FLUKE 2015: A Review in Words and Pictures

Where does the time go? I thought we were going to do a FLUKE 2015 review podcast, but we never did. When FLUKE 2016 rolled around I was going to do an article reviewing the books we got, but I never finished it. So here it is, 2017 and FLUKE is around the corner. I am finally going to finish my review of FLUKE 2015! Better late than never?

Here is a list of the awesome things I picked up!

Heart Attack and Hulk Retired! and Strabismus by Jordan Fitch Mooney
Three Monsters, Defanged by J. Chris Campbell, Isaac Cates, and Mike Wenthe
F&$#wizards by Eleanor Davis
Dead Sexy by David Mack
Watercolor painting by Michele Chidester
Big Caramel by Jason Horn – Adam found Jason Horn’s first mini at Bizarro Wuxtry. We have been in there numerous times but for whatever reason neglected to pick it up. But we did this time and it was a fun read! Also, we picked up Aw Yeah! Comics #9 which has a Ninjasaur story in it.
“Be Quiet” fox print by Erin Gladstone
Atomic Elbow #13 with cover Sean Wars and back cover by The Hand of Beaver – Speaking of Atomic Elbow, I am a contributor on issue #11! You should pick it up and listen to me express my love of Dolph Ziggler.
How To Ignore People By Pretending To Read A Book by Lee Gatlin
FLUKE Souvenir Comic featuring Joey Weiser, Max Clotfelter, Rich Tommaso, Scott Stripling, Lee Gatlin, Patrick Dean, Sammy Herring, Michele Chidester, Justin Colussy Estes, and Judson Culver
Ghost Rider by various contributors
One-Eyed Dragon by Maggie Venable
Also we picked up a few things from Josh Nickerson who was our table buddy.

We bought some solid books and art this year. This was also the year I wore a shiny blue dress for some reason! I hate that it has taken me so long to post about the awesome stuff we bought! 2015 was a bit of a rough year for me health-wise. I’m so glad that I am better now than I was then. Adam and I are looking forward to FLUKE 2017. It will be April 29 and is held at the 40 Watt Club this year. Hope to see you there!

Special thank you to Heather Peagler she borrowed my camera and took pictures for me all day.

Dollar Bin Reviews: GUY GARDNER WARRIOR No. 29

As Reviewed by John Astin

Publisher: DC Comics March 1995
Writer: Beau Smith
Pencils: Phil Jimenez
Inks: John Stokes, Dan Davis

What is this: This issue takes place more than a year after the Green Lantern Corps collectively is killed and/or disbanded again (as is the cyclical nature of the franchise). At one point, Guy Gardner used to be one of Sector 2814’s many space cops (Earth is an interstellar trailer park, y’know) but after DC whacked the Green Lanterns by a rouge Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner was too popular to throw away but not enough to keep around. As a result, Guy is booted from the Corps, has his replacement gold ring removed from his days as an independent ring-slinger and, now, his human DNA by revealing him to be a member of the alien Vuldarin race who shape-shift their hands into melee weapons and have tattoos designed by finger-painting toddlers. DC editorial did manage to keep Guy Gardner's love-to-hate jackass demeanor, though.

So what happens: Guy Gardner is opening Warrior’s, his Planet Hollywood-esque restaurant and bar, with a smorgasbord of DC’s intellectual properties in attendance. And like most parties where more than five meta-human meatheads who are being served alcohol, all hell breaks loose. There’s a bar fight, penis jokes and running gags galore.

What’d you think: It’s a fun issue. Phil Jimenez, who would later jump to Wonder Woman, is spot-on in this issue. Like most guys from School of Detail (the George Perez wing, in Jimenez’s case), the coloring technology and printing capabilities hurt the art. There is a ton of detailed work and variety of characters popping up to include appearances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Series writer Beau Smith did a decent job capturing the chaotic energy of a large event frequently jumping scenes but connecting them all with running gags such as the longer Tiger-Man's insistence people "pet his fur." The only beef is that I didn’t know the significance of Guy Gardner being Vuldarin, which is a big deal since Darkseid himself is spying on Warrior’s grand opening via Apokolips.

Comic book movies rule, will I like this: Probably not. If you’re a fan of the Green Lantern cartoons or film, this is very far removed from it and a bit heavy in at-the-time DC continuity with its myriad of inside jokes.

Is this online: There are a few issues of Guy Gardner: Warrior available on Comixology, but not this particular issue. Weird. This is an online or brick-and-mortar store purchase, but it’s likely to be in a quarter bin at a show.

On a side note: This issue has a special cover allowing you to open the doors to Warrior’s to see the chaos inside.

