Quick FCBD Reviews
I only got a handful and here are some quick thoughts.
Spider-Man: A simple done in one story that will likely lead somewhere. Perhaps a bit too simple and by the numbers but it's not bad as an outreach tool.
Wolfman: This was the first one I read as I'm interested in what Kirkman is going to do. So far it's a very standard act one of a werewolf tale. A guy is bit, he disappears at nights, wakes up with bad dreams and eventually realizes he's a werewolf. At the end a mysterious person pops up, saying he'll help the main character with the werewolf thing. Nothing original here and I'm not interested in reading any further.
Comic Festival: This had a wide mix of stuff. A lot of webcomics where only 1 comic was displayed, some multi-page comics that was pictures with prose. The latter gives the impression the talents involved didn't want to spend a lot of time on this, so they did what was quick and easy for them. Personally I would have chosen fewer people and more spotlight thrown on them.
Nexus: A whole lot of flashbacks, trying to bring us up to speed on the Nexus continuity. I wasn't interested in reading through it all. I think they would have been better off starting fresh, doing a story that didn't require continuity to understand.
Who Wants to be a Superhero - Feedback: Sliver thin but there is a story here. It's unintentionally funny by being so bad. Almost like the 60s Batman, but they were doing it on purpose. So far it's my favorite book.
Marvel Adventures: 3 stories. First is Iron Man, which was okay. Very done in one, with nothing to hook people for more. 2nd is Hulk. I liked this story better, Hulk is more in line with the take I like best on him, simple but not stupid. 3rd story is a Franklin Richards story, which is decent for a kids story.
Wahoo Morris: This is surprisingly good. It's a black and white indy book. About a band and a guy in love with a girl, with something a little extra going on. The best book out of the bunch for hooking new readers I think.
Justice League of America: This one is a bunch of small scenes, going from various points in the past and some in the future to entice you to find out what's going on. All of it has to do with heavy continuity and while this might appeal to long time comic fans, I don't see it appealing to the general audience. I mean how many kids today know anything about Batman punching out an annoying Guy Gardner?
Mickey Mouse: All of it is in sideways format, which is a bit annoying to read. I wished they printed it in a format better suited for reading. But the story is quite good. I got a few good laughs from this and it should do well in convincing people to pick up a Mickey Mouse reprint book. Gemstone should consider doing them like Fantagraphics does Peanuts, but try and keep the price low enough that parents won't balk at buying it for their kids.
Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century: This one was a bit weird. It's all about Superboy joining the LSH for the first time, but it's done as a series of interviews with the other LSH members. It didn't come together all that well for my tastes.
Choose Your Weapon (Tokyopop): This had 5 stories most of them fantasy based involving swords and magic. One was a police / giant robot story. All of them were professionally drawn, but there was too little of each story to hook me. I think a fewer stories with more pages would have been better.
I also read through Walking Dead Vol. 6 and Runaways Vol. 7. Walking Dead held up to the series current standard. I'm looking forward to the next one. Runaways I don't know about. Too many of the main characters have died and we're getting robots and skrulls as fill ins and I don't care about those characters like I did the ones they replaced. I probably should have dropped this a volume or two ago. I doubt I'm going to buy any more.
Spider-Man: A simple done in one story that will likely lead somewhere. Perhaps a bit too simple and by the numbers but it's not bad as an outreach tool.
Wolfman: This was the first one I read as I'm interested in what Kirkman is going to do. So far it's a very standard act one of a werewolf tale. A guy is bit, he disappears at nights, wakes up with bad dreams and eventually realizes he's a werewolf. At the end a mysterious person pops up, saying he'll help the main character with the werewolf thing. Nothing original here and I'm not interested in reading any further.
Comic Festival: This had a wide mix of stuff. A lot of webcomics where only 1 comic was displayed, some multi-page comics that was pictures with prose. The latter gives the impression the talents involved didn't want to spend a lot of time on this, so they did what was quick and easy for them. Personally I would have chosen fewer people and more spotlight thrown on them.
Nexus: A whole lot of flashbacks, trying to bring us up to speed on the Nexus continuity. I wasn't interested in reading through it all. I think they would have been better off starting fresh, doing a story that didn't require continuity to understand.
Who Wants to be a Superhero - Feedback: Sliver thin but there is a story here. It's unintentionally funny by being so bad. Almost like the 60s Batman, but they were doing it on purpose. So far it's my favorite book.
Marvel Adventures: 3 stories. First is Iron Man, which was okay. Very done in one, with nothing to hook people for more. 2nd is Hulk. I liked this story better, Hulk is more in line with the take I like best on him, simple but not stupid. 3rd story is a Franklin Richards story, which is decent for a kids story.
Wahoo Morris: This is surprisingly good. It's a black and white indy book. About a band and a guy in love with a girl, with something a little extra going on. The best book out of the bunch for hooking new readers I think.
Justice League of America: This one is a bunch of small scenes, going from various points in the past and some in the future to entice you to find out what's going on. All of it has to do with heavy continuity and while this might appeal to long time comic fans, I don't see it appealing to the general audience. I mean how many kids today know anything about Batman punching out an annoying Guy Gardner?
Mickey Mouse: All of it is in sideways format, which is a bit annoying to read. I wished they printed it in a format better suited for reading. But the story is quite good. I got a few good laughs from this and it should do well in convincing people to pick up a Mickey Mouse reprint book. Gemstone should consider doing them like Fantagraphics does Peanuts, but try and keep the price low enough that parents won't balk at buying it for their kids.
Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century: This one was a bit weird. It's all about Superboy joining the LSH for the first time, but it's done as a series of interviews with the other LSH members. It didn't come together all that well for my tastes.
Choose Your Weapon (Tokyopop): This had 5 stories most of them fantasy based involving swords and magic. One was a police / giant robot story. All of them were professionally drawn, but there was too little of each story to hook me. I think a fewer stories with more pages would have been better.
I also read through Walking Dead Vol. 6 and Runaways Vol. 7. Walking Dead held up to the series current standard. I'm looking forward to the next one. Runaways I don't know about. Too many of the main characters have died and we're getting robots and skrulls as fill ins and I don't care about those characters like I did the ones they replaced. I probably should have dropped this a volume or two ago. I doubt I'm going to buy any more.