2010 FCBD Comic Reviews

[BobBretall]

This thread is dedicated to reviews of the FCBD comics you picked up. I think I got them all, I'm going to break them into 3 categories: Kids, All Ages, Teen+

Kids
For these, I'm going to try to put on my "kids hat" and review them based on how the intended audience may feel about them, as opposed to my personal view, though I'll throw that in where I think it will add something:

Archie's Summer Splash (Archie): 4/5 stars
Good story of Archie & the gang in a musical rivalry with stuck-up redhead Cheryl Blossom. Nice story for younger kids, well done.

Bongo Comics Free For All (Bongo): 3/5 stars
Decent stories, probably going to resonate better with hard-core Simpson's fans, I'm not sure how kids will react, it seemed more mildly amusing than actually funny. Might just be an issue for me in the translation from screen to comic. I liked the "League of Extraordinary Barts" story best.

DC Kids Mega Sampler 2010 (DC): 5/5 stars
Great stuff for kids. Samples of DC kids comics that tell a compelling story fragment and then lead the reader to the appropriate monthly books. Great Captain Marvel story, Tiny Titans was pretty funny, and nice Brave & Bold story with Batman & Martian Manhunter.

Fractured Fables (Image): 3/5 stars
Amusing takes on fairy tales, with some twists not seen in previous tellings. I think this will go over better with kids who've not seen take after take on these same stories over the years, and this suffers the standard "hit or miss" characteristic of any anthology where I really like about a third, dislike a third, and are indifferent about the rest. In this issue, I REALLY liked Red Riding Hood, mainly based on the wonderful Bryan Talbot art, Rumplestiltskin didn't work for me at all, and the other 3 were kind of just there.

Fraggle Rock/Mouse Guard(Archaia): 4/5 stars
I've never watched Fraggle Rock before so came in a bit cold on that half of this flip book, though it was well done & I think it would go over good with kids & Fraggle fans. The Mouse Guard tale (we get a look at Spring 1153) was wonderful, full 5/5.

Iron Man/Nova (Marvel): 3/5 stars
This one did nothing for me, I'm not a big fan of the "kidified" Marvel heroes, but younger kids may get a kick out of it.

Owly & Friends (Top Shelf): 4/5 stars
Owly & Korgi are charming stuff and I think any kid would eat these up. I'm mystified by the appeal of James Kochalka's "Johnny Boo". Owly/Korgi carry this book and make it a must read for kids <10.

Puppy Sister/Fame: Lady Gaga (Bluewater): 1/5 stars
This seemed like a really weird combination of books to put together. Puppy sister is a story definitely aimed at younger kids where it seems the Mom & Dad are getting a puppy for their son instead of a little sister/brother. Not enough presented here to get into it, but it really was not working for me.
The Lady Gaga bio story is inexplicably told from the viewpoint of some fat redneck watching his TV and getting nagged to take out the garbage.
Then there was a short snippet of a really poorly illustrated upcoming Taylor Swift bio story. Best part was a panel trying to illustrate Ellen DeGeneres that has her looking a bit like the Joker.

Shrek/ Penguins of Madagascar (Ape): 4/5 stars
I've never seen Madagascar and only the 1st Shrek movie, so I'm not in the right target group for this one, but it was well done. I think any kid who's familiar with the animated properties showcased here would like this one.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie): 4/5 stars
Entertaining story. Archie is doing something right with this series, the regular Sonic comic is up to issue #212 this month!!!

Toy Story (Boom!): 5/5 stars
I don't get the Boom! kids series, but I think this is a reprint of #1. Excellent story, though where Andy gets a duplicate Buzz Lightyear figure and it decides to call "our Buzz" Sally GREAT stuff!

YOW! John Stanley Library Grab-Bag (Drawn & Quarterly): 4/5 stars
Classic stuff! Nancy, Tubby, Melvin Monster. Done in the 1960's this stuff is just as entertaining today.

[BobBretall]

All Ages
These are truly "All Ages" books, meaning they can be enjoyed by young & old alike. I like to think of them as "regular comics".

Artifacts #0 (Top Cow): 4/5 stars
We have here a story with cyborg Aphrodite IV (a precursor, I assume of the Aphrodite IX published by Top Cow some time ago. Beautiful Stjepan Sejic art, the best part of this for me was the info pages on what all 13 artifacts are that well be seeing in the upcoming series (slated for July release).

