Choo Choo Dino Crew

My wife won this children's book in a giveaway on Goodreads. I've not received any sort of reimbursement for my review. In fact, I am doing this review independent of my bride. So here goes...

Good friends Stark, the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Vivi, the Triceratops are looking for fun and adventure. Perhaps they'll even make some new friends. In order to do this, they'll take a ride on the Dino Express!

I thought Choo Choo Dino Crew was a cute little board book. But it was the premise behind this book that made me love it even more. Stark and Vivi are the names of author Bethann Pate. Since the two children are obsessed with both trains and dinosaurs, Bethann Pate mixed those two interests together into a delightful trek towards the final station on the line.

But I just have to ask: does the train run on fossil fuels?!

Full of colorful characters, children who love the big lizards and trains will want to read this book again and again. There's nothing objectionable, making for a friendly read that parents or guardians will love. Not all of the lines in the book rhyme. While that does work my orderly loving brain, I still thought that this was a charming little read.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

DuckTales #1 (Family Comic Friday)

Dynamite Entertainment seems to be the new official home of comic books starring your favorite Disney properties. Hercules, Darkwing Duck and Lilo and Stitch have been leading a 90s resurgence and I think that's great. But what I really want is something with Peter Pan. However, my interest in Dynamite's Disney books was peaked when it was announced over the Summer that DuckTales would be returning to print!

No, this isn't the recently rebooted version of the show featuring the voice talents of David Tennant. Here, Donald Duck is off serving in the Navy. Launchpad McQuack is Scrooge's personal pilot and bodyguard. Della Duck is nowhere to be found. Nope, Dynamite has brought back the original 1980s syndicated animated classic version of DuckTales and I couldn't be more thrilled!

The first issue is basically an introduction to the main characters. Great nephews Huey Dewey and Louie are bored with counting Uncle Scrooge's money bin. Looking for a little adventure, the nephews ask Scrooge to tell them a story of one of his greatest adventures. Scrooge in return tells them 3 yarns. And that's issue #1. It ends with a 'to be continued' blurb. Normally I hate that. But in this case where there aren't any loose ends needing tightening up or a thrilling cliffhanger, I feel like the 'TBC' was more of a promise of more great things to come.

Next issue promises Magica De Spell. I've already told my favorite LCS to pre-order the entire series. So I won't be missing any of the action.  

Writer Brandon Montclare captures the spirit of the original series very well. I liked the vignettes about Scrooge's earlier days as an adventurer and explorer. I just wish we'd only gotten more of an origin story as to how the nephews came to live at McDuck Manor or that we could have gotten an full length adventure.

Tommaso Ronda's artwork was very good. It wasn't Carl Barks or Don Rosa quality. However, it was better than that more modern style of the reboot that makes everyone look more angular and exaggerated. While the reboot stories were pretty good. I thought the art needed to return to the drawing board 

The 80s and 90s heyday of Disney is in full swing at Dynamite Entertainment. For a company that a couple of years ago looked ready to cash in their chips, the publisher reorganized into what IDW was so close to achieving before losing those lucrative Hasbro licenses. Retro fun for the whole family!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Danger Street, Vol. 1

Tom King, who's an amazing writer, is known for taking some beloved B-list characters from the DC Universe and destroying our childhood notions of them. Case in point: Mister Miracle. Second case in point: Adam Strange. In Danger Street, King dips deep into DC lore with a series that was so unthinkable when it debuted, it really confused a lot of readers and was cancelled pretty darn quick.

Carmine Infantino had the brilliant idea of releasing an anthology series of only first issues. In 1975, First Issue Special released a baker's dozen of issues that introduced readers to all-new concepts such as the Dingbats of Danger Street as well as tried and true DC characters such as Metamorpho and Doctor Fate. Tom King takes all 13 of those characters and teams and creates a unique story filled with intrigue, murder, conspiracy and humor. It unlike anything you've ever encountered in the DC Universe and probably never will.

Metamorpho, Starman and Warlord are all hoping for spots in the Justice League of America. Despite their own heroic exploits over the years, it seems to this trio that they've really got to capture the attention of the League in order to score an invitation. So using the helmet of Doctor Fate and a spell, the heroes decide to summon Darkseid to Earth and subdue him for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Instead, what comes through the portal is a force so destructive and so terrible that when it dies, it threatens the existence of all of the known universe.

Meanwhile, reporter Jack Ryder has been hired to anchor a new 24-hour news channel owned by the boy billionaires, the Green Team. They want Ryder to blame the rise in crime and violence on a mysterious group known as the Outsiders. However, when Ryder in his Creeper form, witnesses an attack on an immigrant by anti-Outsider supporters and it's blamed on the Green Team pariahs, the anchor man will begin to investigate a conspiracy that could destroy the very foundation of the DC Universe!

