Review- Free Comic Book Day Offerings Part Three

Free Comic Book Day Offerings Part Three

Cirque Du Soleil: The Complete Collected Edition (Marvel, cover date February, 2015; softcover)

Collects Cirque Du Soleil #1-3

One comic shop that I went to was giving away this skinny trade, which states on the front cover that it is a “Custom Edition” and “Not For Resale”. From what I gathered in the 0.987 minutes that I spent researching it, this was a marketing stunt thought up by the Las Vegas promoters to get a male audience into Cirque Du Soleil. They launched it on Marvel's digital comics site and had some stupid contest. Zero marketing dollars were spent and it resulted in 5,000 Facebook likes for Cirque Du Soleil. That and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

It's slick and polished, but as a read it is crap. The story is just plain boring. Still, this dead stock was given away at one shop on FCBD so the only thing that it cost me was the time that it took to read it. I had no interest in Cirque Du Soleil before I read this book and I have no interest in it now.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 1 out of 5.

Skyward/ Fracture Halloween ComicFest Edition (Action Lab Entertainment, cover date October, 2013)

I thought that this was familiar when I read it, and that's because it is. It was dead stock from the Halloween ComicFest 2013 and was given away at Free Comic Book Day 2014, and I already reviewed it here. It gets the same rating from me two years later.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Atlas: Origins #1 (Dave Swartz Art, Kickstarter, cover date 2015)

Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, MI tends to explore the more out there and independent comic books available. While this particular comic book not my cup of tea I do enjoy seeing what is out there in the fringes of the medium from time to time.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Free 2016 (Retrofit/ Big Planet Comics)

Comic books can be anything under the sun. What appeals to some people does not have to appeal to others. While I am admittedly more of a capes and newspaper strips kind of guy there are bits and pieces of this sampler of indie comics that work, particularly Jacob Bladders And The State Of The Art. Not all comics are for everyone. I am okay with that.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2 out of 5.

BOOM! Studios 2016 Summer Blast (BOOM Studios, cover date May, 2016)

This is a sampling of six different BOOM and Archaia properties. None of them are making me open my wallet, nor were any of them awful.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.25 out of 5.

Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day 2016 (Titan, cover date June, 2016)

It never ceases to amaze me how socially acceptable Doctor Who has become. In my fledgling nerd days in the 1980s even we nerds thought that Doctor Who was for nerds. Times change, and this beloved British icon has made inroads on this side of the Atlantic. My 9 year old son loves Doctor Who. There's a kid at his school who has a Doctor Who backpack for chrissakes. I know nothing about the character but found these short stories to be entertaining.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

Review- THE FINAL PLAGUE VOL. 1

THE FINAL PLAGUE VOL. 1 (Action Lab, 2014; Softcover)

Collects The Final Plague Nos. 1-5 (cover dates June, 2013- March, 2014)

Writer: JD Arnold

Artists: Tony Guaraldi-Brown with additional inking by Manuel Martinez (#4 and 5)

Due to the ongoing success of The Walking Dead there are countless undead titles crowding the racks, each creator hoping that their “IP” will help get them a slice of that Kirkman pie. Instead of zombie humans, we have a zombie animal plague. See, totally different than anything you have ever seen before, right?

I don't necessarily demand originality in comics, but I do demand to be entertained or, better yet, moved on some level. Cripes, even making me angry is a form of credit to an artist, since their work moved me on some emotional level. This just left me cold. I read page after page, not caring much about any of the characters, the outcome, or even how or why these animals were infected in the first place. In short, I was completely indifferent to this series. The only feeling that I have after reading this book is regret that I paid for it.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 0.75 out of 5.

Buy THE FINAL PLAGUE VOL. 1 TP at InStockTrades!

The OCD zone- This is a surprisingly high quality book for an independent publisher.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: I don't know if you can call it extras, but every single page that was in the original comics (letters page, house ads, etc.) are present. These are the exact same guts and covers that were found on the original issues. Very cool.

Paper rating: 4.5 out of 5. Excellent weight glossy coated stock.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. Excellent thick waxlike lamination. This book has a good weight and feels like something of quality. Too bad the story pretty much sucks and this book is abysmal dreck and a complete waste of time and money. 

Review- Free Comic Book Day offerings, Episode IV

Free Comic Book Day offerings, Episode IV

The beauty of hitting seven shops on FCBD is getting a smorgasbord of titles. Some of these are leftover stock from previous FCBD but I grabbed anything that I had not grabbed during the day.

The Censored Howard Cruse Free Comic Book Day Edition (Boom, cover date May, 2012)

Underground comics have never been my cup of tea. Still, these are decent and enjoyable enough for what they are. I can't say that I would ever consider buying a book of it, though.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2 out of 5.