Atomic Robo / Neozoic / Box 13(Red 5): 3/5 stars
An OK Robo story, but there have been many better, meandered a bit & didn't have a very good payoff. Great art (as always) on Neozoic, but I don't think the story fragment provided here would compel someone to go out and search for more Neozoic. Box 13? This one didn't appeal to me at all. I'm not sure on Box 13, but I think Robo & Neozoic were new stories done for this comic, as such, I think they could have been a bit tighter to set up the characters & their worlds and get readers wanting to read more.

Doctor Solar / Magnus (Dark Horse): 3/5 stars
I went into this WANTING to like it, especially with the return of Jim Shooter to the writing chores. Something about it just failed to "click" for me. The stories were OK, but they felt kind of flat and without any real "zing" that always made the early Valiant titles stand out for me. I can see that someone might like this a lot more than I did, though.

Based on this preview, I'm going to skip the relaunch of these titles in July/August.

GI Joe #155 1/2 (IDW): 4/5 stars
I think it's very cool that they are continuing GI Joe from the Marvel series (that ended with #155, both with Larry Hama as the writer and continuing the characters/continuity of that series. While I was never a fan of the original, this was a good read, and I think will be appealing to any fan of the original Marvel run.

Green Hornet Sampler (Dynamite): 3/5 stars
I can understand wanting to expose as many books as possible, but there was inadequate samplings of each individual story to be really effective (and the pages chosen were maybe not the best). Of all of them, I thought the Kevin Smith's Green Hornet provided the most effective set of sample pages. The best ones from that issue. The "Year One" sample was OK, Green Hornet strikes too short at 4 pages, Kato Origins failed to grab me, and then just some B&W prelim art samples from Kevin Smith's Kato. What I really got out of this is that Dynamite is doing too many Green Hornet/Kato books. I think this would have been more effective had they gone with 11 pages each of Kevin Smith's GH & the GH: Year One by Matt Wagner.

Iron Man/Thor (Marvel): 3/5 stars
This was an OK stand alone story by Matt Fraction with John Romita, Jr. art, but nothing to write home about. Plot device totally out of left field, perfunctory conflict with the bad guys, and a pretty weak resolution. Art was pretty, though.

Library of American Comics (IDW): 4/5 stars
This was a flip book with both classic comic strip Action & Adventure as well as humor. Nice sampling that should let you know if you want to seek out the reprint volumes being showcased:
X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan - Wow, beautiful Al Williamson art, I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for the reprint volumes of this due out in July.
Rip Kirby - I think I prefer Alex Raymond's work on Flash Gordon, but maybe it was just that the strips they picked to showcase here were not doing it for me.
Li'l Abner - Beautiful Al Capp art. I'm not a big fan of the character, but this gives a good sampling of it and certainly showcases Capp's artistic talent.
Archie - From the newspaper strip of 1946-48, this is different from any Archie I'd personally ever seen before, and it looks really good. I'll be looking for this collection when it comes out.
Polly & her Pals - Interesting sampling of a comic I'd never really heard of before. Didn't really do anything for me, but I can see how it could have an appeal.
Blondie - Like the Archie newspaper strip, this was VERY different from the Blondie I've seen in the newspaper my whole life, and this looks a LOT better. Set before Blondie & Dagwood got married, there is some really nice fine-line work by Chic Young on display here.

I'm really glad I picked up this one, a very nice sampler of a lot of classic American comic strips!

Love & Capes #13 (Maerkle Press): 5/5 stars
Another great issue by Thom Zahler. Not sure how he can afford to do a free issue like this once a year, but I appreciate it. Great book, I find I can always get right back into the story even though it only come out about quarterly. If you like this issue, you know you'll be a fan of the series.

Oni Press Free-For-All (Oni): 3/5 stars
Samples of "Salt Water Taffy" by Matthew Loux, Possessions by Ray Fawkes, and The Crogan Adventures by Christ Schweizer. None of these were really my cup of tea, but I appreciated the ability to sample them and feel they're all well done. I can see them having an audience.

Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics (Gemstone): 5/5 stars
A great primer on collecting comics. A nice comic-strip intro to collecting, a grading definition (essential reading for collectors), a brief article on comic book preservation & storage, another on buying & selling, a listing of the major comic cons, and a nice little article with short snippets from a variety of folks on why they collect comics.

