Holiday Comics Review Part 4 Fantasy Comics

Continued from Part 3

 

King-Size Conan #1

I read this last out of the stack, though I actually went to the comic store to get this, but I’m putting it first for this post because the cover looks cooler than the rest.  I saw Zack’s video review before reading and it didn’t spoil anything.  It also confirmed my own opinion: this was a really good comic.  For $7 freaking dollars, it better be!  It is double-sized on slick paper with minimal ad intrusion (though there should have been none for the price).  This was put out to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Marvel Conan comics. 

The issue is supposed to show Conan in his different careers, like barbarian and thief.  For being called “King-size,” it doesn’t show Conan as the king of Aquilonia.  The artwork is excellent, except for the Kevin Eastman segment.  (I hate to just single someone out, but it sticks out like sore thumb.)  All of the stories are pretty well written.  I’ll pick the Thief story as my favorite. 

 

I’m not sure about that price, but out of the stack of comics I got, this was easily the best of the bunch.

 

Vertigo Essentials: Fables #1

I picked this one up as an afterthought, after getting the Conan and the two gift comics.  Since it comes so highly recommended, I couldn’t resist trying Fables as a $1 sampler of the first issue.  The main problem with Fables is that it’s been co-opted by other works before and after, such as Into the Woods and Once Upon a Time.  This is a much more thoughtful work with a highly developed mythos.

    

 

I think.  It’s hard to tell a lot from the first issue of a series that ran for (let me look at the checklist provided with the issue) over 25 volumes.  I know there’s a whole bunch more to the story and setting, but a serial killer investigation featuring fairy tale characters didn’t really grab me.  I will say that the artwork certainly did.  I’m already in love with Snow White.  For the art alone, I’d probably at least want to get (rechecking the checklist) Volume 1. 

 

This is a double-sized comic, though the comic itself is only normal-sized.  The rest of the pages are a catalogue of DC trades.  There’s some interesting-looking stuff in there.

           

Arion #’s 1, 13, 17

None of the comics being reviewed here are decompressed quick reads, by the way.  I have to give credit for that at least.  It’s nice to get into a meaty comic.  I’ve mentioned Arion before as an intriguing backup feature in Warlord.  These comics were the truly happy finds in the bargain bin.  I’d wanted to see what a full issue would look like.

Issue #1 unfortunately picks up right where the backup storyline ended.  I say, “unfortunately,” because anyone picking this up off a grocery store spinner rack in the 80’s would have been hopelessly confused by it.  Even having read what directly led to this issue, I was lost.  The story starts with Arion in a celestial metaphysical battle with cosmic entities.  It’s not entirely relatable . . . for anybody.  I would have started with some sort of recap of the setting and characters first before resuming the ongoing storyline.  On the other hand, the artwork is magnificent and thoroughly compelling.  As a reader in the 80’s, I would have given this comic another chance next month.  I suppose I should scan more examples, but, really, need you see more than the above picture? 

 

Issue #13 was a bit water damaged and I can’t believe that before they put in the bin, the store was selling this as a collector’s item.  It mostly featured the barbarian/Indian supporting character, Wyynde.  #17 featured Arion mostly wallowing in angst-y spiritual conflict.  Artist and co-creator Jan Duursema seems to be really torn in fascination between frail pretty boys and muscular he-men.  In any case, the art’s really good. 

 

It’s not so much the story that falls flat, it’s the characters, especially the main character.  (Grognardia also made this observation.)  The character takes a lot of inspiration from Elric I’m told, but he’s not any sort of anti-hero.  He feels more like a victim than a hero for some reason.  I guess because he’s continuously suffering.  Wyynde feels like he should be main protagonist, but that might be a little too Conan-ish. 

 

So, Arion is basically a heroic derivative of Elric, who was the complete opposite of Conan, and also pairs him up with a derivative of Conan.  Not to say this couldn’t have worked.  It should have!  Certainly with this artwork!  This comic is a frustrating enigma.  If I find any more classic issues, I’ll pick them up, but my expectations have been diminished.  The worst of it is that this character has been thoroughly mangled by all of the DC universal reboots.  (I think he was Power Girl’s dad at one point, or something like that.)  Arion would certainly be worth a coherent relaunch if somebody can figure out what’s wrong with the concept. 