Dollar Bin Reviews: Longshot Number 1

As Reviewed by John Aston
Publisher: Marvel Comics Sept. 1985
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Pencils: Art Adams
Inks: Bill Anderson, Whilce Portacio

What is this: Longshot No. 1 debuts one of Marvel’s "third-generation" of new mutants with equally vague powers similar to the probability-shifting Scarlett Witch: he changes luck. Longshot, a 6-issue mini-series published ten years out from Giant-Size X-Men and two years after the New Mutants debuted expand the mutant menace known as the X-Men continuity.

So what happens: Longshot, primarily known as the three-fingered hero from the Mojoverse, appears in New York City on the run from enemies unknown and with a severe case of amnesia as he embarks of a fairy-tale like quest searching for a kidnapped infant taking the company of a paranoid survivalist, a mysterious anamorphic dog-like being only the main character encounters and a the missing child's single-mother. Their trek leads them to a clan of demons in their stronghold outside the city.

What’d you think: I’m actually not a fan of Longshot or the whole Mojo thing; having a reality-show themed murder world was extremely ahead of its time in the mid-80s, which is when I first began reading X-Men at the ripe old age of 9-years-old. The biting commentary regarding television network practices was lost on me at the time and nowadays been-there, heard that.

Ann Nocenti, whose comic career revived in DC’s New 52 reboot and authored an extremely underrated and overlooked Daredevil run in the 80s, seemingly cuts the book’s tether to reality. New York didn’t feel grounded in reality and as the issue progresses causing a loss of bearings as to where I am. Longshot has an intentional vagueness of a fable with general settings: city, the woods, demon world. You know you are in New York City but it doesn't feel that way.

Arthur Adams' art is a work-in-progress. He’s not the artist known for slick and beautifully rendered line work he produces today, but the pages drawn in 1985 do show a man evolving from traditional comic figures to an Americanized anime. The hyper detail is there, and at the time, rivaled George Perez. It should be noted the coloring process and technology 30 years ago was stone age quality and takes away from the visuals.

Comic book movies rule, will I like this: Longshot doesn’t seem to be involved in the X-Men films, yet. He’s not really a prominent X-Man either hitting his stride in X-Men writer and creative godfather Chris Claremont’s run during the late 80s and early, early 90s. Longshot sporadically makes appearances here and there but, really, his time was up by the time the X-Men cartoon first aired on Fox. Fans who only partake of comic-related TV and film may want to skip over this one.

Is this online: This particular Longshot mini-series (there are others) at the time of this writing is not available via legal digital download. However the mini-series was collected in a 2008 hardcover and later in 2013 in softcover. The single issues and collections are available at online comic stores and many brick-and-mortar shops.

On a side note: When I look at the 1985 Longshot art, I can see where Rob Liefeld could have been influenced visually. Also, Art Adams will be at the 2015 HeroesCon in Charlotte, N.C.

Comic Reviews: A Grab Bag of Stuff

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Betty Blues

    Renaud Dilles serves up this auburn-hued, smoky-shaded story of a hot-headed, jazz playing duck named Little Rice Duck.  And while his trumpet playing may be hot his dedication to playing has left his (literal) chick Betty ice cold.  Betty wants more from life than a jazz club trumpeter can give her and when you add in Duck’s inattention she is primed to leave with a fat cat who promises her the good life of champagne every day she leaves him.  Giving up the life of music Little Duck becomes a wanderer to find himself again.  Dilles has written a wonderful tale of self-realization but the stand out here is the artwork.  Each panel is draped in gold and dim orange hues that lend a heaviness to the story.  If you are looking for something a little different I recommend you give this a shot.

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I Think I Am in Friend-Love With You

    Go back in your mind and try to think of that special someone in your life.  I’m not talking about your current wife or girlfriend of boyfriend or whoever (but it can be).  I mean that one person you touched you in that special way.  That one person who, even though you knew you could never have, still gave your life meaning.  That one person who you just enjoyed sitting and talking with, sharing corny jokes with, and looked forward to getting calls from.  We all have that someone and this book by Yumi Sakugawa is dedicated to them and she uses odd, alien creatures of a non-specific gender and race so all readers can identify with them.
    The only word for this book is "cute".  If you happen to find a picture online of a baby kitten and rabbit cuddled up asleep on a fuzzy blanket in a meadow of yellow dandelions that MIGHT be cuter than this book but I doubt it.  If you are lucky enough to still have that person in your life you just want to be with and not “be with” buy this and share with them.