Stuff of Legend/City of Bones (Th3rd World Studios): 4/5 stars
The Stuff of Legends is a great story about a boy's toys that come to life and go on a journey to rescue him after he's kidnapped by the Boogeyman. I read volume 1 of this & enjoyed it immensely, this has a recap of what's gone before plus the first 9 pages of the new volume coming in July.
The "City of Bones" preview seemed like a standard "teens struggling against vampires/demons" with nightclubs, etc. as the background. Didn't really grab me.

Storm Lion #0 (Storm Lion): 3/5 stars
This used to be called "Freedom Force" when the first mini was published by Radical Comics. If you liked it there, you'll like this too. Freedom Force was not the best name for this series, and I'm not sure "Storm Lion" is much better. Basically a futuristic sci-fi story where they protagonists are in some cool mech suits. It's a decent story.

The Tick (NEC): 4/5 stars
Re-presenting the 1st Tick story from 24 years ago, I had never read this before and was very entertained. Funny stuff, no wonder the character's still around and got a cartoon & TV series. Never underestimate the power of a well-executed idea.

War of the Supermen (DC): 4/5 stars
The Superman books have been building up to this. All out war between the 100,000 Kryptionians on New Krypton & Earth. I'm curious how the Earth is not going to end up a smoking pile of rubble since each Kryptonian is essentially just like Superman (and he trained a lot of them in how to use their powers effectively). I'm sold, I need to see what happens next.

Weathercraft & other Unusual Tales (Fantagraphic): 3/5 stars
This was very strange/surreal. Wordless stories with detailed art that almost look like an LSD-trip laid onto paper in B&W. We get a sampling of both Manhog & Frank in this issue. Not my cup of tea, but worth checking out to see if it's yours.

Worlds of Aspen 2010 (Aspen): 4/5 stars
New story putting a bit of a "common world" framework around all the books published by Aspen with some really nice art by Scott Clark.
The samples of Soulfire & Mindfield caught my eye (but I was pre-sold on Soulfire after talking to JT Krull on FCBD, and on Mindfield after reading the #0 issue.) The samples of "Executive Assistant Iris" and "Dellec" really didn't give me anything that would make me want to run out and pick up those books, but the original opening sequence elevated this above a "just throw some sample pages together" book.

[BobBretall]

Teen+

Del Rey Showcase (Del Rey): 4/5 stars
Pride & Predjudice & Zombies: Jane Austen's classic tale with zombie added in. This is a preview of the GN adaptation of the prose novel, really nice art by Cliff Richards, should appeal to zombie fans out there, I'll be checking this one out when it's released May 4th.
Talisman: Road of Trials: This looks like a really cool story that I totally missed when it came out as a 5 issue series from Del Rey comics. The HC will be out on May 4th, and I'm going to be checking it out then.

The other 2 offerings didn't really appeal to me, printed sideways, at half-size in B&W, I'm guessing these will be put out in manga-style volumes. Dean Koontz's "Odd is on Our Side" with Manhwa-style art and an "Avatar the Last Airbender" prequel with Manga-style art.

Fearless Dawn (Asylum Press): 3/5 stars
Title "Fearless Dawn, what might appear at first to be a re-presentation of the #1 issue of that series, this is really a sampler issue of a bunch of Asylum Press's offerings:
Fearless Dawn: 8 pages of cheesecake-y goodness from Fearless Dawn #1, I've been picking up this series and it's good fun.
Warlash Origins: 4-pages of Bisley-ish art, kind of interesting but not enough of a taste to know for sure.
Black Powder: 9 pages of "Bloody Frontier Adventure". We get Pirates on the Ohio river and some mayhem with passable art, seems interesting.
Farmhouse: Billed as "A drifter, a mental ward, a woman..." 8 pages of relatively crude art, not my cup of tea.
Eeek! Retro Horror: 6 B&W pages trying to be evocative of Warren's Eerie or Creepy, but falling short of the mark.
Warlash - Zombie Mutant Genesis & Undead Evil: Short previews with art not suited to my tastes.

Irredeemable/Incorruptible (Boom!): 5/5 stars
Re-presenting the #1s for each series, these are highly recommended works from the masterful pen of Mark Waid. Since the basis of the Incorruptable universe is a super-man-like character going kind of nuts and killing tens of thousands (millions?) of people, I'm going to give this an automatic "not for kids" classification. That said, if you're 15 & up, give it a read, it's great stuff.

