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.

 

Free Comic Books every day: Spiderman versus Venom No. 1

Originally posted Nov. 9 2019 in Waldo's Corner blog.  

For the first time in about seven years, this past summer I missed Free Comic Book Day back in May. I was so busy working, to be honest I did not even remember it  until a few days later! Lucky for me my ex roommate is a big fan and he and his brother went out and picked up a few issues for me. Quite a number of the offerings actually, so I thought I would do a retro review of a few of the issues in my collection dating back a few years, because why not? Maybe you  are a fan of comics too and are in my same boat where you either forgot or never knew about the FCBD offerings.

I figured maybe reading some of these will get me out of my rut and my writer's block thereby giving me incentive to continue working on the creative project that I have bouncing around in my head trying to get out.

It is funny, I read another review of the 2019 Spiderman/Venom offering by Marvel and it amazes me how one person can have a totally different take on a book. In fact, this particular reviewer gave the comic a perfect 10. I was less than enthused by it. It isn't like artist Ryan Stegman wasn't up to the task, the artwork is pretty flawless. There is even a two page spread at the end of the comic featuring Spiderman, Spider Gwen, Miles Morales and another Spiderman character (I think it may be Ben Reilly but I am not sure) and a bunch of villains including the Green Goblin, Scorpion and Venom, by Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn which is a pretty awesome visual. However it is captioned, "The Scariest Spider-Year ever continues." Somehow I wasn't that scared.

This FCBD copy was supposed to whet readers' appetites for an upcoming event called "Absolute Carnage" A series which by now should be into its fourth issue, but after reading the comic, I found it, quite frankly, to be nothing new under the sun. The solicitations said it followed the tradition of classic Spider-man tales like Amazing Spiderman #252 and Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-man #90, but after reading this book, I honestly just wanted to re-read those stories which were infinitely superior to this.

The book starts out with former Venom Eddie Brock in prison at Ryker's and culminates in a lot of gore and mayhem (SPOILERS if a six month comic can be spoiled) when the alien symbiote takes over Eddie as Carnage. Apparently there is some subplot in which Cletus Kasady was brought back from the dead by a cult and merged him with a symbiote that used to belong to some god named Knull. After breaking out of the pen, Carnage/Eddie sporting a Venom logo on his chest but looking more like a fusion between Venom and his "offspring," deliberate whether to go after the Avengers, or the Life Foundation, among others, until they spot Spiderman swinging by. This is the issue's cliffhanger. Could be I just don't find these villains interesting anymore, over 30 years following their introductions.

There is a secondary tale called "Rivalry" by Saladin Ahmed and Tom Taylor with pencils by Cory Smith which involves Peter Parker clashing with Miles Morales, or so the cover and introductory page would have you believe. However, anyone who has read comics for as long as I have is familiar with the old trope that superheroes always fight first and sort out the conflict afterward, and what's worse writers Ahmed and Taylor try to ratchet up the suspense showing the two heroes seemingly about to go to blows. I guessed incorrectly that there was no physical confrontation coming, but I thought it was going to be a video game competition or another such nonsense, but it turns out the two Spider-Men are fighting over......

the best pizza in New York? Yes, one is from Queens and the other hailing from Brooklyn, both claiming the best comes from their preferred location. There is a brief confrontation with the Shocker who seems surprised he has to fight not one, but two Spider-Men but goes along with his plan and is unsurprisingly eventually bested by both heroes. I did get a chuckle out of the punchline, but was not impressed by the dialogue. At one point Morales calls the Shocker "Muchacho" which is Spanish slang for teenager, or young man, which does not quite fit since the Shocker is not a teenager. Also, I know Miles is supposed to be from a region where there are number of  Hispanics and I guess he is probably Puerto Rican, but he didn't speak a lot of Spanish in the "Spiderverse" movie, which is why this is a bit grating. I know it's nit-picky but it took me out of the story a bit. The whole thing seems like a commercial for Spiderman movies and other Trade paperbacks, which I suppose it is since Spider-Man Far From Home was about to hit theaters at the time.

Overall a lackluster outing for our first FCBD entry and retro-review. Here's hoping some of the others I have in my collection, but have yet to read and review, will be a bit better.  

More free comics every day: "Spongebob Freestyle Funnies" 2018

This comic book a day is going to be hard, I completely forgot to post one yesterday, I guess I was tired after cleaning and took a nap and forgot all about it.

Today I read "Spongebob Freestyle Funnies" from FCBD 2018 and published by Plankton Pictures. The comic was written by Derek Drymon with pencils and inks by Robb Bihun and colored by John Kalisz. The lettering is by Rob Leigh. At least the main story was which is 24 pages

There is also a backup story whose script and layout is by James Kochalka and art by Vanessa Davis. Rob Leigh also does the lettering for this one. The administration and distribution was handled by Bongo Comics Group which also published some of the Bart Simpson comics.

