Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Hugh Jackman once again as Wolverine, despite claims that he was done with the character. Together on screen, finally... In correct costumed form!

While it was every Marvel fans dream to see comic book accurate versions of the Merc With a Mouth and Logan together on the silver screen, this wasn't my favorite Deadpool movie. That's because with Disney finally in charge of the two mutant properties, the reigns on Reynolds and Jackman were removed and they went into full berserker mode. 

Parents and guardians, you really shouldn't take a young child to a rated R movie. That being said, this is one R rated superhero film that no children under the age of 17 should be escorted to. The blood and violence was set to 11. There were so many F-words, I didn't know if Quentin Tarantino wrote the script or would have blushed at the shear volume. Lots of sexually graphic talk, especially from Deadpool. Though of the 3 movies in the franchise thus far, no nudity. 

'The material to be expected from a Deadpool movie,' is something you might say in regards to my alarm. However, I read a lot of Deadpool and a fair amount of X-Men stuff. No matter how many Explicit Material warnings Marvel might put on their edgier books, I've only encountered Wade Wilson or Wolverine using the F-bomb once each in comics and both were graphic novels and not monthly issues.  The level of violence; okay, I'll grant you that. But the sexual innuendo is way tamer even in comics rated Mature 

A lot has been made saying that Deadpool & Wolverine is a farewell letter to the FOX Universe of Marvel movies. I can agree to this and with the level of cameos surprises hidden in this roughly 2 hour film, I don't want to give away too much. Seeing the film just 5 days after the premiere, I am happy to say that there still were a few cameos and Easter eggs left that hadn't been ruined by social media. Be on the look out for a great sight gag that lambastes Rob Liefeld's inability to draw feet! Also, I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if you see some characters from FOX's ownership of movie rights return to the big screen because if anything, this movie basically ushered those films of the last 30 years into the Disney fold.

The TVA, Time Variance Authority, from Disney+'s Loki series plays a huge role in the movie. It's another one of those situations where you don't have to watch the 2 seasons of Loki to understand what's going on; but it helps. And I can definitively say without giving too much away: if you don't like the multiverse, then you will hate this movie. 

I don't mind the multiverse. In fact, I really enjoy Marvel's What If series. Deadpool & Wolverine doesn't just pay respect to the FOX Cinematic Universe of Marvel Movies; it also pays great tribute to the comics. Don't worry- the Wolverine who died in 2017's Logan is still dead. Though his body isn't resting peacefully, I can tell you that. Still, if you are the fan who's having trouble sleeping at night because Robert Downey Jr. is going to be playing a version of Tony Stark as Doctor Doom, it's probably best for you to watch something else.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

It's Jeff #1

A week ago I reviewed a book called Silent Tales by Gustavo Duarte. I basically stated that comic stories without words don't work as effectively as the 'talkies'. Well for today's review, I want to amend that statement. Comic books without words can work... sometimes.

The book I read is Marvel's It's Jeff! #1. Written by Kelly Thompson with art by the Japanese duo known as Gurihiru, this comic has a lot of similarities with DC's Silent Tales. 

• Both books are one-shots from 2023.
• Both specials are based on digital platform series.
• Both series use only emojis for speech and only the occasional word like for an exit sign or name of a business are used.
• Both works have a humorous slant.

The only difference between It's Jeff and Silent Tales is that Marvel's book was rated for all ages and I very much think that was what made that issue more enjoyable. It also helps that Jeff is a loyal friend. He's also adorable!

For those of us not in the know, Jeff is a land shark. Genetically modified by a super villain, along with other animals to take over the world of the humans, despite being a shark, Jeff didn't have a single evil bone in his body. (Maybe that's because a shark's skeleton is made of cartilage.) Jeff ended up winning the heart of Gwenpool, who entrusted the fish to Deadpool and Elsa Bloodstone before being reclaimed by Gwenpool and becoming the official mascot of the most recent incarnation of the West Coast Avengers. Now Kate Bishop, the female Hawkeye, is Jeff's primary caretaker.

In this issue, Jeff has about a dozen adventures. Some involve him acting like a very toothy dog, like ruining Avengers Thanksgiving dinner. But many of Jeff's adventures occur as a part of his overactive imagination. Too hot for a snowball fight? Jeff's got you covered! Got a bathtub full of mermaids that need saving? Jeff's got you covered! Just need a friend? Jeff's got you covered!