 

Part 5

Holiday Comics Review Part 3 Gaming Comics

Continued from Part 2

The Collected Adventures of Phil and Dixie What’s New #1

I’m a fan of Phil Foglio’s work.  I used to have his Myth Adventures adaptation.  (What did I do with that?  I continually shocked remembering the cool things I got rid of and the crap I’ve kept.)  I haven’t kept up with his latest online strip, Girl Genius, but it’s very good-looking.  Of course, one of the highlights of old issues of Dragon magazine, was Phil’s What’s New comic.

 

I’d seen this album advertised somewhere long ago and desperately wished I could obtain it.  And here it was!  It was just ran into it in a dollar box amongst a bunch of random recent independent titles.  I could scarcely believe I was holding this unicorn in my hands.  This might have been the first thing I pulled out from those 12 boxes of comics I was thumbing through, which no doubt influenced me to keep going through them. 

 

This is a normal-sized comic, square bound, 48 pages, and printed on rather thick paper with a very durable cover.  It was $6 when released and printed in 1991.  This surprised me, because all of the material inside is from the 80’s and I’m sure I saw this advertised before the 90’s.  In any case, this would have been an expensive buy back then.  These comics were originally published in a magazine.  I’d sort of imagined this was in an old graphic novel-sized album format.

As for the comics, it starts with a new eight-page color story that shows Phil and Dixie’s origin story, which is very cute.  It then goes into a short black and white section, which was how the comic was originally published.  The rest of the strips are in color.

 

And I’m kind of dancing around it here.  The comics aren’t that great.  I have a feeling Foglio himself would say, “Yeah, the comedy is a bit rough here.  I’ve done much better writing and visual storytelling since.”  The artwork is fine for comedy, but other than the Sex and D&D running gag (which always teased, but never paid off), the jokes aren’t that great.  Part of this comes from Phil himself saying on the back page that he was making up the strips without actually playing the game.  It shows at times. 

 

What’s New did set the standard for comics in Dragon magazine.  It was always pretty funny and looked good.  I assume Volume 2 of this would have some of the better material that I remember.  At some point, Phil must have at least cracked open a D&D book for new ideas.  The most inspired running gag was the evil Dixie storyline where she changed alignments.  Those strips were classic.

 

In sum, this was a disappointment.  Don’t purchase this at collector’s prices, but it’s worth it at much less than the cover price, at least for historical value.           

 

Munchkin #8

Munchkin is a popular fantasy card game, which I haven’t played, but I’d be more willing to try it than getting involved with the cardboard crack that is Magic: The Gathering.  (And I have way too much pride to ever be caught dead playing Pokemon.  Well, unless Dizzykitten wants me to play with her, but I think she only collects the cards.  I don’t think she plays.)

 

In any case, I decided to try the comic, thinking it might be kind of light-hearted fun in a fantasy vein.  The artwork was appropriately cartoony and reasonably appealing.  Unfortunately, the two stories (one continuing, one standalone) were really simplistic and not that funny.  There’s only two characters and neither are developed well enough to provide much comedy by themselves.       

  

On the back page, there’s an actual card for game use, Baby Boomer.  If you bought another issue, you might get a different card.  At $4 an issue, that would be pretty expensive.  I also like the ad for the figure.  It’s pretty well done.  If card series artist, John Kovalic (of Dork Tower), were doing this series, I’m pretty sure it would be great, but he’s a busy guy.      

 

Pathfinder Worldscape #5

Paizo’s Pathfinder made a conscious effort to create iconic characters to represent their RPG line.  They created the notion of iconics during their stewardship of Dungeon and Dragon magazines, but they never named them or statted them out.  Now, they have characters can be used in various media to promote the game, including comic books. 

This issue was part of a mini-series featuring the Pathfinder iconics along with Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan.  I’m still trying to figure out why or how Marvel didn’t reacquire the rights to Red Sonja when they got Conan back.  Unlike their own superhero comics, Marvel has done a good job making Conan comics.  (I’ll be reviewing a Conan comic in the next part of this Holiday review.)  Dynamite is nonetheless the current publisher of the warrior redhead.  I haven’t noticed any Tarzan comics from them, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.  I also haven’t seen any John Carter comics, but it’s hard to miss the Dejah Thoris comics they’ve been putting out.

This issue does contain a battle map with a poster on the reverse, neither of which are all that great, if not worthless.  The inside artwork isn’t as good as the cover.  I do not appreciate the artistic choice of Red Sonja’s appearance in the pages.  She has this wild-haired Irish berserker look.  While Sonja is a Robert E. Howard character, the look of the character was developed by Marvel (and had pretty much nothing to do with Howard’s original character).  I’m kind of surprised Dynamite can still use the chain mail bikini.  I’d almost say the big hair look was done to make her 25% different to avoid copyright issues, but she has the classic look on the cover.

