My kids had been looking forward to May 5 – the sixth annual Free Comic Book Day – for weeks. And, I’ll admit, so was I.
But the economy must be taking a downturn, because I’ve noticed retailers are getting awfully chintzy with the number of titles they’ll let you take. Last year, for example, I could get everything I wanted in one visit to the comic book store nearest my house, which let you take eight apiece. This year, however, that same place lowered the number to two for kids, one for adults. One!
I realize they have to pay about 15 cents for every one they give out, but c’mon. If the idea behind FCBD is to foster customer relations and grow business, being that cheap makes me want to take my business elsewhere (which I probably will). But we got our fix by hitting two other stores afterward, thus allowing us to review – for the second year in a row – a healthy number of the day’s offerings, in no particular order. Here are 15…
COMICS FESTIVAL! 2007 EDITION – For me, the real gems of FCBD are the indie comics anthologies, like this one, again showcasing a couple dozen talents from Canada. When you have the great Darwyn Cooke (DC: THE NEW FRONTIER, THE SPIRIT) providing a cover (not pictured) and a story inside, how can you go wrong? This edition, however, isn’t as strong as previous ones, although SCOTT PILGRIM’s Bryan Lee O’Mallery provides another highlight.
TRANSFORMERS OFFICIAL MOVIE PREQUEL #1 – One of last year’s worst FCBD offerings was a TRANSFORMERS flip book from IDW. One of this year’s worst FCBD offerings is a TRANSFORMERS book from IDW. It doesn’t flip, but at least it remains consistent by making zero sense. I mean, I seriously couldn’t wrap my head around it. Then again, I never played with the toys or watched the cartoons. To me, this played like issues of BIONICLE that my son gets free in the mail with his LEGO catalogs: terrible.
MARVEL ADVENTURES: IRON MAN & HULK – Neither a team-up nor a vs. tale, as the cover suggests, but two separate stories. Iron Man does surveillance at Stark HQ; Hulk battles a giant spider at a construction site. Like most MARVEL ADVENTURES, neither is bad, but both are disposable. The best part of it is a backup feature featuring “Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius,” the kid-oriented FANTASTIC FOUR spinoff.
UNSEEN PEANUTS – If there’s a buried treasure among the ‘07 FCBD slate, it’s this Fantagraphics freebie, without question. At a generous 32 pages, it collects more than 150 of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” strips that never have been reprinted before. Why? The annotations chalk them up to various reasons: mediocrity, dated gags, mildly disturbing material. No matter, because “Peanuts” is like sex in that even when it’s bad, it’s good. Schulz was a genius, and that’s evident even in these “off” strips.
THE ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #1 – After UNSEEN PEANUTS, this is this year’s other gem: a start of a new horror series from MARVEL ZOMBIES‘ Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard. The premise has a fabulously wealthy family man seemingly mauled by a bear, prompting him to turn into a wolfman every lunar cycle – and not a nice wolfman, either, which is what makes it great. The art is crisp and colorful, and Kirkman balances the horror and humor well. Thanks to Image Comics for supplying an actual full issue instead of a flimsy preview; this makes up for the god-awful preview books they gave away the last couple of years. When the trade comes, I’m buying.
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY – Dark Horse offers a glimpse at a new limited series with a decidedly odd bent. Given that its writer Gerard Way is front man for the emo band My Chemical Romance, I was prepared to hate it, but even I can admit when I’m wrong. It’s about six strange superheroes – with names like The Rumor and The Horror – battling the villainous Murder Magician. It’s a weird mix of H.P. Lovecraft, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and I don’t know what. But damn, do I love that James Jean (FABLES) cover! The issue also includes excerpts from PANTHEON CITY and ZERO KILLER, far too brief to be tantalizing.
WHITEOUT – Novelist Greg Rucka wrote this series back in the 1990s, but Oni Press is re-releasing it, kindly giving us the first issue for free. It’s a murder mystery set on a research base in Antarctica, beginning with the discovery of a dead guy missing his face. That’s a setup after my own heart. I’m surprised I never heard of it before. Lots of people will once the movie version comes out next year, starring Kate Beckinsale. Yum. For Beckinsale and WHITEOUT, that is.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY – Like last year’s JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED and TEEN TITANS GO!, this new title is based on a DC-to-TV series aimed at children. The kid in me likes it – bold lines, minimal wording and all. I like the design of all the kiddie-oriented DC cartoons, and this one carries it through as Superboy meets the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, all of whom proceed to make fun of him and haze him.
