associated with). Just Beyond is currently running as a series now streaming on Disney+ based on the works of R.L. Stine. Now I don’t know if R.L. Stine personally wrote this story specifically for this FCBD edition or if someone uncredited adapted his material, because I’ve never heard of Stine writing for comic books before The story is a straightforward young horror spiced story taking place in an old abandoned movie studio being bought by a family who wants to revitalize the B-movie horror genre and in order for the adultsto fill in the necessary paperwork, the annoying bickering kids are given a guided tour of where all the classic movie scenes were shot by a ghoulish looking guide who goes by the name of Edger Allen Poe and when they walk into the cave of Mangra the Mangler secret lagoon cave, that’s when the horrific peanut butter truly hits the fan. This unfortunately is only a excerpt from an upcoming graphic novel. Retailers: if you still have some of this attractive looking giveaway still on hand after the FCBD event from a couple of weeks ago – you should give the remaining copies out for Halloween. It will certainly set the mood for some good reading scares.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY: ALL AGES 2021 – DARK HORSE COMICS
THE LEGEND OF KORRA: ‘CLEANING THE AIR”
WRITER: Kiku Hughes
ARTIST: Sam Beck (also credited with cover)
COLORS: Killian Ng
LETTERS: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (under the auspices of Comicraft)
EDITORS: Rachel Roberts & Freddye Miller with Jenny Bleak & Judy Khuu (associate) & Rose Weitz (assistant)
First off, I want to say that Dark Horse would had their all ages Free Comic Book Day edition better served if they had cobbled together one with a spotlight on He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, since that is the streaming flavor of the month on Netflix. The drop date of the first five episodes was pretty close to the date of this year’s FCBD big event, but instead they dedicated an all ages title to both Avatar and Korra, both who have had their heyday years before. They’re both no longer in production anymore, other than for some strange reason they’ve both surged in popularity recently when their entire series both dropped on the same service. I followed the Korra series quite religiously, I was attracted to its’ amalgamation streampunk looking setting blended with Eastern landscapes when the dvd season sets became available (and I just made the sudden realization that Janet Varney who provided the lead voice of Korra is the same actress who’s work I’ve enjoyed on both the first live action The Tick series and as Sheriff Evie Barrett Stan Vs. Evil series I never made the connection until recently when I watched the entire series on Hulu. She’s also recently completed work as the voice of Wonder Woman on the upcoming Injustice DC Universe Animated Movie). So with that being said, I didn’t really find this story to be very palpable, even though I am general fan of the series. It’s nothing but a Tenzin (the original Avatar) featured story of him sharing a part of his early Airbending history with two of his bickering students about how he changed the coarse of two graffiti spraying vandals’ lives. Korra doesn’t show up until the very last two panels. What the heck? If I’m going to read a story with the title of Korra in it, I expect to see Korra actually be in it kicking some Red Lotus ass.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: ‘MATCHA MAKERS‘
WRITERS: Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh
ARTIST: Sara Alfageeh
COLORS: Savanna Ganucheau
LETTERS: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (under the auspices of Comicraft)
EDITORS: Rachel Roberts & Freddye Miller with Jenny Bleak & Judy Khuu (associate) & Rose Weitz (assistant)
I hope my prejudice of never really sitting down to watch the entire series of Avatar, The Last Airbender doesn’t offend anyone reading this when I say that probably the only good true thing I have to say about this story is that the title is perhaps the only brilliant thing about it. People getting together over a nice cup of Green Tea is nice but not when it reaches the pinnacle of ‘snoozefest‘, especially when I’m not one versed in knowing who the supporting cast is supposed to be. It’s another story featuring the side characters. What was even the point of producing this book if you’re not going to showcase the leads in action? Give me He-Man already!!
TRAILER PARK BOYS GET A F#C*ING COMIC BOOK! – DEVIL’S DUE COMICS
BITCH COINS
WRITER: Shawn DePasquade, Tom Molloy & Josh Brylock
ARTIST: Alex Ortiz
COLORS: Ellie Wright
LETTERS: Micah Myers
EDITOR: Shawn DePasquade
This is the one I’ve been waiting for. Trailer Park Boys is based on both the live action and animated series now streaming on Netflix and is quite possibly the most raunchiest series other than Paradise PD rotating on their adult animated roster. In fact, the language of this show emitting from my 5.1 stereo system gets a lot of noise compliants from my neighbors just on the many times the word ‘F#c* and other vulgarities comes out of the lead characters’ mouths. What astounds me the most about the Trailer Park Boys is my misconception about Canadians in the series portrayed in general: I never knew that this many degenerates could ever exist out there. They have no basic sense of morality whatsoever. Ricky, Julian and the reluctant Bubbles‘s (who’s always getting roped in committing heinous acts with his two weed smoking compatriots when all the poor guy wants to do is play with his kitties) main priorities are motivated by nothing more but the simple grafication of getting high and on how they can profit from grandiose scams and harebrained schemes that always usually results in complete disaster. The first of three stories has the trio failing to understand the concept of ‘bitcoins’ that results in a giant fire and the failure of pissing on it in order to snuff it out.
FORKNIFE
WRITER: Josh Blaylock & Tom Molloy
ARTIST: Hoyt Silva
COLORS: Alyssa Eleftheriou
EDITOR: Shawn DePasquade
Ricky and Julian ruin Bubbles’ night to be alone with his kitties and video games by becoming supporting characters in his game
THE SPECULATOR BOOM
WRITER: Travis Hymel
ARTIST: Travis Hymel
COLORS: Slamet Mujiono
LETTERS: Shawn DePasquale
And in perhaps regarded as the best of the three stories, the boys try to score big in raising money for a drug deal by robbing a neighbor’s storage shed of his ‘extremely rare comics’ and sell them for cash which takes a delicious dig at the world of Rob Liefeld. Which is always a welcome gesture.
Also included are puzzles and games such as “Shitmobile’, ‘I-Roc Rap Name’, ‘Sunnyvale Search’ and a crossword puzzle (I currently seem to stuck on No 6 across: ‘Diane Sawyer‘ is Ricky’s favorite song by this band’ It’s four letters. Any helpers out there?). My rapper name turns out to be ‘D Candy Da Realest.
Too bad, they couldn’t fill out the entire 32 pages with a fourth story. I thought I was on a roll until some six page preview of something called “Arkworld Volume 2” by Josh Blaylock and Travis Hymel showed up. Now why do those names sound familiar?
THE BOYS: HEROGASM #1 – DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
WRITER: Garth Ennis
ARTISTS: John McCrea with Keith Burns
COLORS: Tony Avina
LETTERS: Simon Bowland
EDITOR: Joe Rybandt
And lastly, Dynamite offers up a reprint from The Boys to capitalize on new joining cast member Soldier Boy to be played by Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles on it’s upcoming 3rd season on Amazon Prime. Parents: I sure hope you didn’t pick this one up for the kiddies back at the ranch – otherwise they’ll turn out to be more knowledgable than you when it comes to the subject of swinger parties and all those special party favors that get passed around.
Well, another 11 down and only 33 more to go.
Until next week: be good and kind to each other and make sure you read more free comics. Then make sure go out and buy $3.99 or $4.99, or $5.99 ones. Some are even more expensive than that. Just do it already!!
PPGuru 