Coming in with Issue #5, I have no idea what the story is.  It wasn’t very engaging, in spite of the all-star cast (though Tarzan doesn’t really show up in this issue).  Two of the female iconics are lesbians apparently, as is the villain.  Well, that’s all I got out of this.  There are stats for Tar Tarkas, the Green Martian, in the back.  That would be for the previous version of Pathfinder now, and I seriously doubt any DM would let you bring this character to their table to play with.

 

That’s three more strikes.  Let’s see what’s next.

 

Part 4 

Holiday Comics Review Part 2 Archie Comics

 Continued from Part 1.

 

The Best of Archie Christmas Comics

I guess I’ll do the reviews in the more-or-less order that I read them.  This 250-page digest-sized trade that my dad gave me for Christmas was actually the first of the holiday comics that I read, though I nearly finished it last.  It was printed on white newsprint and was $10. 

Dad had a gotten it for me because he’d seen me reading it when we were at Barnes & Noble shopping together earlier in the month.  I wish he’d instead noticed me reading that treasury-sized $40 Prince Valiant reprint book.  I noticed the Archie book on his shopping list that he’d left lying out the week after.  I hadn’t asked for anything for Christmas.  I broke down and asked for a Chase Elliot die cast car, hoping he’d drop the Archie book.  (Suddenly, I remember it’s been months since I’ve written a sports report.  I’ll probably do something in the near future.  Congrats on that championship, Chase!)  I ended up getting both gifts for Christmas, so thanks, pop.  That was generous.

Really, I didn’t need another Archie Christmas book and this one didn’t look like anything special.  I used to have an album-sized book with material mostly from the 40’s and 50’s.  I’ve still got a Christmas digest and several individual Christmas issues.  This book starts with material from the 50’s.  I’d say most of the stories in the volume come from the 70’s and 80’s and feature Betty and Veronica.  There was a small 90’s and 2000’s section.  The 2010’s only had two entries, one of which was the only one story that I’d read elsewhere.  I even reviewed it in 2019.         

I started reading the book while was waiting to eat lunch on Christmas Day.  I didn’t get back to reading it until after I’d finished most of the other comics that I’d gotten on Christmas Eve.  It wasn’t that what I’d read was bad, but I was more interested in the other stuff.  Having finished it, I’ll say that it is pretty decent Archie material.  There were only one or two clunkers out of a large number of stories.  However, nothing stands out.  There’s some off-and-on good house-style Archie artwork, but nothing spectacular.  Given that all but one story inside was new to me, this book was a pretty good deal at the price.  It also gives a good idea of how much Christmas material they’ve produced over the years, because I’ve read quite a bit.

 

It’s a recommend for a Christmas stocking stuffer for an Archie fan or a kid.  It’s not “essential” otherwise.  I will point out two stories that got an honest chuckle out of me.  The two pages above are from a Moose-centric story.  I’m surprised there wasn’t a current day disclaimer for this one.  I love old stories that couldn’t be published today.

The punch line for this story probably speaks for itself.

 

There are no words.

Archie #11

I didn’t actually read these next Archie comics next, but we’ll stay with the theme.  These next five comics came from the batch of bargain bin comics I picked up on Christmas Eve.  I haven’t read much of the modern Archie comics since they restarted the line.  This one was an easy grab with this great cover.  This new series does call back to the original Archie/Betty/Veronica triangle (and actually I can't find my review of it, maybe it was on an site) with Betty wanting Archie and Archie wanting Veronica.  However, it misses the critical comedic aspect of the triangle: Veronica wants to play the field and is stringing Archie along.  (Not to mention the other elements: Betty is crazy in going after Archie and Archie is clueless.) 

Modern Archie is more of a dramedy, so they don’t care about making the premise funny.  They’re going for romance in the premise.  The comedy comes from the characters and the situations.  Archie is also borrowing from Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell in directly addressing the audience.  (Sabrina star, Melissa Joan Hart, also did this in her previous show, Clarissa Explains it All.) 

 

You can see that the internal artwork is expressive, but not entirely appealing.  The story is okay for a teen drama with a little wacky comedy.  What there isn’t, is a lot of story.  It takes up half of the issue plus four pages.  Since this is a story about Archie and music, there’s a text piece about The Archies and a short 60’s reprint featuring the group. 