Welcome to the Radical Universe (Radical): 4/5 stars
This is head & shoulders above previous Radical FCBD offerings that were little more than sketchbook samplings or unlettered art sample pages. This book offers decent story chunk samplers from:
Driver for the Dead: Supernatural intrigue & some really spiffy art by Leonardo Manco. I'm really looking forward to this one, this one stood out as the best of the bunch.
Time Bomb: Beautiful Paul Gulacy art, but the sample pages presented didn't give an adequate set-up for the story. May have been better to have picked a set of pages from a bit later in the story where we get a set up for the key conflict (e.g. a team needs to go back in time to save the world.
After Dark: Somewhat dark futuristic Sci-Fi horror story that seems interesting enough to follow up on.
The Rising: Humans fighting back after an alien invasion force occupies earth. I'm not totally sold on this one.

The Sixth Gun (Oni): 5/5 stars
This one stood out as my favorite of all the FCBD comics. Pinkerton detectives are seeking out mystic artifacts on behalf of a mysterious employer, and a key artifact is an extremely powerful firearm that bonds itself with one wielder at a time. A girl ends up taking it over from her dying (then dead) Father, I'm definitely going to be following this series as it comes out.

[Frank Castle]

Doctor Solar / Magnus (Dark Horse): 3/5 stars
I went into this WANTING to like it, especially with the return of Jim Shooter to the writing chores. Something about it just failed to "click" for me. The stories were OK, but they felt kind of flat and without any real "zing" that always made the early Valiant titles stand out for me. I can see that someone might like this a lot more than I did, though.

Worlds of Aspen 2010 (Aspen): 4/5 stars
New story putting a bit of a "common world" framework around all the books published by Aspen with some really nice art by Scott Clark.
The samples of Soulfire & Mindfield caught my eye (but I was pre-sold on Soulfire after talking to JT Krull on FCBD, and on Mindfield after reading the #0 issue.) The samples of "Executive Assistant Iris" and "Dellec" really didn't give me anything that would make me want to run out and pick up those books, but the original opening sequence elevated this above a "just throw some sample pages together" book.

I'm with Bob on these two. I really enjoyed the Aspen book and I didn't enjoy the DH offering. In fact, I'd probably give it a Red ranking as neither did anything to make me want to pick up the ongoing.

[Frank Castle]

Superman War of the Worlds - I enjoyed it though I haven't picked up a Supes comic for yrs. I liked the little back up story too having a bunch of big artists do 1 page it.

Iron Man/Thor - This was a nice little one shot. Nothing super exciting about it but I've read thru it now probably 7-8 times now as it was my son's fav book from the weekend. He loved all the big splash pages and Iron Man on every page!

DC Kids Sampler - This was another one that I enjoyed and my son loved it too. Art and Franco also do fun little stories and it was fun to see Norton's art on the Shazam. This is another book I've read many times!!

Iron Man/Nova I'm with Bob in that this story did nothing for me, I gotta give it a Green score because Logan loved it. He loved the monkeys/apes and IM on every page, the little back up story with Super Hero Squad was hit, what kid doesn't like the Hulk breaking stuff.

Hopefully tonight or this week I can read some of the books that we grabbed for Dad!!

[Frank Castle]

Teen+
The Sixth Gun (Oni): 5/5 stars
This one stood out as my favorite of all the FCBD comics. Pinkerton detectives are seeking out mystic artifacts on behalf of a mysterious employer, and a key artifact is an extremely powerful firearm that bonds itself with one wielder at a time. A girl ends up taking it over from her dying (then dead) Father, I'm definitely going to be following this series as it comes out.

I'm with Bob on this 100%. Finally got to read it this morning and I loved it!! I loved the idea/concept of the book when I first heard about and was even more interested after talking to Brian at ECCC. The excitement in his voice when talking about the book was great.

[Frank Castle]

Irredeemable/Incorruptible - I had read both of these before but wasn't really blown away and didn't read anymore issues. But I re read them today and went out and bought all 13 issues of Irred and 4 issues of Incorr. So I guess this freebie did it's job.

[georgeoflegend]

Green Hornet: Although I agree that it was too short and I would have loved having a full story, this was enough to pull me into picking up 3 of the books (Kevin Smiths, Year 1, and Strikes). I liked what I saw and it didn’t significantly retcon the TV series or past runs at the Green Hornet.