I thought a couple weeks ago was a short week… I’m guessing I must have missed a few on my pull list, and I know there are a few comics I thought of picking up, but after a morning of curling and broom stacking over lunch, I obviously forgot. I’ll pick them up next week, or miss out on them entirely.
I was surprised and honored that one of the pieces I’d been working on has become a sticker for my LCS, Comic Carnival. I’m working on some other ideas to help celebrate their 50th anniversary. What would a carnival be without some monkeys? If you want a sticker, stop by Comic Carnival and buy one! Yes, that is a shameless plug. You should also buy some comics, too. For the record, there are subtle differences between CeeCee (the Comic Carnival monkey) and Cecil (the evil geocaching monkey).
The winner for most variants according the CLZ this week: Lily & Stitch #1 with 25 different covers! I ended up with none of them, because… I really could care less about it.
This Week:
Spider-Boy #3 – Bailey tries to succeed at being a hero even though he has some monstrous aspects to his personality… physiology? (Did you see the cover?!?) He ends up actually doing good and maybe, just maybe, starts changing public perception about him- Hey, Thor even thinks he did an OK job. What does this have to do with “Gang War” the story taking over all the other Spider-Books? Nothing, which is refreshing.
Alan Scott Green Lantern #4 – It’s time to learn about the secret origin of Alan Scott’s lost love and Red Lantern. Yes, it’s time to bring in the Soviets! Personally, I’m enjoying this take on the early years of the Golden Age Green Lantern and how it addresses some of the social issues of that time period, which sadly, are still hanging around. Oh no! Woke stuff in comic books! The world is about to end! Why can’t comics just cover family friendly kid stuff like…
Dark Ride #10 – What if Walt Disney had actually made a deal with devil? I know that’s just conspiracy theory #347 currently being thrown out into social media by conservatives everywhere, but that’s the basic premise behind Dark Ride. In Dark Ride a Disney-like character wants to build a theme park based on Horror. Well what do you know… after some contract signing it happens, and it is magically successful! Now as he has gotten older things aren’t going to Hell… or are they? As we come to issue 10 his son, Sam (Samhain), has kind of figured things out and is now frantically searching for his daughter, who is lost in the park after being escorted around by… cute furry park mascots (who happen to be cute furry demons). Sam’s sister, Halloween, unfortunately seems to be fine with the status quo and we have drama, and blood, and gore (along with cute furry demons). Did I mention this isn’t a comic for kids?
Plot Holes #5 – This happens more times than not… I start a series a at some point during the run either it is late, or after a month, I just forget that I was reading it. I guess this is why some people now devote themselves to buying trade paperbacks. The problem I have with that is there are some great series that never make it into a trade. I have spoken with a number of creators who are now just working on doing things in a long form. Telling the entire story because individual issues aren’t as marketable.
Enough- let’s talk about the final issue of Plot Holes. The premise is characters from books go around through unpublished works, editing them to make the stories work. Basically, they are physically removing characters or plot points that just don’t work. These are, of course unsuccessful characters in their own right. One of their group has decided to destroy everything… the rest of the group needs to stop him. Tragic loss, and lots of tropes get stomped on.