 

Jughead #15

Continuing the music theme, this issue of Modern Jughead is about him getting into a Josie and the Pussycats concert.  This version of Jughead hasn’t gotten great reviews.  I’ve read at least one story and I thought it was okay (Jughead’sTime Police).  Sept 2018.  The character is at least definitively Jughead and basically unchanged.  At some point, he was paired up with Sabrina for some reason.  I think they wanted her in the main Archie comics, but reserved her solo books for continuities without the Archie gang. 

 

The team up somehow oddly works.  Weird things happening to Jughead isn’t unprecedented.  In continuity, Juggy does know that Sabrina is a witch.  Them being friends works, even if it’s a bit forced.  (Sabrina goes on to date Archie in other Archie issues.  Who could blame Archie for going for the darling witch girl?  However, this relationship is definitely forced.  Who has he not dated?  Josie might be Archie’s cousin, so she’s off limits.  Why isn’t he going after Melody?  Why isn’t every guy in Archie Comics going after Melody?)

 

The inside artwork is aimed at kids for sure.  The story is cute with the magical element and Jughead caught up in the unintended consequences.  It’s also continued as it is in the decompressed style, so I don’t know how it resolves.  Like the Archie comic above, it’s half the issue, then there’s a Big Moose one-shot preview.  Both comics are also ephemeral quick-reads for $4 comics. 

 

Archie Meets Batman ’66 1-3

It’s a six-issue mini-series if you’re wondering.  I was lucky to find three consecutive issues in those 12 long boxes I was rummaging through.  Maybe the other three issues were in there somewhere, or maybe the store adjusted their orders and sold out of the rest of the series. 

Certainly this team up makes more sense than Archie meeting the Punisher or the Predator.  The characters’ universes share certain sensibilities that make them easily compatible.  Dan Parent’s artwork is fun and well-done for this event.  The first issue alone is worth getting just for seeing Veronica and her fabulous changes in hairstyle and wardrobe.  (Not to mention, Cheryl Blossom is looking good.)  The story respects all of the characters and works with them.  It’s fun.

Here’s the downside.  Just like those other two Archie Comics reviewed, there’s only content for a bit more than half of the issue.  There’s no backup feature.  So, these are even quicker reads.  While the story carefully works out the characters’ stories, three issues in, Archie still hasn’t met Batman!  What the hell!  Reggie is working for the bad guys, and the Joker is trying to tempt Jughead into changing sides.  Betty is after Dick Grayson, and Archie has latched on to Barbara Gordon.  (Robin and Batgirl have infiltrated Riverdale in their civilian identities.)  But, Batman is still in freaking Gotham City! 

 

I wouldn’t get the individual issues of this, unless you can get them at a deep discount like I did.  The trade may be worthwhile, but I haven’t read the whole story.  Frankly, it seems a bit dragged out so that they could get six issues out of it.  Honestly from what I’ve seen here, these Modern Archie comics are mostly not worth it.  I can still recommend the new Sabrina trade paperback (December2019) and the Classic Archie stuff like the Christmas Comics. 

 

Part 3

Holiday Comics Review Part 1 Intro

 Which is really late.  It took a while for me to read everything.  I’ll get back to Elvis in a couple of days here.  I received a late Christmas gift at work and needed to buy a couple of gifts quick on Christmas Eve.  And here I was so happy to have finished my Christmas shopping.  (Insert workplace etiquette tip here.  If you’re expecting a return gift, please don’t hand out gifts at the next-to-last moment.)  In any case, I’d a received a thoughtful gift (a case of the cream soda-my favorite) and I liked the two people involved, so I needed to do something.

 

Unfortunately, my work hours on the Eve were going to preclude a timely gifting.  I hate going to work on Christmas Eve.  While we only have to work a half day, for me, this means coming in during the day and working by myself.  Yeah, I work by myself all the time at night, but somehow, under these circumstances, I actually feel lonely.  It’s the only time I do. 

 

I was determined to make the best of it this time.  I went over to Subway for Cold Cut sandwich, literally the only safe option on their menu, but really I went so I could go to the PQ Treats next door.  I wanted to try their seasonal “Grinch-flavored” Frozen Tornado (like a Blizzard).  I missed seeing it available when I was there last week and had to correct that oversight.  Okay, a happy dinner was set.

 

I made my way to work in the afternoon, well ahead of when I planned to clock in.  Security on the building wasn’t armed, but the place was empty.  All the lights were on up front, which made it feel very deserted.  (I also had to turn all the lights off.  There’s over 20 at least.)  I put dinner in the fridge and freezer and went back out to walk over to the nearby Downtown Mall in the brisk cold winter air. 