I had very little trouble understanding these stories. Kelly Thompson did an excellent job plotting everything so that readers 5-95 could follow the plot. Gurihiru's cartoony style is accessible to all. And above all, I wanted more of it! Good thing there's another Jeff special that came out earlier this year. It's just too bad that I passed it over, having not read this one-shot yet and not knowing how magical Jeff is. 

I won't make that mistake again!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney Comics Digest #22

A while back, I was at my favorite comic shop, checking out when I saw this stack of Disney digests. I'm a fan of the books from Gold Key and Dell. I know that these treasuries are in high demand. Plus I just adore the Disney Ducks. So I took a chance and asked if they were for sale. Thankfully they were; but the owners hadn't come up with a price yet. After a touch of friendly haggling, we agreed upon a fair price and based on how much money I had left to spend, I bought 3. 

Wouldn't you know, I then misplaced these for about a year and I would have forgotten all about them if I hadn't been working on organizing my comic book collection during my summer break. 

The cover for this June, 1970 volume is what sold me. It's got Donald and Uncle Scrooge in a victory pose on the very center of the cover. While Scrooge is dressed as a champion prizefighter, his contest to prove he's got more money than anyone in the world isn't quite so pugilistic. Challenged by Flintheart Glomgold, McDuck must liquidate his assets to prove that he's got more money, by volume, than that of his legendary foe. With assists by nephews Huey, Dewey, Louie and Donald, Scrooge has to outfox Glomgold who's clearly cheating. Only without proof, it looks like McDuck's going to lose the contest. Should Scrooge fail, he has to eat his opponents hat, which for the Scottish businessman is a fate worse than death or losing all his money to the Beagle Boys!

A pleasant surprise running throughout this book was the team-ups. In one adventure Tinkerbell saves Dumbo the elephant from the clutches of Captain Hook. In another, Jiminy Cricket visits his bug friends of Silly Symphonies fame for a picnic! Chipmunks Chip and Dale have had a number of capers driving Pluto and Mickey Mouse crazy. But they've never teamed with Bambi's best friend Thumper to get the upper hand over Mickey and company before... At least to my knowledge!

Something Disney was noted for was its nature films. In this issue, we get part 3 of the comic book adaptation of 1953's Bear Country. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, it's not a read where you have to know everything that has happened beforehand in order to enjoy it. There are also non-fiction one-pagers called 'Real Life Adventures' about dolphins and robins along with a longer essay on famous trains. Being that he was a lifelong railway enthusiast, I wouldn't be the least surprised to find out that old Walt Disney himself wrote that segment. 

Peter and the Wolf, Little Hiawatha, Li'l Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Cinderella and many more stars of Disney's A, B and C level tiers appear in this digest filled with some puzzles, jokes and stories galore. A really enjoyable gem that felt like those Christmas mornings when I'd open a grab bag of comics up as a gift and just pour over the contents inside while the world outside melted away.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories: 75th Anniversary Special

This year is the 90th anniversary of the debut of that rascally Disney character Donald Duck. So when I saw this issue for sale, at a local coffee shop that sells comics, I thought that this was a tribute issue to Donald. Instead, this book from 2015, is an 75th anniversary salute to Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in all of it's various incarnations thanks to the license being passed through several publishers, including IDW, the latest and currently last company to produce the long anthology.

There are a total of 10 stories and shorts in this giant sized collection, split over a dozen segments. While Donald and his nephews kick off things in a story about a war of pranks amongst the ducks, Disney's brightest star Mickey Mouse stars in a 3-part story divided throughout the book. Titled 'Ridin' the Rails' from 1955, whomever did the restoration job on that story should have won an Eisner or other similar award. They made Mickey and Goofy and Grandma Duck look so modern and not from a 60 year old book. 

Some forgotten characters such as Little Hiawatha and Bucky Bug from Silly Symphonies, the Li'l Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs and Walt Kelly's World War II rapscallions, the Gremlins, all make appearances that fall under IDW's editorial trigger warning that some material in this book may be culturally insensitive but kept in the retrospective for historical purposes. Less offensively, there's visits by Scamp, the young son of Lady and the Tramp as well as a lesson on dinosaurs presented by Ludwig Von Drake!

But really this is a Donald Duck book because he appears in 3 stories. Along with the aforementioned opener, Donald is given the runaround by the antics of Chip and Dale before wrapping things up with Huey Dewey and Louie once more. In that story, the fellas take on Magica de Spell in a caper that doesn't even star Uncle Scrooge, even though the enchantress is trying to steal McDuck's singing flea! Even the variant cover stars Donald Duck. But where is Uncle Scrooge in all this? He's a WDCAS icon who made his very first appearance in any form in the pages of this series. He belongs here! At least Scrooge's creator Carl Barks is featured...

