Free Comic Book Day Capsules

[dvandom]

Dave's Free Comic Book Day Capsules for 2005

     Well, I didn't quite get all of the FCBD comics I wanted, due to Diamond
not shipping them all, but between two stores I managed to cobble together
all but Flare #0.

     FCBD Minimate: Art Asylum - This is essentially a blank Minimate figure,
with the C3-style Lego-peg-sized holes in the feet.  For those who have no
idea what I just said, Minimates are a little over 2" (5cm) tall figures that
are kinda like larger and more poseable Lego figures.  This one is all white
with a FCBD logo tampographed on the chest and no other details.  Quality
control is a bit iffy, I got a second after the right arm of the first came
off and wouldn't stay on, but Minimates in general are like that.  Sometimes
bits just won't stay on, especially hands.  But if you're curious about
Minimates, snag one of these freebies.

     Keenspot Spotlight 2005: Keenspot - Easily the thickest of the FCBD
comics I picked up at 120 pages.  I'm not familiar enough with the 'Spotters
to be sure which ones are new material and which are reprints (well, I know
the Shortpacked stuff is reprint, and can guess some of the others are), but
I suppose that's kinda the point of the thing, to attract readers who aren't
familiar.  :)  I'm going to say a very few words on each strip featured, and
will note if I plan to check out the webcomic.  If any of these sound like
your thing, www.keenspot.com should have links.
     Abby's Agency - Abby Normal working phones for a spy agency.  Neither
the art nor the writing impressed me.
     antihero.for.hire - Moderately amusing writing, so-so art.  (Note: for
this and any other strip that doesn't use capital letters in its own logo,
I'll follow suit.)
     Boxjam's Doodle - Minimalist art with a mix of some clever jokes and
some REALLLY stale stuff.
     Checkerboard Nightmare - I've read this on and off.  I find it
occasionally hilarious but often tedious, and generally only check out strips
linked to from blogs and reviews and stuff.  The sample here is some good
stuff, though.
     Clan of the Cats - Points for the Arlo Guthrie reference, but the story
and art were only okay.  And the implication of WoD-style were-critter
politics don't really draw me in either.
     eightland - Ick.
     everything jake - Decent uninked superhero style art, but the
storytelling isn't so good.  Writing is okay.
     Friendly Hostility - From the shift in art styles, I get the impression
that this strip takes place in "reality" and "imagination" phases.  The
imagination phase being broad superhero parody.  And maybe the reality one,
too, not enough to tell.  Might check this out if only to figure out what's
going on.  
     Funny Farm - So-so art and writing, but an amusing payoff.
     General Protection Fault - This is another one I've read bits and pieces
of linked to from other places (notably Websnark), so I'm at least kinda
familiar with it.  This chunk is a complete story, a fairly weak James Bond
parody.  
     Greystone Inn - Okay supervillain parody stuff, but seems kinda
aimless.  Just enough Story to expect more, I guess.
     Lost & Found Investigations - Decent enough gag a day (or extended for a
week) strip with humans and their talking pets.  Presumably they're
detectives, based on the title, but none of the sample strips show this.
     Melonpool - One of the oldies of the lineup.  This sample emphasizes the
gag side of the strip, although ISTR it has some deep continuity too.  
     Newshounds - I get the feeling that this was written for the compilation
in the mistaken impression that everything had to be (lame) superhero
(parody) stuff.  Meh.
     Nukees - Okay strip-style art, although different characters seem to
come from different styles of strip.  Story's a stereotypical "club from
hell" sequence that I've seen done better, but this is okay.
     Owlie - This one also got its own FCBD book, although I didn't pick it
up today.  The roughshod romp through SF parody doesn't really inspire me to
want to pick it up, either.  [Correction: not the same as the Owly that got its
own FCBD book.]
     Robotbox and Cactus - Eh.  This one is listed being animated, which is
about all that might be interesting about it, to judge from this sample.
     Shortpacked - A sort of sequel to It's Walky.  You need to read this
one.  :)
     SporkMan - Decent chibi art, especially given the limitations of drawing
with a Sharpie (or similar thick marker).  Works through the numbers of an
Amazing Fantasy #15 parody decently.
     Ugly Hill - Okay office humor strip.
     The Wandering Ones - Decent art and visual storytelling, but the story
doesn't interest me.  Yet another post-apocalyptic story where the good guys
are all natural and the bad guys technological, whee.
     Wapsi Square - I recently "upgraded" this strip from once in a while to
regular, although I haven't done a serious archives troll yet.  This is,
however, clearly a new piece for the FCBD book.  Short and amusing, although
it doesn't say much about the actual strip.
     Zortic - Bad art, bad Trek parody.
     Chopping Block - Single panel, think of it as Far Side meets Jason (of
slasher movie fame).  Darkly amusing.
     Hm.  Got to the end and don't really feel like adding any webcomics to
my trawl, except maybe one just to figure out what its deal is.

     Impact University: Impact - A sampler of their various "how to create
comics" books, with both art and writing bits.  Impact's selling point is
that the "faculty" are generally established comics creators, rather than
commercial artists slumming.  I wrote about a paragraph here and then deleted
it.  Upshot: nice ad, but it's really hard to evaluate a "how to draw" book
based on just a few pages.  Such books live or die on how useful they are
overall, not just how good one or two lessons are.  
     Flight: Image - Contains one piece from Flight v1, and one from v2, in
color.  Both are in the "awww, cute" category, although the second far more
than the first.  Flight remains on my "I'll look through it and buy it if I
see it on the shelf, but probably won't special order it" list, though.
     Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards: GT Labs - A sideways comic,
not quite standard dimensions (it's a little wider than normal), evoking a
strip collection feel, although it's new material.  I find the sideways style
kinda annoying, but it looks like it'll carry through to the full book this
fall.  The art is by Zander Cannon and his studio (Big Time Attic).  The
lettering is also typical Cannon fun.  Anyway, the plot of this concerns the
Dinosaur Wars of the late 1800s, that resulted in things like the
mis-assembled Brontosaur.  Twas a wild and wooly time for paleology.  Pun
only sorta intended.  Can't wait for the full book this presages (same title,
more subtitle).  Oh, and there's some nifty "process" stuff at the end, which
is partly set up like a dig.
     Amelia Rules #0: Renaissance Press - The FCBD edition of Amelia Rules in
2004 got me started reading the book (well, as much of the book as Diamond
would cough up), so this isn't really an ad for me.  :)  While the 2004 book
was more of a clip show, this one is entirely new for FCBD.  And,
appropriately for a #0, it's an origin story, telling how Amelia got into the
setting for the ongoing.  There's also a backup story, a preview of WJHC, a
comic about a high school radio station.  It's a bit too PSA in tone for my
tastes, though.  Still, the issue does a great job of setting up the
characters and premises of Amelia Rules.

   Dave Van Domelen, "But I'm from New York. And we never greet new people by dressing up in our underwear and trying to kill them. (pause) Well...almost never." - Amelia

(Side note: looks like no new adds to my pull this time.)

Comments

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

Man, the only one of your FCBs I had at my shop was the Impact and Flight books. They had a free "The Batman" #1, Ronin Hood of the Samurai, Bongo Comics Giveaway (which has an amusing cover of Comic Book Guy doing a Macauly Culkin as the kids of Springfield raid his store and take all the free swag).

There may have been 1 or 2 others that I just didn't interest me.