The main story centers around Plankton's quest to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Recipe and in his latest plan, he enlists the help of the ocean's most diabolical villains. 

Now I confess, I was never a big fan of the cartoon when it premiered. For a while there when my nephews were growing up, they were big fans and so was my brother, but I never got into it, I guess it is not my type of humor. I do confess I chuckled a few times reading this comic. It is good to see that there are "all ages" comic books because there are certainly a plethora of dark and gritty books which are also fun, but they are not appropriate for younger readers.

Spongebob's obsession with comic books and superheroes is hilariously exploited in the main story and drives the narrative. It's nothing out of this world, but it serves its purpose as a light kid friendly romp. This comic is also intended for readers to get into Spongebob's collection of comic books. If you don't like the brand of humor from the cartoon, you are probably not going to like this book.

I did a little bit of research on the creators of the cartoon and it is a sad story. Sadly, both Spongebob Squarepant's creator Stephen Hillenburg and animator Tuck Tucker passed away, the former in 2018 and the latter at the age of 59 two years later. According to Deadline, Tucker worked on Nickelodeon's "Rugrats" as well as on "The Simpsons."  

I would give this comic a 7.5 out of 10

 

Free Comic Books every day

I last wrote about Free Comic Book Day for my newspaper The Willits News in Mendocino County four years ago. It is hard to believe that much time has passed, but over the next few days and hopefully the remainder of this year, I will be discussing some of the best offerings from the annual FCBD. I think I lost track of it a bit in 2020 due to the pandemic, but last year I went out and picked up some of the free offerings. For more info about FCBD if you aren't familiar check out my story from 2018 here.

I will also try to review some of the new books out each week, but mostly I revived this blog, which had been dormant since 2014, to coincide with some of the videos I am making talking about the FCBD books that I acquired over the years but never really got a chance to read or examine.

I will also try to bring you some Q&A with some of my favorite comic book content creators on the web. 

So pull up a chair, bookmark the ole bin blog and join me as we look at some (hopefully) pretty fun comics in the weeks to come.

Marvel Team Up 146: Spidey Meets Nomad

cover to MTU #146. 1984

I didn't really appreciate Marvel Team-Up during its original run. Then again, I was just starting to read and collect comic books at the time. I did collect Web of Spider-man, Amazing Spider-man and Spectacular Spider-man back in the 80s when I was reading Spider-man fairly regularly but I thought Marvel Team up was not one of the core books and one I could skip.

Flash forward 30 or so years and I pick up issues of Marvel Team up every time I can. For anybody not familiar with Marvel Team-Up, the comic features Spider-Man teaming up with a different Marvel universe hero every issue. I am not sure why the book isn't called "Spidey Team up" or something like that, but be that as it may, it's usually an entertaining read. 

This book comes from the Jim Shooter era of Marvel when he was editing the Marvel books, (roughly 1979-87) an era I remember fondly and I may romanticize due to it coinciding with my formative years of comic book reading.

Just look at that cover! Who could resist picking this book up and finding out who is doing this to Spidey and what the Taskmaster is up to in the story. Unlike most comic book covers, this scene actually occurs withing the book's covers. Cary Burkett's story is pretty good this ish, despite the fact that there is a glaring plot hole. I won't give away the plot but basically taskmaster and a weird but powerful villain named the Black Abbott are recruiting neighborhood gangs for purposes and schemes which are not clearly stated in the story.

Holistically, the entire story is well told bookmarked by the moral transformation of a minor character. There's plenty of action too as Spidey and Nomad (who was Captain American and originally created by Gil Kane, though the identity of Nomad by the time this ish came out was adopted by Cap's partner Bucky) team up to take down the Taskmaster and his client and foil their plans.

Spidey at this point was wearing his post Secret Wars and pre-Venom symbiote black costume and it is always fun to see the symbiote crawling in and out of Peter Parker's body. Artist Greg Larocque does a great job of depicting this and the rest of this comic so I have no complaints about his artwork. 

My gripe is with the plot hole and it's a big one, one segment of the battle has Taskmaster hurling a sonic arrow at Spider-man. As fans of the webcrawler know and as detailed in Web of Spider-man #1 and other books, the sonic attack should have affected the symbiote and Spidey would have been left naked in the middle of the battle! However, this does not happen so it's possible that Brukett was not aware of this drawback from the suit at the time this comic came out. The editors in the Spidey offices failed to catch this.

The rest of the story is OK. I would probably give it 3 out of 5 stars for its entertainment value and that gorgeous cover.

