I’m continuing my reviews of 2020's Free Comic Book Day giveaways. It was a different FCBD celebration this year with comics delayed for months and the shops having to scale way back on the events and guests they would normally have hosted. However, one FCBD tradition continues, albeit later in the year than usual.
Every year, my pals at Stormwatch Comics in West Berlin, New Jersey send those FCBD comics to me so I can read and write about them in the bloggy. Only twice have I actually reached my goal of reading and writing about all the FCBD comics available in one year. Maybe this year is a year in which I three-peat that achievement. I think I can do it, but it’ll likely take me until sometime in early 2021 to complete this mission.
When I read and review FCBD comics, I look at three areas.
QUALITY: Is the material worthwhile?
ACCESSIBILITY: Is the material presented in such a way that someone coming to it for the first time can follow it?
SALESMANSHIP: After reading the FCBD offering, would someone want and be able to buy more of the same?
I score FCBD offerings on a scale of zero to ten. Each category is worth three points with the tenth point coming from my interest in seeing more of what’s ever in the book.
First up this time is Best of 2000 AD #0 with a Judge Dredd cover by Glenn Fabry. This comic is a sampler of the new monthly Best of 2000 AD anthology. This zero issue has a new Judge Dredd story by Al Ewing and artist Erica Henderson as well as “classic cuts” from Rogue Trooper (Gordon Rennie and artist Richard Elson), Anderson, Psi-Division (Alan Grant with artist Arthur Ransom) and Durham Red (Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen with artist Carlos Ezquerra).
QUALITY: The Judge Dredd and Durham Red stories are terrific. The others aren’t as good, but still enjoyable.
ACCESSIBILITY: These are done-in-one stories. While my familiarity with the characters gave me a leg-up, I think they are accessible for new readers as well.
SALESMANSHIP: Good. Two house ads promote The Best of 2000 AD and the third promoted Rogue Trooper collections.
SCORE: Ten out of ten points. I wish I could afford to get 2000 AD and its related titles, but I have to be cautious when it comes to my comics spending. Hey, I’ve always wanted to write a serial for the 2000 AD weekly. Perhaps the publisher and I could come to some sort of barter agreement.
From ToykoPop, we got Bibi & Miyu by Hirara Natsume (illustrator) and Olivia Vieweg (writer) combined with The Fox and Little Tanuki by Mi Tagawa (story and art). In the former, Bibi is a young witch and Miyu is a student from Japan. In the latter, a nasty black fox is imprisoned for 300 years and striped of his magical powers until he helps a tanuki (Asian raccoon dog) pup becomes an assistant to the gods.
QUALITY: The “Bibi & Miyu” segment is too bland to be interesting and doesn’t deliver a satisfying introduction to the series. “The Fox & Little Tanuki” is a whole lot better. It’s well-written and well-drawn, establishes the character of the black fox and delivers a nice chunk of story.
ACCESSIBILITY: Thanks to the first page text introductions to these two features plus the fine writing of the second, it was easy for me to get into the stories.
SALESMANSHIP: Almost non-existent. There are no house ads for the two features. There is a back cover ad that shows some other books from ToykoPop but without any descriptions of them.
SCORE: Five points out of a possible ten points.
Blade Runner 2019 [Titan] is “the first original comics series set in the iconic neo-noir world of Blade Runner.” I come to this FCBD excerpt of 13 pages at considerable disadvantage. I’ve never read Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, not that Titan credits him anywhere in this issue. I’m knocking off one point just for their being assholes in this regard. I’ve also never seen either of the two Blade Runner movies. While I do plan to read the novel in 2021 and view the movies, I’m coming to this freebie ice cold.
QUALITY: Decent. The writing is good, though there is a text page that is difficult to read. The art is good. However, this excerpt doesn’t give much insight into the title character.
ACCESSIBILITY: Good. Between the inside front cover copy and this excerpt, I could follow the story easily.
SALESMANSHIP: Decent. Several house ads for this title and related Blade Runner titles. Creator bios, except, of course, for Philip K. Dick. A “From Script to Art” feature, pages that could have better been used for more actual story.
SCORE: Six points out of a possible ten points.
Valiant: The Year of the Heroes FCBD 2020 Special cover-features my second favorite Valiant character, Faith being the first. The issue starts with a four-page uncredited Bloodshot excerpt, then follows that with 22 pages of X-O Manowar by Joshua Dysart and artist Doug Braithwaite.
QUALITY: The actual writing and art are fine, but the stories are, well, meh. Nothing new in the Bloodshot excerpt while the X-O tale bounces back and forth between Aric as a young man in the past and him patrolling a ring of alien debris around the Earth. He battles some sort of alien artifact.
ACCESSIBILITY: So-so. There was almost no helpful back story in the Bloodshot excerpt and, though there was more in the X-O story, it wasn’t helpful.
SALESMANSHIP: Just okay. Lots of house ads for Valiant titles, but no real explanations as to what we were seeing.
SCORE: Four points out of a possible ten points.
******************************
I’ll be continuing my comments on the FCBD titles of 2020 into the new year as I try to post more bloggy things. If I don’t manage an actual Christmas or New Year’s column, I hope you have the merriest of holidays and a happy start to 2021.
© 2020 Tony Isabella
I'm a little surprised, Tony, that you've never at least seen the original 'Blade Runner' movie. Now, the challenge is to decide whether to watch the original theatrical cut or the 'Unicorn' edition Final Cut (probably the latter).
ReplyDeleteI've only seen the theatrical cut and the later "Director's Cut" (so-named even though it was assembled from Ridley Scott's notes and not by the man himself).
ReplyDeleteOf the two, I prefer the Director's Cut because it removed Harrison Ford's voice-overs (which I didn't like). Whichever version Tony finally watches, I hope it's one without those silly V.O.s
Anyway, Happy New Year and Happy (belated) birthday, Tony!