You might be wondering why I would be willing to read more from Tom King despite how he destroyed some really great characters. Well, he is a good writer. Plus, the inclusion of the New Gods was something that I just couldn't overlook. Besides, this is a Black Label title, so it's not canon. If I end up hating this book I can just say it didn't happen, which is one of the things that makes the DC Black Label line so appealing. They leave the validity of these stories up to the fans as whether they are canonical or not. 

The art was good. It wasn't by Mitch Gerads, Tom King's usual artist. But it was good. By Jorge Fornes, it had the quality of a Gerads work but with nostalgic nuances to it.

There's still a second volume to read. So the jury isn't out yet. I love how all these characters from an obscure 70s anthology of which I am a fan of,  have all been tossed together in this story. I like the surprises that have awaited inside. That one scene with Darkseid; I never saw it coming in a million years and yet it was so perfect. But I am not a fan of the narrator who weaves this story like a very complicated fairy tale written in iambic pentameter or so other archaic pride. Just give me the story in modern jargon please.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Goat on the Go: Scout's Muddy Day

This is 100% true. I know Scout. Scout is a real goat. He lives on the same farm my goats Brickey and Moppet are housed at. One of Brickey's oldest and best friends, my family and I have had our share of adventures with Scout. When Scout's mom, author Natalie Horseman recounts how Scout escapes from his pen one day for a glorious adventure exploring his home farm, I can attest with my own eyes seeing Scout escape his pen on a number of occasions!

It's hard to believe Scout was ever so little! A Nigerian Dwarf goat, he ironically dwarves the other adult goats at the farm, being almost double fellow ND Brickey's size! To this day, Scout still thinks of himself as a little goatie and like in this adventure, it gets him into mischief!

It was great getting to see many of Scout's friends in this book. Everyone who visits the farm knows Ms. Luna. She's a silkie black pup that makes sure that all the farm goats stay in line and in their pens. Although, in this book, in order for her face and body to stand out more, artist Cosette Alcade adds some gray and white to Luna's coat. It's amazing to see Luna in action and how just the sight of her will make other goats immediately run to enclose themselves in the nearest pen! In this book, there's also a highland cow, some piggies, a few guineas and lots of goats that despite name changes, I recognized immediately from my nearly 3 years of weekly (or more) check-ins with my herd.

I cannot wait to share this book with all the little ones in my life. Scout's adventure is heartwarming and fun. Plus, if those kiddos ever come to the farm with my wife and I for a visit, it will make that experience that much more fun getting to meet the real life Scout!

Goat on the Go: Scout's Muddy Day is currently available on Kindle and in paperback.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

The He-Man Effect: How American Toy Makers Sold Your Childhood

Box Brown explores how corporations have manipulated our fandoms in this 2023 non-fiction graphic novel. While Brown explores the affects of propaganda on the American populace during the two World Wars, his focus is on toys because many of those psychiatrists who used science to ideally heighten pro-American sentiments ended up being hired by advertising agencies after the conflicts. In between the first World War and the attack on Pearl Harbor, women were the primary targets of those advertisers. However, with the baby boom after the fall of Japan, companies were made aware of a brand new untapped market: children.

It turns out that our tiny undeveloped brains cannot tell the difference between the fictions of a TV show and the commercials that fill in gap time. So when a kid sees Superman telling kids that Wheaties is the only cereal for him to eat, they believe that in order to be just like the Man of Steel, the kiddies need to eat Wheaties too! This blending of the two types of media got so bad that restrictions were made by the FCC, thanks to a bunch of angry moms, that prohibited children's programming from being essentially a 30 minute commercial for products. There were a few exceptions like Sesame Street, which was considered educational for children and being on public television, never ran commercials. It's also why during the 60s and 70s, that TV shows like Laugh-In, which was clearly for more mature audiences could appeal to children on lunch boxes and trading cards. It wasn't considered kids programming, so those shows could license out products meant for kids. It also explains why the 1970s was the best decade for cartoons.

This all changed in November, 1980. Ronald Reagan became President and he appointed those to head the FCC who opposed the restrictions on advertising to children during the Saturday morning cartoons and after school programming. Mattel was about to launch a new toy line that promised to rival Kenner's Star Wars behemoth, Its main character was called He-Man. However, capturing the imagination of the youngsters who would demand mom and dad buy it for them would be no easy feat without able word of mouth and frequency on the airwaves. With FCC deregulation of kids programming, Mattel was able to produce an animated series that would essentially be a 22-minute commercial for the Masters of the Universe toyline. 

Thanks to the series produced by Filmation, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe became a cultural touchstone for children in the mid-1980s. I should know, I was on of those kindergartners who started to drop their Star Wars figures and instead pickup a He-Man and a Skeletor figure. I still love the original He-Man series. I've bought massive omnibuses containing the entire run of mini comics inserted with each action figure. I also have a book devoted to the seldom seen newspaper strips. I'm currently on the hunt for the comics produced by Marvel imprint, Star Comics, without going bankrupt doing so. 