Be sure to read David Gerstein's article at the end of this issue. It dives into the history of the long running anthology and has some interesting in-depth info. So good, I'd love to read a book about the history of Disney comic books.

This 75th anniversary collection was a good read. But to not have Uncle Scrooge involved, other than his name in passing, seems a tad unforgivable. So I'm going to knock a couple of stars off of my rating. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular

Way back in issue #175 of the Fantastic Four (October, 1976, to be exact), Galactus devoured Poppup, the home planet of that interplanetary pest, the Impossible Man. As a result, after a really bad case of indigestion, the life essence of Galactus was transferred to the Impossible Man who cloned himself a wife and a whole slew of kids. They then choose to wander the stars as refugees about the world devourer's ship.

In this summer special from 1990, the Impossible Man and the fam are rather bored. So they take leave of Galactus' spacecraft to have a fun-filled vacation on planet Earth! That means none of the superheroes OR super-villains of the Marvel Universe are safe from inter-dimensional hijinks, pranks and overall tomfoolery. Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Quasar and even Doctor Doom will rue the day they meet the first (and only) family of Poppup. 

This overall Summer special was a fun read crafted by a number of talents such as Roy Thomas, Jackson 'Bruce' Guice and Ron Marz. The Doctor Strange segment, which co-starring one of my favorite characters from that part of the Marvel Universe, Rintrah, was probably my favorite section of the book. Though the extremely unexpected pairing of the Impossible Man with the Punisher, complete with an entry from his war journal was a hoot. It was written and illustrated by Jim Valentino, who is such a master at skewering the superhero dynamic. I would pay good money if Marvel ever came up with an Impossible Man/Punisher special. Especially would love it in Valentino crafted that one-shot as well.

The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular might be almost 35-years old. But it's not something that will break the bank either. I got it a couple of years ago out of a bargain bin and I'm seeing it for less than $12 bucks online at several online retailers. Lots of laughs and a very fun way to beat the summer heat.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

IDW Endless Summer: Dungeons & Dragons Saturday Morning Adventures One-Shot

The animated version of Dungeons & Dragons that I grew up watching aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1983-1985. The satanic panic of the 1980s was just getting hot when the cartoon left the airwaves. Had the show debuted a year or two later than it did, it probably wouldn't become the pop culture icon it's become today. I know one thing is for sure; had D&D debuted in 1986-87, there's no way in the world my mother would have allowed me to watch it.

It's right around the end of the Reagan era that my mother and father were convinced that if I played RPG games or listened to heavy metal music, I would be whisked away straight to Hell. Maybe it's why I don't like horror that gets involved with demons and such. But being raised Baptist, the Devil was someone you just didn't mess with. 

So you're probably thinking why am I reading this 2023 IDW Summer special starring Hank, Bobby, his pet unicorn Uni and their friends? Well, to me, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the 80s didn't feel evil. Only one main character was a wizard (and not a very good one at that) True, the children's mentor, Dungeon Master, is a cross between Yoda and Dumbledore with his enigmatically sage advice and provisions of magical tools to free the land of whatever from the evil oppression of Venger (was he a wizard? or just a powerful baddie???) and the 5-headed dragon, Tiamat. 

In this summer break themed one-shot, young barbarian Bobby in lamenting how instead of getting to go to the beach during his summer break, he and his friends have been whisked away from modern day earth to become protectors of a magical land. Realizing that some R&R is vitally needed for his champions, Dungeon Master sends the children to a secluded lake for a much needed break. The only rule that they must follow is to not cross the other side of the lake shore, which is exactly what arrogant Eric the Cavalier does, accidentally unlocking a hidden evil from the mouth of a nearby cavern!

I thought that the artwork by Jack Lawrence was great. I may not be an expert at exactly remembering what the characters from this cartoon of my early childhood looked like. But Lawrence's renderings of the characters was good enough to make me feel like I was reliving a moment from my childhood. 

The writing of David M. Booher also seemed really good. Though I can't quite remember what everyone other than Bobby sounded like, the tones of the characters seemed right. I also don't remember Eric being that brave.

Speaking of things I don't remember... While I remember that the acrobatic warrior princess Diana wore a two piece fur bikini with boots, was she that sexualized as she appears on the main cover by Tim Levins? In fact, if you look at the black & white coloring book variant of this cover, Diana doesn't have quite so overt curves in the chest region. So I don't think you can blame Diana's assets on Levins. Instead, that blame should probably be pointed at whomever inked the main cover. 

