Free Comic Book Day 2006 Roundup
I’ve learned the best way to maximize the “free” in Free Comic Book Day is to visit more than one store. My kids and I each ended up with nine titles this year, making us all happy campers, because free equals happy (unless you’re talking syphilis). But did the freebies end up being any good? Here are capsule reviews of 10 of them. I could’ve given you more, but that would mean I’d actually have to read something called AMELIA RULES! or BUZZBOY.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #1 – I’d heard a lot about this series over the past couple years, all of the word positive. Now I finally know why. Both through words and pictures, the creative team does an excellent job of juxtapositioning the lives of these two iconic heroes, separated by differences but united for good. The story just gets going as the issue’s over, but it’s one I wouldn’t mind spending money to see played out.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #1 – Though aimed directly at kids, DC’s other offering was one of the better free titles this year. I love the bold, angular character designs of the JLA on the Cartoon Network series, and this comic duplicates that look to a T (or an “S,” I suppose). The story is very straightforward, with not too many words, but it’s colorful and it works.
X-MEN/RUNAWAYS – Created specially for FCBD, Marvel’s giveaway is actually an anthology, anchored by a meeting of the title teams, with some of the strangest art I’ve seen in a modern comic book. Following is a quick, cute Franklin Richards (son of The Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman) adventure; an equally brief preview at the kiddie-centric MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS; and a thoroughly pointless text summary of Brian Michael Bendis’ ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN run. Scattershot.
STAR WARS/CONAN – If it’s FCBD, you can bet Dark Horse will promote STAR WARS. Yawn. But at least this time they did a flip book with CONAN on the other side. And while the STAR WARS isn’t bad, it’s merely a 10-page fight scene you’ll forget about immediately. Not that CONAN’s tale made much more sense, but it made a much more lasting impression, as the style they’ve brought to this makes me want to look into their revival of Robert E. Howard’s sword-and-sorcery hero.
G.I. JOE SIGMA 6 – G.I. JOE comics were a big deal 20 years ago, when Marvel did them. I’m unfamiliar with Devil’s Due Publishing, and you probably are, too, as this is nothing to get excited about. Mostly set underwater and involving sharks, the story is still rushed and the art looks low-rent. Did I say “looks”? I meant “is.”
FUTURE SHOCK – Last year, Image put out a four-title sampler whose short page counts made it tough to get into any of them. So this year they spotlight double the titles, at four pages apiece, and I got even less out of them. With one exception: GØDLAND, a trippy sci-fi series that looks so much like old-school Jack Kirby, I’ve gotta check it out … in trade format. Other titles here included SPAWN, WITCHBLADE and SAVAGE DRAGON, which carries perhaps the worst lettering job I’ve ever seen. And I’m including kindergarteners’ chalk scrawlings on the driveway.
THE TRANSFORMERS: INFILTRATION/TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: THE GATHERING – I’m going to assume TRANSFORMERS fans will flip for this flip book from IDW, but I couldn’t make head or tails of it. It was like reading … well, what’s something you read without comprehending? Tax forms? Legal contracts? Like those, but a little less painful and with a lot more robots.
THE FANTAGRAPHICS FUNNY BOOK #2 – For me, this subversive collection was the highlight of this year’s FCBD, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get the first issue last year. This one’s all about discovering new talent in the indie/alternative comics scene, and the “for mature readers” tag isn’t stuck there just for kicks. There’s a whole mix of stuff here, from wordless gag pages, autobiographical stories and non-sequitir strips to a genius Encyclopedia Brown parody, Alexander Hamilton as a zombie and a talking dog having to explain why his balls are shaved. If your local comics retailer still has some laying around, get your hands on it.
WALT DISNEY’S DONALD DUCK – It’s unofficially un-American to rag on anything connected with Carl Barks. But who needs to? This actually reprints three stories from the ’80s that Barks didn’t do, but the cover is all his and the spirit is all there. In one story, Donald dresses up like an ant, and my 8-year-old son said he looked a girl. I don’t know what that’s all about. Also, my 6-year-old daughter stated she prefers to call him Daphne Duck. I don’t know what that’s all about, either. Kids are unhinged.
ARCHIE’S 65TH ANNIVERSARY BASH! – Similarly, you have to be pretty cold-hearted to diss Archie, even if he is uncool. I haven’t read him since I was, what, 10? As I remembered, he’s still so squeaky-clean, he could repel mold spores. This is as inoffensive as you’d expect, but I read every word anyway. It only took three minutes. But before I sully my rep any further, let me close by saying I’d happily do Betty and Veronica.
It’s unfortunate that Marvel chose Skottie Young to illustrate the X-Men/Runaways story - his art is painfully awkward in that ghetto tagger style, which contradicts the smart, sharp writing of Brian K. Vaughn.
I passed on the Image book this year since last year’s issue spoiled some as-yet-unread events in their series INVINCIBLE, which I buy in trade paperback form. GØDLAND is a fun read. The writer’s about half as clever as he thinks he is, and the artist should be paying royalties to the Jack Kirby estate, but it’s big, dumbish fun.
I picked up ONI’s FREE SCOTT PILGRIM and Drawn & Quarterly’s MR. JEAN, because my store is a lot cooler than Rod’s.
My favorite was Top Shelf’s Owly: Breaking the Ice, which is perfect for young kids. I wish I’d seen the Scott Pilgrim, though–by the time I got to my stores, they were all out.
I missed FCBD this year, but wanted to chime in on Dark Horse’s CONAN. I really didn’t think I would like this and avoided it until it had been recommended to me countless times. Finally, when I was in the need of some testosterone packed bloodshed and carnage, I picked up the first trade. It’s really awesome and I can’t recommend it enough. Conan is one of those things where you either like it or you don’t. But if you like barbarian action with beautiful art, it doesn’t get much better.
Ron, my daughter got OWLY, as she did last year. This time, however, she called it “a coloring book.” Sure enough, I’ve found torn-out pages of it throughout the house, half-Crayoned.
Christopher, I’ll have to check out CONAN. I liked the Marvel-era CONAN okay, but it was cooler to look at than it was to read, to tell the truth.
[...] • Free Comic Book Day 2006 Roundup. AMELIA RULES fans, click now to get the lowdown! … Okay, now that they’re gone, I’ll let you in on a secret: There’s no review of the AMELIA RULES book. There is, however, a heartfelt journey into the land of SUPERMAN/BATMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, X-MEN/RUNAWAYS, STAR WARS/CONAN, G.I. JOE and THE TRANSFORMERS (more than meets the eye), among others. [...]
Part of the reason the lettering in Savage Dragon is so bad ois because the artist/ writer recently decided he wanted to do it himself. If his reasoning was that he wanted to shine a spotlight on these underappreciated letterers by showing us had bad lettering can affect a book then I applaud him. Otherwise… look, there’s something to be said for DIY, but there’s also something to be said for realizing when it’s best to just let someone else do a competent job.
As for Donald Duck’s girliness- looking at his sailor suit I can sort of see why they might think he looks a little girly.
And as for the Fantagraphics book- Michael Kupperman’s work is sheer genius. Sheer, warped genius.
If these weren’t capsule reviews, Eric, you would’ve read me going on and on about Kupperman. His stuff is awesome.
[...] That said, there’s some good stuff here. Joel Priddy’s stick-figured “The Amazing Life of Onion Jack” is as funny as when I first read it (in a Free Comic Book Day offering, no less), as is Chris Ware’s clever “Comics: A History,” a bite-sized pastiche originally created as the wraparound cover for MCSWEENEY’S #13. [...]
[...] 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 [...]