Madison Square Tragedy

    Rick Geary has found his niche and he works it like no one else.  What Ken Burns does for PBS documentaries Rick does for historical comics.  Rick has a talent for picking juicy, salacious tales of murder and mystery from history and presenting them in a documentary format that I love. 
    Older men love being around young, beautiful women.  That was true today and it was true 100 years ago.  Stanford White is one of New York City’s most famous architects and he loves his women young and beautiful and there is no girl more beautiful than Evelyn Nesbit.  She is a young aspiring actress and the first true supermodel.  Her face was a muse to men, capturing both a youthful innocence and a pouty sexiness that could not be ignored and Stanford White had to have her, and if that meant getting her drunk and drugging her in his private apartment (home of the now famous red velvet swing) then so be it.
    Unfortunately for Stanford White, Evelyn soon married a man named Harry K Thaw who was both insane and rich.  Harry Thaw for some unknown reason saw Stanford White and the very embodiment of everything that was wrong in the world and had for a long time.  And when he found out that his one evening that his wife had been taken advantage of by that very man something completely snapped in Harry and when the opportunity presented itself he shot Stanford in the face multiple times in public, in front of dozens of witnesses and was found not guilty.  If you love history as well as comics track down anything by Rick Geary but start with Madison Square Tragedy.

Little Fish

    People change.  The person you were is not who you are and who you are is not who you are going to be.  When you leave high school for college you get the chance, if you wish, to reinvent yourself.  Who can be whoever you want.  If you were the social outcast in high school nobody at college needs to know that you weren’t the homecoming queen and voted most popular.  The dark side of this freedom is that you will inevitably leave behind not only the life you had but those who were a part of it.  Sure, you promise to keep in touch and initially you do.  But as you begin to grow in one direction your friends grow in others and the calls become less frequent and more superficial.  
    Little Fish by Ramsey Beyer does a very good job of being written at a level for high school kids and hopefully preparing them for the upheaval that is about to come.  The problem I have is with the gimmick she uses.  You see, Ramsey likes to make lists.  She makes lists of everything, favorite rock bands, things that scare her, whatever happens to cross her mind and the book is constantly interrupted by these lists.  I counted them up and 42% of this graphic novel are pages of these lists.  I’m not sure what the official text page percentage is when a graphic novel turns into a regular book but it’s got to be around 42%.
    If this had been used less and less as the book went on to show Ramsey becoming more confident and needing the security and structure that these lists gave her than I would have applauded her creativity.  What story is there is well-told, but I am going to spend $16.00 I don’t want to just read lists.

Comic Reveiws: Anomaly

I can just imagine what it must have been like to pick up a copy of The Fantastic Four #1 off the stands or The Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns.  To sit there and read them and just know that the game has changed.  That from that moment on the art form of comics had just taken a giant leap forward and could never go back.  That is the feeling I had reading Anomaly, the original graphic novel written by Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin with art by Brian Haberlin and Geirrod Van Dyke.

If Avatar and The Lord of the Rings had a love child it would be named Anomaly.  The year is 2717.  Having stripped the Earth of it’s resources a handful of power companies under the banner of The Conglomerate have banded together to exploit distant planets.  The Conglomerate controls a powerful army lead by Enforcers and the best of them is Jon, at least he was the best until an accident on a planet leaves many of his men dead.  Years later he is given the opportunity to redeem himself by accompanying a group determined to try to peacefully contact another planet.  A betrayal by the Conglomerate leaves this group of humans stranded on a planet controlled by dangerous mutants and it is up to Jon to figure out how to gather the free “people” of the planet together to battle the mutants.

If the story seems a little bit basic and “been there read that” it is.  The idea of the outsider coming in and leading the natives has been in used in so many books and movies by now (the latest being Avatar) that it is almost a cliché and that’s not a bad thing.  If the formula works why change it?  The story is there only to serve as the hooks to hang all of this beautiful artwork on and after 7 or 8 pages I stopped actually reading the story and just experienced it.  It was like watching a big screen epic play out in front of me and I just had to hang on for the ride.

When you buy the book you get a free UAR (Ultimate Augmented Reality) app to download.  Just point it at certain pages and the creatures pop off the pages and perform some basic animation.  Since we are on an alien world the UAR segments didn’t feel out of place but instead kind of functioned as a moving encyclopedic guide to the strange creatures on the planet.  Click on THIS LINK for a demo to get a taste of what I’m talking about.  If you don’t have the ability to use the app don’t worry as this will not affect your enjoyment one bit.

While the book might set you back $75.00 every bit of this 12 x 16.5”, 6 pound, 370 page book is worth the price you pay.  And even though it is the longest original graphic novel ever published when it ends it STILL feels like it ended too soon.  This is easily the best graphic novel of the year hands down, period, end of sentence.  If you love comics you owe it to yourself to make sure this is at the top of your Christmas list.