While my love for He-Man hasn't diminished reading this historical account of pop culture in the 20th century, I am chagrined to see how much I have been manipulated by Mattel, Kenner, Hasbro and the likes. Eternia's Prince Adam doesn't say 'By the power of Gray Skull. I have the power.' to become He-Man, though it helps. That was an ear worm planted by toy designers to trigger something in our little pea brains to want to consume more Masters of the Universe merch! The same goes with 'Yo, Joe!', 'Thundercats, Ho!' and so many other catch phrases of my childhood.

I'm almost mad at Box Brown. I've enjoyed a lot of his previous works. But with The He-Man Effect, I feel like he exposed the man behind the curtain. There was just a little too much of Adam Ruins Everything that destroyed some of the magic of my youth. The book does explain very well why we get upset when our favorite childhood franchises are rebooted or made 'woke' with diverse casting changes or switching genders of characters. But what I'm most upset about is that these toy lines and animated series that were bright spots to a childhood fraught with bullying and abuse, weren't there to make me happy and secure. They were created to make people rich. Thanks to Box Brown, the truth about my childhood heroes is that they weren't there to protect me. They just wanted my money.

Worth Consuming, but man does it hurt.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Spy Vs. Spy 2: The Cloak and Dagger Files

Black Spy vs White Spy. Are they birds? I've always wondered if they were birds because of the beak-like noses. 

I couldn't tell you where I got this 2007 collection of later Spy vs Spy strips. My guess would be Ollie's. But I'm not sure. The strip of two similar looking secret agents trying to steal the secret plans of the other while attacking them with booby traps was originally created by Cuban political cartoonist, Antonio Prohias. An earlier volume paid tribute to Phobias time at MAD Magazine. This book would feature the numerous artists and writers who were tasked with filling the Spy vs Spy creator's shoes.

I knew that this book was a volume 2. I didn't know that it was not going to have any of the original Prohias works in it. But I'm not too upset as he had retired from MAD before I started reading the magazine as a kid. There were several articles in the book including a section by current Spy vs Spy artist, Peter Kuper, whose use of stencil and spray paint have given the series an industrial artistic look. His section explains his creative process. How Mountain Dew came to do a series of live action Spy vs Spy commercials and how Spy vs Spy became a video game are other interesting features. But I think it's a forgotten piece of Spy vs Spy history that was most interesting: a newspaper comic strip.

For only 39 weeks in 2002, newspapers across the country ran a Sunday funnies strip involving White Spy and Black Spy trying to outdo each other. The pantomime strip was novel in that it looked just like you'd see in the pages of MAD, except in a paneled format like a strip. However, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occurring at the same time, it was felt that such a strip like Spy vs Spy seeing one or both of the characters blowing up and maiming the other, that it was the wrong time for such antics in cartoon form and the strip was quickly cancelled.

One area of Spy vs Spy history that I didn't see in the book was the animated shorts seen on Fox's MAD TV. Maybe they were included in the first volume. But with this being a chronological account of life after Prohias, it's absence seems strange.

Also, can someone explain to me why the occasionally appearing Grey Spy, a voluptuous blonde in a grey dress never gets her comeuppance? If she appears, she always gets the best of the two spies. They never manage to get her. Just like how Wile E. Coyote can never capture the Road Runner!

This was an okay book. The articles were needed as there's almost no words in the strips. Plus, this is not a book for folks who need reading glasses. To include as many strips as possible, a bunch are shrunken by at least half and with needing to pay attention to detail, the smaller size can give you blurry eyes at best or as with me occasionally, a migraine.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Legend of the Swamp Thing Halloween Spectacular #1

My last read for Halloween 2024. It's a Swamp Thing special from 2020 built on a unique premise. 6 terrifying tales starring various Guardians of the Green throughout history. You thought Alec Holland was the only human to become the creature known as the Swamp Thing? Think again!

This anthology begins with Holland's Swamp Thing rescuing a missing child from the Great Abysmal Swamp. Afterwards, he begins to reflect on his past lives throughout history, including an encounter with the armies of Julius Caesar in Brittany and witnessing a group of Spanish explorers become trapped on an island of living rage. That one was the best story, by the way. Things wrap up with a glimpse at a future incarnation of the Avatar of the Green.

Though touted as a Halloween special, none of the stories were set at Halloween. But all 6 did have elements of fear. Did I feel gypped by the erroneous title despite pay for the full cover price? No, not really. Maybe it's because I had long lost this book in my massive pile of books needing to be added to my collection and the feel of wasted money over a Halloween comic that really wasn't has passed. Or maybe it's because this book was so darn good. 

Great stories. Very good art. A reboot of a legend that I hope I can live long enough to experience when the future Swamp Thing's time finally arrives.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.