Welcome to yet another installment of my 2020's Free Comic Book Day reviews. My pals at Stormwatch Comics in West Berlin, New Jersey send me these FCBD comics so I can read and write about them in the bloggy thing. Only twice have I actually reached my goal of reading and writing about all the FCBD comics available in a given year. Maybe this time I’ll three-peat that achievement. I think I can do it, but it’ll take me until sometime in mid-2021 to complete this particular 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 today is Marge’s Little Lulu by John Stanley from Drawn & Quarterly. The delightful Miss Moppet is a classic comics character and Stanley did her justice in story after story. This comic book has thirty pages of Lulu stories. I’ll have some further comments about Lulu in a bit.
QUALITY: Excellent. Some of the best and funniest kids comics ever created.
ACCESSIBILITY: Excellent. Even if the stories are from times past, I think most readers will quickly understand the characters and the dynamics of their interactions.
SALESMANSHIP: Excellent. Four pages of house ads for other Drawn & Quarterly publications and those ads give a good sense of what the books are about.
SCORE: Ten points out of a possible ten points.
COMMENTARY: I love Lulu, but I don’t know if today’s young readers can relate to her. I’d like to think there’s a timeless quality to the ongoing battle between the boys and girls, and that the various fantasy elements still work. I’m not certain. Which makes me wonder about a couple of things, creative challenges if you would.
Can Lulu be updated with new stories for today’s young readers and can this be done without losing the essence of the character?
Is there a modern comics character starring in her own series that is a 2021 equivalent of Lulu?
I’d really like to hear from my readers on these questions. Please make use of the comments section and please be patient as I have to approve every comment before it appears. That keeps out the trolls and the scammers.
The Loud House [Papercutz] features 26 pages of comics stories from various graphic albums. The Loud House is an animated television series that airs on Nickelodeon. Lincoln Loud is the middle child and only boy in a family of eleven children. The series debuted in May, 2016, and has been greenlit for a sixth season. A spin-off series titled The Casagrandes premiered on October 14, 2019, with those characters also appearing in this free comic book.
QUALITY: Pretty good. The short stories are funny, though the large cast of characters sometimes gets in the way of those stories. The art reflects the animated series and is appropriately...animated.
ACCESSIBILITY: Decent. Editor Jim Salicrup provides a concise guide to the Loud kids on the inside front cover, though it doesn’t help much with the comic’s other characters. Then again, someone buying these graphic albums because they love the show probably wouldn’t have that problem.
SALESMANSHIP: Good. There’s a full-page house ad for the Loud House books and a second full-page ad for other Papercutz books.
SCORE: Nine points out of a possible nine points.
Lumberjanes: Farewell to Summer [Boom! Box] presents seven stories of comicdom’s favorite campers. It’s a prelude to the series finale that will begin in issue #77.
QUALITY: Despite seven different creators/creative teams, the tales were all enjoyable. No side-splitting humor, but moving stories of a wondrous summer coming to an end. I need to read Lumberjacks from start to finish.
ACCESSIBILITY: It was somewhat difficult for this occasional reader to remember the various characters. A “roster” page with pictures and a few words of description would have made for a more inclusive experience.
SALESMANSHIP: So-so. There are two house ads for other titles, but nothing for Lumberjanes itself.
SCORE: Six points out of a possible ten points.
Manhwa: Contemporary Korean Comics [Drawn & Quarterly] presents a quartet of excerpts from graphic novels, a short editorial by Tracy Hurren and an informative article on translating Korean comics to English by Janet Hong.
QUALITY: I had an emotional reaction to each of the excerpts, but found the storytelling, writing and art much less compelling than the situations could have garnered.
ACCESSIBILITY: Poor. There’s not enough “what has gone before” to give the reader a clear understanding of what they’re reading. The publisher should’ve included short synopsis for each excerpt.
SALESMANSHIP: Good. There’s a house ad that lists all of the Korean comics translated by D&Q, but it’s visually dull. There are a pair of house ads promoting other D&Q titles.
SCORE: Five points out of a possible ten points.
Mean Girls Senior Year [Insight Comics] features a 21-page excerpt from a graphic novel sequel to the popular 2004 movie. It’s written by Arianna Irwin and illustrated by Alba Cardona
QUALITY: So-so at best. The characters needed more definition and background. Scenes ended and shifted abruptly. For some reason, all of the characters have the same nose.
ACCESSIBILITY: Since I’ve seen the source material movie, I had no clue what was going on. There was a bit of “what has gone before” exposition later on in the excerpt, but, by the time I reached it,
I’d lost interest in this comic.
SALESMANSHIP: Excellent. There are several house ads for a number of Insight titles with copy that gives readers at least some clue as to the nature of the titles.
SCORE: Five points out of a possible ten points.
That’s all for now. Keep watching the bloggy thing for more of my Free Comic Book Day reviews.
© 2021 Tony Isabella
Might what's being done currently with the newspaper strip Nancy by Olivia Jaimes be a fair template for what a modernized Little Lulu might be like? Not that I've seen much of the strip.
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