A really fun summertime special that was centered in the world of fantasy and role play but wasn't evil or demonic. I hope IDW continues to bring back more animated franchises from our childhood back in comic book form. I just hope that they add more titles instead of sticking to the same 5 shows for their 'Saturday Morning Adventures' line of books.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

DC Silent Tales #1

Less is not always more important in this experimental comic book. Gustavo Duarte's Silent Tales was originally published as a series of 6 digital comics under the banner DC's Speechless! None of these stories have words, with exception of the occasional sign in the background like for an exit from a building or a banner declaring items inside a store are on sale. Being essentially a pantomime, this very much is an experiment. Sadly, I didn't feel like the results of the half dozen tales had a success that was replicable.

Here's what on store in this issue without giving away too much of the plots:

• Harley Quinn takes on a DIY project.
• Cyborg looks to relax at Titans Tower with his latest record store find.
• Zatanna adopts a very hungry rabbit.
• Superman learns why it's important to separate his laundry under the categories of whites, colors and radioactive.
• The Joker partakes in some art appreciation under the watchful eye of Commissioner Gordon and the Batman.
• Intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo goes treasure hunting against a band of Nazi vampires!

Let me back that up. Nazi vampires. Vampires that happen to be demonic disciples of the Third Reich! Versus Lobo! Why hasn't DC Comics done a DC Horror series based on this idea?!

Silent Tales wasn't without good ideas. It's just proof that words are important. We live in a society that is obsessed with emojis and text speak. This book proves that comics need words and dialogue just as much as they need pictures. I like Gustavo Duarte. His artwork in Bizarro, the road trip adventure with Jimmy Olsen was so fun. That's why I wanted to buy this 2023 one shot. Unfortunately, the stories in this book are far from superior to his previous work because some of the details get lost without those oh so important words. (To be fair, Duarte didn't write Bizarro. Heath Corson did and that might have something to do with the better storytelling.)

Still, Duarte's art was fantastic as usual. So whimsical. Quite funny. He's a master of caricature. And those creative Ideas. I'm game to read more future works by Gustavo Duarte. But the emphasis has to be on the word 'read'. We live in the age of talkies!

As for DC Comics - please keep taking digital works and giving them the paper treatment. Each trial might not be a success. But for those of us who love the floppy, please don't keep us in the digital dark. 

And please, make that Lobo against the Nazi vampires miniseries a reality... PLEASE!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

The Burnout Cure: Learning to Love Teaching Again by Chase Mielke

I started reading this book in January and had to take a break on it for a while. I teach high school culinary which hadn't been a easy thing to do with the pandemic happening during my first couple of years as a high school teacher. I had had several near breaking points in the past. So when my admin team offered this book as part of a book club for CEUs, I jumped at the opportunity.

I actually started out the 2023-24 school year pretty good. Aside from being the only teacher still wearing a mask, and being like the only person at my school to still not get COVID, the first half of the year started quite well. The winter holiday came, my wife and I dodged a bullet by not going to visit in-laws who all got sick and I started out the new year forgoing ice cream and OTC pain killers that I was taking way too many of and having fatty liver issues with. Through January, I was feeling really good. And then it was February...

Around February 2nd, I started feeling pain over not just all my joints, but in the very center of my bones. Especially my femurs. But worst of all was my skin condition from having a family genetic issue. I was feeling every inch of skin over my entire body at the same time. It was this burning itch, constantly. I couldn't sleep. I was so exhausted. I was miserable. 

Thankfully, the admin team leading the book club behind about this book was so supportive. The other participants were too. I still went to the meetings, but I gave up on the book because I just couldn't concentrate on it and I felt like I could only devote my small remaining energy to lesson plans and teaching. 

Things thankfully got better at the end of March, right before spring break. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Put on a couple of meds that calmed things down. And I learned about my condition and started figuring out ways to cope with the disease. 

So I started up the book in April. Nope. Then my goat was stolen. I went into an obsessive depression trying to find her. Then my Siamese cat Sarakit got sick and died. Needless to say, it took a while before I was in the right frame of mind to finish this book without giving in to burnout.

I set a goal to finish this book before I started back to work for the upcoming school year. I completed the last 100 pages with just over 4 weeks to go. Based on what I read in this book, I would like to think that author Chase Mielke would consider that a success! Goal achieved. 

