Free Comics Every Day: The Legend of Korra

 So it seems I failed quite miserably at keeping up with the free daily comics I was going to write last month in advance of this year's Free Comic Book Day which happens next Saturday.

Well, it isn't too late to read a few of the free comics I own before that momentous occasion happens, but I found I needed the right motivation to read and write and I think I finally have mine: I have been working on my own creative writing this Spring season and I think that reading more will inspire and trigger my imagination once again.

For today's offering we go back to FCBD 2018. Dark Horse's offering was Nickelodeon's "The Legend of Korra" entitled "Lost Pets" by Michael Dante DiMartino and Jayd At-Kaci. Now I am not a fan of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" so I am not very familiar with this universe, and it is also possible that there may be a cartoon about this, but I am by no means an expert on the franchise, so that would be my guess. Back in 2018 Dark Horse owned the i.p. and I am guessing that they probably still do. 

A scene from "Lost Pets" by Dante and Ait-Kaci from Dark Horse Comics 2018.

At any rate, this comic is a promotion vehicle for that franchise as most of the ads within sure are pushing it. For example, there are four books dedicated to the art behind the animated series. Dark Horse also published comics based on recognizable video game franchises, the comic has ads for a series based on "The Legends of Zelda" and a special short story based on Nintendo's fighting game "Arms." by Ian Flynn and Joe Ng. The artwork is very manga oriented if you are into that kind of stuff. 

The opening story takes place at an evacuation camp where most of the residents fled to during Kuvira's invasion. All but one, as we find out later in the story.  Meelo, the protagonist of the story has been given a mission by his brother to find a bunch of lost pets which went missing during the evacuation. The whole story centers around this small quest and the resolution is quite touching and appropriate for what seems to be an all ages comic book. I am in favor of all ages comics, as there don't seem to be enough of them these days for parents to share with their kids.

The backup story based on "Arms" is designed to get you hyped about the "Contenders" graphic novel's first volume. I did a little research and found out that at the time, 2018, Arms was a popular first party IP and game released on Nintendo Switch which was popular both in Japan and the US, but more popular there than here I guess because the player based had been dropping and in June, only a month after the comic came out, Nintendo announced it would not be getting more content updates. 

The short story is about the latest Spring Man trying to live up to the legacy the first Spring Man established including a gym and a stadium. The second Spring man swelled their numbers and made the Arms Grand Prix the pride of the city. The character designs aren't super original and the story by Flynn with artwork by Ng is basically just an intro to characters and the concept, but I guess it did its job.