More information:

• SpiderFan.org
• Marvel Team Up information (Comic Vine)
• Marvel Comics Chronology 
• A Brief History of Nomad 

DC's Super Powers Mini Series still Holds Up After 30 years

 

Hello, after almost a year absence, I am bringing the epic loot blog back to life.
Like a phoenix resurrected, this is the one corner of the internet where I look at the comic book gems you can find cheap, if you dare to look.

I am revisiting the DC Super Powers mini series this week because I found a lot of the issues while scouring the back issue bins at the magic warehouse last time I visited.

I picked the comics up right away, knowing both their historical value and their editorial value as well.

I am not going to rehash the significance of this series to both DC and Marvel here, as I am sure there are plenty of sites on the web where you can find that information. To differentiate, this is the first series (3 were produced to coincide with the line of toys made by Kenner) but this is the 1984 original.

Instead of rehashing it's historical significance, I want to look at the series from the point of view of the fanboy and the comic book enthusiast. I started reading comics around this time and my memories are still fresh of this booming period which led to Marvel's "Secret Wars" series later this year.

First off, the interesting thing to note here is that Jack Kirby is credited with the plot. Kirby's style is all over the book and he adorns the first cover which in comparison to other Kirby penciled masterpieces, looks a bit underwhelming.

Joey Cavalieri's script is serviceable if not standard comic book fare. It is cool to see Darkseid's galactic minions take off and recruit Earth's villains, as they give cosmic powers to each villain individually. The plot isn't staggering or Earth shattering, but it serves to set up the story, nothing more, with the big bang ups and heavy action coming in later installments of the book.

What's of interest to most comic book aficionados is Kirby's stamp on the book, from the look of Darkseid's champions to his frenetic style of composition, to the use of his New Gods characters, it is interesting to note the king's influence all over the proceedings. He would go on to pencil later versions of the Super Powers comic books.

Of course, the nostalgia factor is ramped up to 11 with ads found within the book's pages touting DC's coming line that year with titles like Blue Devil and the excellent All Star Squadron by Roy Thomas, Rick Hoberg and Bill Collins, and an ad for Atari's Moon Patrol game occupying the inside back cover slot.

This comic is pure 80's gold at 75 cents cover price. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Addtional info:

• Super Powers 5 issues (Comic Vine)
• Collecting Nostalgia Super Powers (New Monster Project)
• Super Powers Collection (Toyworth)

 

uploaded to Youtube courtesy of Mai Le

And Now For the Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms No. 17 by DC Comics

Apologies for my long period without updates. Actually work has been relentless of late, but I have managed to read a bit during my free time. I am still in my D&D binge.

When I was a boy I bought almost all the first edition books printed by TSR. 4th edition D&D is more of a tactical battle game played with minis, but I do long for the days spent around the table with my junior high school pals as we played through campaigns of 1st edition.

Well, I have also been tracking D&D comic books. Recently I picked up issues 17-19 of DC's books based on Forgotten Realms. For today's send-me back Sunday I will briefly discuss these precious comics. Boy are they fun!

The protagonist is Priam Agrivar, he is your typical fighter dude, a paladin who fits into the stock character type, hot headed, reigning blows first, tanking all the way, asking questions later. The antagonist is Lord Labelas, a powerful being who apparently has possessed another character, one of good alignment named Vartan. Labelas is a fun villain, he is a god and seems evil or chaotic. It is fun to see him deal with his internal struggel as Vartan is friends with Agrivar and the other characters in the book. There is a ship called the Realms Master which transports the characters from one magical fantasy realm to another.

The cover to issue 17 is very revealing. It is the striking image of Labelas as a puppeteer with the other character rendered as puppets while the evil god tugs at their strings.

This issue culminates with a fantastic battle between Labelas, Minder (a dude who appears to be made of stone) and Agrivar. These stories spring out of the imagination of writer Jeff Grubb, and artist Dave Simons. They are vintage D&D, from the setting of the Forgotten Realms, to the strange creatures the adventurers fight, to the standard D&D races, half-lings, wizards, elves. This one has all the fantasy tropes familiar to most readers, but with a D&D flavor. Fantastic!!!

Issue 19 is titled "Picking up the Pieces" and features a story detailing with the aftermath of Labelas' fight with the adventurers from the previous two issues. There is a guest penciler rendering the heroes, it's Rag Morales, the celebrated comics artist who went on to draw many other memorable DC series. He does a superb job on this comic as well. As a gamer I remember how happy I was reading comics based on characters form "World of Warcraft." I get the same vibe and feelings from reading these classic D&D comics, except it's more old school, and even the wizard spells like magic missile and other familiar D&D elements are incorporated well into the story.

I am going to track down more of these books and read them. I suggest you guys do too, especially if you like fantasy.