Continuing my excavation of the miscellaneous "A" section of the Storage collection, I came across this gem. It's from Free Comic Book Day 3 years ago, and I honestly don't remember having read it. It's one of the problems I find with FCBD occasionally, that I'll come home with a stack of comics and, after a week or so of not reading them, I'll catalogue them, bag them, and store them. Which is, actually, what makes this project so much fun!
The lead story, "Atomic Robo," is brilliant. It comes out of an already running series, so there's little in the way of explanation in the story itself. So when Dr. Dinosaur, a hyper-intelligent dinosauric mad scientist villain appears, I was soooo not ready. And, at the same time, immediately sold. I'll perhaps have a look for other issues of Atomic Robo this afternoon. Couple this with a super-intelligent robotic protagonist and a supporting character who titles himself a "wizard of spreadsheets," and you've got a funny, exciting, and beautifully-drawn comic. Oh, did I mention Futuresaurus Rex, a Tyrannosaurus that is super-evolved to the point that it evolves spontaneous rocket launchers? Yeah. It's that good.
The other two features, which I'm afraid I'll wax a little less poetically about, are equally lovely, but I didn't find them quite as immediately enthralling. "Neozoic" offers a parallel reality in which the dinosaurs evolved along with humankind. It seems grim and gritty, though there's a child who can psychically communicate with dinosaurs, leaving the door open for occasional cuteness. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for something that seemed to have some fairly serious undertones this early on a Sunday morning. "Bonnie Lass," on the other hand, looks promising, but the story in this issue doesn't really do much to pull me in. Should I perhaps find the previous series in a dollar bin, I could see picking it up, out of curiosity (mainly because I've never heard of Red 5 Comics before, and their production values seem to be really wonderfully high).
FCBD is a weird thing, which I think I've mentioned before. But occasionally it allows one to step out of the comfort zone and discover something really amazing, which just goes to show how much amazing work is being done in this medium that I love so much.
I'm off to the comic shop today for my bi-weekly fix. Maybe something that I find today will make it onto the blog tomorrow. See you then.
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