THE LONE RANGER / BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: SEASON ZERO – A flip book, if you couldn’t guess, from Dynamite Entertainment. I’ve heard lots of good things about THE LONE RANGER revival, and the eight-page story featuring the Western masked man is intriguing enough, but too damned short to provide any real meat. And the less said about BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the better. Suffice to say, it could’ve been printed in Farsi and it wouldn’t have been any more confusing. Dynamite really goes overboard with the ads in these things – 16 total, all but three of them promoting in-house stuff.
VIPER COMICS PRESENTS: VOLUME TWO – Here’s another argument against preview books. Viper jams pieces from four different titles into 32 pages, and three of them leave me utterly bewildered. The other, however, is for SASQUATCH, a 250-page anthology featuring more than 30 writers and artists doing stories on Bigfoot, Yeti and other large, hairy creatures. Now that I’ve gotta check out. But the others? I’ve already forgotten their names.
GUMBY – If you were introducing Gumby to a new generation of kids, I wouldn’t expect you to enlist Bob Burden (FLAMING CARROT) and Shannon Wheeler (TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN) to do it, but lo and behold, that’s who’s having do it. Here, Gumby and horse sidekick Pokey visit an art museum and jump from painting to painting. If you think that’s an opportunity for them to get surreal, bingo. Several artists switch duties, including the talented Rick Geary, but it may be too weird for its own good. My 9-year-old gave it “a 6.” See?
WALT DISNEY’S MICKEY MOUSE – There’s something comforting about these old adventures, with Gemstone reprinting about half a year’s worth of sequential Sunday strips from the 1936, in which Mickey somehow jumps into a copy of ROBIN HOOD and gets into all sorts of trouble, as pants-wearing rodents often do. A shorter filler feature has Mickey compete with Mortimer for the affections of Minnie Mouse. Hope he gets to remove the pants!
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN – With this year’s FCBD coinciding with the theatrical release of SPIDER-MAN 3, it was inevitable that Marvel would respond with a Spidey book. This all-new issue is your standard Spidey tale in which Peter Parker pledges to make Aunt May’s birthday but predictably gets sidetracked by criminal goings-on. In other words, nothing new nor particularly memorable. I might change my mind if Phil Jiminez’s artwork weren’t so ugly-looking, as if he never erased a single stroke of the pencil. It almost looks manga. I hate manga.
LOVE & CAPES – Part superhero adventure, part romantic comedy, thereby making it somewhat of a spoof. It’s well-drawn, though not exactly well-written, although I appreciate the balls it took to poke fun of the SPIDER-MAN movies, dubbing them ARACHNERD. That’s as clever as it gets, unfortunately.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #0 – DC’s other offering is for adults, a Brad Meltzer-penned precursor to their recent JLA relaunch. It has Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman preparing to get the band back together. Confusingly, it jumps time periods. More confusingly, different artists handle each page, so it’s difficult to keep anything straight. Meltzer can’t do comics much better than novels. Pass. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF FREE COMIC BOOK DAY:
• Free Comic Book Day 2006 Roundup
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The PEANUTS comic was the big highlight for me this year. I just can’t figure out superheroes these days. I flipped through that Justice League #0 and just put it down in disgust. What a mess. What is the point in making something as simple as the JL so damn convoluted.
Yeah, I can’t praise the PEANUTS enough. And so many strips are packed into that damn thing, there’s so much good stuff to read. It shows Fantagraphics cares instead of just throwing in a few story excerpts and a ton of ads like some.
Calling JLA a mess nails it.
Gotta disagree with you on your last review Rod. I know it’s a common complaint, but I simply don’t find Meltzer’s work on JLA confusing at all. I’m loving what he’s doing with the characters and I’ve yet to be displeased with a single issue thus far.