The Burnout Cure is aimed at teachers because Mielke is a teacher himself. Or at least he was before winning some awards and then probably became administrator as what usually happens to the good ones. Anyways, despite the education career focus, this is a book that anyone needing help and encouragement surviving a job or career that just didn't turn out as well as expected could benefit from. It gives a ton of tips on how to interact instead of just dealing with the current generation of students. Plus it offers tips on finding the good based on the worth you place on yourself instead of how you interpret your management team values you.

For example, my program and school has produced 2 consecutive district Teacher of the Year winners. (One actually was eventually named TOY for our entire state). My department boss really made me feel valueless because of those winners and how she told me once that she shouldn't have hired me based on a lesson plan that was a huge success with the entire school, despite being a tad extravagant. Anyways, as I was continuously passed over for TOY (heck, I've never ever been nominated), I began really thinking that I was a terrible teacher. That thinking got extremely worse during my massive fibro flare over the winter. Yet, my book club and my wife pointed out that with having students asking if they could put up flyers for my missing goat, asking me to come to prom and then graduation and then after graduation requesting to have lunch with me over the summer as a group with me, the only teacher, it's those kind of relationships built that is way more important than winning TOY. 

Chase Mielke, has helped me reframe my thinking. Heck, I'm looking forward to going back to work... mostly. (I mean, what teacher wants to lose their vacation days?) With my illness, plus diabetes and anxiety disorder, I feel more empowered to say no and not for reasons of being a jerk. I also feel ready to focus on the student and parent relationships instead of just checking off boxes for the admin team's approval. 

If a book like this can win over a pessimist like me, even to the point that I am recommending this book to other teachers, as well as my bride...

Look, I'm still not a fan of the extra admin work we teachers are forced to do. And I'll continue to keep a secret weapon in my arsenal: my sarcastic and slightly dark sense of humor used to disarm tense situations in my classroom. But I feel that thanks to this book,  I can feel better in myself as an educator when I decide that my caring teaching relationships with my students are far more important than filling out busy work data projects for the department of education. If you're a teacher, especially one in need of encouragement because you'll on the cusp of calling it quits or pondering early retirement, you really should give this book a read! It very well could be the life preserver you need in order to keep making a difference in the life of a child.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Marge Book (The Simpsons Library of Wisdom)

Dive into the mind of the Simpsons family matriarch with The Marge Book. 

Now what I'm about to say is probably controversial, but I think out of the 5 members of the Simpsons family, Marge has got to be the least popular. There's no way she ranks higher than Homer or Bart. Lisa has got to be a solid third. And I just don't see Marge having more fans than baby Maggie. Yet, despite being a fuddy duddy and probably being more suited to being alive during the nuclear family 1950s, Marge is the heart and hope of America's favorite family.

This book is similar to the others in the Simpsons Library of Wisdom series. You get a couple of X-rays of what's on Marge's mind (along with just about everything she hides in that beehive hairstyle of hers), lists of her favorite and least favorite things, as well as some family history, only this time of the Bouvier's of Springfield USA. 

New to this book is a look at Marge's amateur art career, a serialized account of her desperate attempt to become a part of the neighborhood book club and tons of household tips about how to keep a clean house, especially one comprised of Homer and Bart. The parody segments are the best; like a list of Marge's Netflix account wish list and dangerous toys sold around the town. 

I think after reading this book there's only 2 or 3 that I haven't read yet. Those subjects include Ralph Wiggum, Flanders and Krusty the Clown. I know I've read Homer and Lisa's books. I just can't find evidence of this. That's probably because I read them in the years before I started my reading journal and that was over 15 years ago. OR- I'm confusing myself with the Simpsonology books which are similar in style and shape. Not sure about Comic Book Guy. I feel like I have read that one before. And don't get me started on the list of about 2 dozen 'fine works in progress.' This book is from 2009 and I really don't think HarperCollins ever got around to publishing the promised works about APU, Otto and Grandpa Simpson. Though if I am wrong about that, then I've got quite a few surprises to hunt for at my favorite used book shops.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Looney Tunes #279 (Family Comic Friday)

With just a week until the beginning of the 2024 Oylmpics, I've discovered another major franchise is getting into the spirit of things. In the latest issue of DC's Looney Tunes (which dropped just last Wednesday), Bugs Bunny hosts The Looney Games. Everyone from Michigan J. Frog to Taz, Lola Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn is completing in hopes of winning a medal in the games. Of course, the ever too over-confident Daffy Duck thinks he's going to sweep all the categories. But when Bugs fires the starting gun for the first race, causing Daffy to panic that duck hunting season has begun early this year, you know things are in trouble for the wisecracking mallard. 