The Mis-Adventures Of Adam West/ Walter Koening's Things To Come flipbook (Bluewater Comics, cover date 2011)

Bluewater's output is readable but I wouldn't buy this. Recycle bin material or sunlight/dust shortbox handle blocker? You decide.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2 out of 5.

Skyward Halloween ComicFest Edition (Action Lab Entertainment, cover date October, 2013)

This is decent and entertaining enough. I am not running out to buy more, but I also did not throw it in the recycle bin when I finished it.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Molly Danger Featuring Princeless: Free Comic Book Day one-shot (Action Lab Entertainment, cover date May, 2013)

I like reading comic books. I will read almost anything if it is A) a physical copy and B) it is free. It is when I pay for things that I become choosier. I would never pay to read Princeless, as it is abysmal. Molly Danger was tolerable if forgettable.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 1 out of 5.

Viper Comics Presents Volume One (Viper Comics, cover date April, 2006)

A variety of different, equally uninteresting concepts. The only one that might be worth killing a tree to make is The Dummy's Guide To Danger, and even that might be pushing it.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 0.75 out of 5.

Shigeru Mizuki's Showa: A History Of Japan (Drawn & Quarterly, cover date 2014)

I am not much of a Manga fan but can enjoy anything that is well done. This was enjoyable enough. I dislike backwards opening, right to left reading traditional format Japanese comics. They piss me off and are unnatural. Still, this was an okay way to waste a slice of my day.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5. 

Review- Free Comic Book Day 2014 offerings, Episode III

Free Comic Book Day 2014 offerings, Episode III

Epic #0 Pilot- Free Comic Book Day 2014 (Comix Tribe, cover date 2014)

I always try to consider the mythical “new kid” who might pick up comics and be turned off by inbred, self referencing fanboy pandering. Then again, are there really any new readers these days?

While some of the jokes seemed adolescent, the writing and artwork are decent enough that I would be willing to read more if someone gave it to me to review.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

Free Comic Book Day: 2000 AD (2000 AD, cover date 2014)

2000 AD is a weekly UK anthology magazine, and this FCBD issue is more of a greatest hits affair with a smattering of new material thrown in.

You get a brand new Judge Dredd story, a classic Slaine story, an early Rogue Trooper* story, a vintage Anderson, Psi-Division tale, two more reprints, two more original stories, and a few classic Judge Dredd newspaper strips. I recently tracked down the old Judge Dredd strips UK hardcover, and was dismayed/delighted to learn from them on Twitter that 2000 AD is going to issuing the complete run in hardcover later this year! Watch your local solicits, kiddies.

*I am knee deep into Rogue Trooper: Tales Of Nu-Earth Vol. 1 trade paperback and am loving it.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

Skyward/ Midnight Tiger- FCBD 2014 (Action Lab, cover date 2014)

All ages friendly it's not, but this is some decent stuff. The artwork reminds me of Todd Nauck for some reason. I would consider buying a trade paperback of Midnight Tiger, as it was a lot of fun.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.25 out of 5.

Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe #0 (IDW, cover date May, 2014)

I am almost 41, which means that I was the prime age for both of these concepts in the 1980s. I had a bunch of G.I. Joe toys and a handful of Transformers (as well as their precursors,The Gobots), watched the cartoons after school, and bought the comic books. I knew these properties inside out as a kid, both their comic book and nearly identical animated counterparts. I have tried reading modern stuff, both the Dreamwave and Devil's Due's take, and found them lacking. I am content with my Marvel nostalgia, and own complete runs in trade paperbacks as well as many of the original comics.

This was complete crap. It flew in the face of established continuity while trying to show the early days of both properties. When you can't create, you ret-con or reboot. It's a lame copout. Worse still is the crappy faux-vintage look to the color and paper. I had heard that IDW had done some great things with these properties. Judging by this comic book, this is patently false.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 0 out of 5.

Uber FCBD 2014 (Avatar Press, cover date February, 2014)

Wow, talk about a wasted opportunity. I am a fan of pretty much anything that Avatar Press puts out, and I was looking forward to dipping my toe into this title. Instead of an appetizer we get a boring, text heavy summary of sorts that I honestly couldn't be bothered to read. Am I intrigued by this title or concept? I couldn't tell you, since this was too boring a read for me to get past the first page.

Junk Food For Thought rating: N/A out of 5.

Anti/ Ride: FCBD Edition #0 flip book (12-Gauge, cover date May, 2012)

Dealers turn leftover stock into the ghost of Free Comic Book Day past. I went to seven shops this year, so I grabbed anything that I hadn't grabbed before. Anti is mediocre while Ride is interesting if disturbing. I wouldn't buy these but would review them if someone gave me free trades. I refuse to review digital comics, even though I get PDFs and download links all the time.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.