 

I planned on going to Coas Bookstore and Zia Comics.  I thought the bookstore was my best bet for a pair of gifts.  Their websites were ambiguous about whether they were actually open.  Regrettably, by late afternoon, the bookstore had closed, but those hardcore comics fans had stayed open till the last minute.  Now all I had to do was find two gifts for girls at a comic book store.

 

There’s a bunch of figurines there, but neither were anime or superhero fans that I knew of.  One of the girls was easy.  I just needed something with a unicorn.  A My Little Pony comic was close enough.  The other was a Yankees fan.  This would have been tougher, but I remembered there was a spinner rack of biography comics where I got that Elvis trade.  Thankfully, there was an Alex Rodriguez bio comic with him in a Yankees uniform on the cover.    

 

I flipped through them back at work.  I won’t speak to the quality of either of these comics, other than to say that the Pony one looked cute and the A-Rod one looked a bit like an amateur production.  I made a quick scan of the above page.  I can relate no context to it; it just cracked me up.  I put them on their respective recipients’ desks, where they were happily received on Monday morning.  Mission accomplished.

 

Okay, while I was there I did some me-shopping too.  I was looking for the King-Size Conan that had been solicited for this week.  At $7, I wasn’t surprised to find copies still on the rack.  I also picked up a Fables #1 reprint.  Everything had gone well. 

 

As I walked to the register, I noticed a bunch of comic book long boxes on tables in the game room across the lobby.  (Sadly, this room hasn’t been much used this year.)  There was a sign on them which read, “$1 apiece or 50 cents apiece if you buy 10 or more.”  It was a cross between advertising and a challenge.  I made a left pivot before reaching the register and attacked the dollar boxes. 

 

There were about 12 boxes as I recall, and they were stuffed full.  Only because I had plenty of time before starting work did I consider going through all of them.  The store didn’t seem ready to close anyway.  I made a quick flip through all of them, but I was thorough.  Unfortunately for the shop, most the comics were fairly recently issues that they’d overstocked on.  There was one particular recent comic that was in the front of the front of every box.  Nothing was in any particular order, as you’d expect in the bargain bin.  I’m not sure how long I spent going through them, probably more than a half hour. 

 

I didn’t set a goal of getting ten comics, but with that many comics there, it would have been surprising if I didn’t.  When I finally got to the register, I had four new comics and 11 from the bin.  It was all a pretty eclectic mix.  I got back to work and started on my dinner.  I’d worked up an appetite walking and frantically combing through the long boxes.  There was surprisingly plenty going on live on Twitch and Youtube for entertainment while I ate and skimmed through comics.  (Looking back, apparently I mostly watched FrivvyFox on Twitch.) 

 

When I started work, it went smoothly and I was able to get home earlier than I usually do.  What a great day!  I pulled a couple of surprisingly appropriate last-minute gifts out of my butt.  Got a filling, if nothing special, meal.  (“The Grinch,” by the way, was green pistachio flavored with almond shavings.  It was pretty good.)  And, I got a bunch of comics for myself.  Then I started reading them.  We’ll cover that next.

 

(Sorry, this was a bit of an indulgence, but I did want to record having at least one pleasant day in 2020, even if it was just me by myself.)

Part 2

The Elvis Collection: Items

This is a post of various paraphernalia.  First is a figure.  It's pretty nice.  I got this for mom for a gift.

Here's a Christmas card.  Very ornate. 

Here's a Rusty Wallace NASCAR with an Elvis paint scheme.  It was part of a three-pack with a display board.  It was on sale at Wal-Mart.  Rusty isn't my favorite driver, but I thought this car would be a neat gift.  I did like the Harley-Davison paint scheme one in the pack.  By odd chance, I met a visiting programmer NASCAR fan at work.  His son was a Rusty fan, so I gave him the standard paint scheme car and the picture that came with the display.  I also got a Bobby Labonte pack, who I like more, with this one.  It had a Christmas Coca-Cola Polar Bear paint scheme car.  I changed out the two displays and put in my Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr. cars, along with some pictures. 

This is a musical Christmas ornament.  It was probably too big to hang on the tree, so it never made it out of the box.  I think the battery must be dead, since it's no longer playing the song.

Here are some chocolate boxes.

 

This one plays music when opened.  It still works, though I can't discern the tune.

Don't worry.  This isn't the end.  There's plenty more to come.