A few words about a few free comics

I have such an enormous pile of comics to get through after FCBD added to my already considerable recent haul. I want to say a bunch of stuff about them so let's dig in:

Choose Your Weapon Sampler - Tokyopop

Tokyopop's offering was the highlight of last year's Free Comic Book Day. This year's sampler was great, too. I didn't like it as much as the 2006 version but only because that one was comprised of three complete issues. This one is a true sampler but each of the five chapters contains enough story for readers to make informed decisions. They did a great job of showing off some great art and storytelling.

Unseen Peanuts - Fantagraphics



Fantagraphics gets the gold medal for FCBD this year. They really outdid themselves with a collection of Peanuts strips which have never been included in collections for various reasons. There are over 150 of them and they range from hilarious to bleak to weird. It's a cross-section inside a timecapsule wrapped in an enigma. With commentary!

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century - DC



This one was a delight. I love the art and the story was fun. The Legion travels into the past to get a pre-cape Clark Kent to help them out. It's wicked awesome! I'm a sucker for the Legion and this comic is an excellent addition to my collection. Now I've gotta watch the TV show.

Owly: Helping Hands - Top Shelf



My wife read this and said, "This is the Richie Rich and Casper for kids today". Damned if she isn't right. I think Owly and his ilk are going to get a bunch of kids interested in comics early. Also, Korgi is a lot of fun. It surprised me in the best way possible.

I can has Owly?

I was elated to discover that my favorite comic store got the whole run of free comics this year. I was less elated to discover that I had missed out on the latest Owly. I got everything else I was hoping for so it's all good.

However, I decided to see if one of the other comic shops still had any so 4-year-old son in tow I set off for the other side of town. Only to discover that they were out of Owly, too.

"Oh, well," I said and went off to look at the gaming stuff.

After a few minutes The Best Comic Store Employee In The World came up to me with a copy of Owly: Helping Hands. She said, "This was our display copy but since we don't have any others in the box you should take it".

Awesome.

So I took that and a bunch of non-free stuff and I'm home now reading through this enormous stack of comics. I'll post some reviews soon.

Happy Free Comic Book Day, everybody.

Awesome Cover Friday: Cheap As Free!

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day! Here are five of my favorite recent free comic covers.

Owly: Splashin' Around

Dude, it's Owly! No more needs be said. Topshelf is offering Owly & Korgi this year. If you see it at your local comic shop grab it and never let it go!

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things

I like Ted Naifeh's writing almost as much as I like his art. This book reads as cool as it looks. There are plenty of Courtney stories out there in digest form. Seek them out.



X-Men Runaways

You know that thing they say about books and covers and judging. Yeah, well, this is the freakin' poster child for that saying! The cover is a nice reference to Hulk #340 and the art is good but the actual comic is one of the worst things I've ever read. Not worth the price, if you know what I'm sayin'.



Love Fights

This is the kind of cover which really grabs my attention from across a store. Simple sells.



The Adventures of Paul

Here's another indie offering that really stood out. I love the style on this one.



Go get free comics tomorrow. Doom commands it!

Free Comic Book Day!

If you're reading this you probably already know about Free Comic Book Day. Seriously, if you're reading Noetic Concordance for the latest in comics news you are horribly misguided.

Anyway, not only is this coming Saturday Cinco de Mayo it's also Free Comic Book Day! So, load up on comics and tequila!

¡Vivo los libros cómicos!

Of Free Comics and Metal Men

Looks like Metal Men is gonna be a movie. Could be cool but the level of CGI required gives them a rather uphill battle.

Speaking of movies, Grant Morrison will adapt Area 51 for the big screen.

Finally, here's a neat article about a comic shop getting ready for its first Free Comic Book Day.

In which I bitch about free stuff I didn't get

Free Comic Book Day has come and gone but most of you already knew that. Seriously, if you're reading my blog for "the latest in comics news" you are horribly, horribly misguided.

This year was really disappointing. Turns out that none of the comic stores in Nashville received any of the Silver Sponsor List comics. Those were the ones I was most looking forward to. Particularly Owly. Dammit! I loves me some Owly! I mean, shit, look at him:



I rest my case.

I picked up one each of the Gold offerings and so far, I've been pretty disappointed. The Runaways/X-Men book was horribly written and had the least appropriate art I've seen in months. It also had a bunch of other stuff from titles Marvel wants to push crammed in there. Image attempted to give readers a taste of their titles by chopping, like, a million of them up and giving us a tenth of a panel from each one with which to decide whether we want to spend our money on the full issues. I think they would have been better off giving us an actual full issue.

Tokyopop didn't just give us one full issue they gave us three! In a digest-sized book. And they were all good. Especially Kat and Mouse. I'm going to keep an eye out for that Manga.

The Conan story from Dark Horse was good as was the art. The Star Wars story on the other side was OK. I liked the art but the story was straight out of "Stock Badass Squad Tales vol. 3". Meh.

I haven't read the Transformers, Archie, Bongo or Donald Duck books yet but it says something about the quality of many of the others that I'm looking forward to those as breaths of fresh air.