This summer has also seen several major soccer championships taking place all over the globe. So it's only fitting that the back-up feature involves the world's most popular sport. Bugs answers an ad for a soccer tournament, which instead turns out to be a trap for some of the Looney Tunes' most dastardly characters to scare up some victims for a host of mad experiments. It looks like Bugs' goose is cooked. That is until he demands his foes challenge him in a match or- horror of horrors- the rascally rabbit will get his lawyers involved! 

Featuring Witch Hazel, Gossamer and a character I didn't know even existed, the Looney Tunes version of Dracula: Count Bloodcount! You know Bugs will play dirty against this squad of villains and we all love it!

It's rare when I think that the second story is better than the cover feature. Yet, that's how I felt with this issue and the soccer story was a reprint from like 10 years ago! I felt that the Olympic themed story was just too jammed packed. Derek Fridolfs along with Robert Pope crafted some great gags. But would it have been a bad thing to have let these two take over the whole issue with the Looney Games story? Less is not always more when it's a rapid fire of joke-joke-gag-joke-pun!

Plus, poor Wile E. Coyote! There's a scene where he's given a baton in the relay race and right before he's sent to claim victory, an anvil smashes him flat. In typical fashion, he lifts a placard that bemoans 'Why can't I win?' That just broke my heart. Why can't the Coyote win a race? He's not trying to eat anyone. I demand justice! I want a rematch!

For the parents out there, this issue has the typical amount of violence using dynamite, bear traps and mallets. Nobody stays hurt. But of course, some of the youngest of readers might not understand that sort of misadventure has long-term consequences of injury. If Looney Tunes is something you allow the little ones in your life to watch on TV, then there's nothing offensive here in this comic. As usual, it's up to the level of maturity in the readers as to whether your family can enjoy this sports themed comic this year or will have to wait until the Olympics of 2028 for a read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Paris born Yvan Alagbe builds upon his childhood in Benin, West Africa and adult years back in France to study physics and math to create a series of semi-autobiographical comics. A French citizen, Alagbe knows first hand the struggles of colonial born nationals who flee to France in hopes of a better life. Despite being French, the people of Algeria, Benin and French Guiyana who come to Europe for refuge are treated by the government and its French born subjects as second class. This is primarily because they are black.

'Yellow Negroes' is Yvan Alagbe's most famous work of which this collection of stories is named after. The term 'yellow negro' is used to describe blacks who are extremely light skinned. Originally a racist term coined by American whites, the term itself has a controversial love/hate relationship among the global black community. Alagbe is known for using thick brush strokes and black ink in his art. The use of pitch black ink on stark white paper paves the way for a shocking twist reveal at the end of 'Yellow Negroes'; a story about a ersatz family of Benin refugees who become the obsession of a mysterious old man named Mario.

'Yellow Negroes' was originally published in serialized form from 1994-95 in Le Cheval Sans Tete (The Headless Horse) a French anthology series co-created by Alagbe. The story was met with international acclaim and put the artist on the forefront of French alternative comics. In 2012, Alagbe's groundbreaking story, along with several other short pieces was released. Les Nègres jaunes et autres créatures imaginaires went through several printings before being translated into an English edition in 2018 as Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures.

The other works in this collection include the wordless 'Love' showing 2 lovers in a passionate embrace, 'DYAA' based on a fevered dream of Yvan Alagbe and 'Postcard From Montreuil' which records the daily struggles of undocumented workers in a Paris district.

This English edition was translated by Donald Nicolas-Smith. Being translated from one language to another, albeit both Romance languages, a lot of this book was a difficult read. It wasn't until after reading 'DYAA', that I learned that this was a dream of the artist's and not meant to really be understood. But a lot of the rest of this book felt very chaotic. As a fan of E.C. Comics, I loved the twist ending of the title story and I thought 'Postcard From Montreuil' was a powerful travel guide to an area of the City of Lights often not visited by tourists. 

Still, I wasn't really excited to read this book and if it wasn't that I needed it to complete my 2024 reading challenge, I probably wouldn't have read it at all.

Completing this review completes Task #35 (With the Word Yellow in the Title) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. And with this review, my 2024 challenge is completed!

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Queen in Comics

Queen in Comics is a bit of a misnomer. From the title, I thought it was going to be an anthology of various times where the Freddie Mercury fronted band appeared in comic books and graphic novels. In reality, the book is split into 2 parts that alternate from sequential art form vignettes of the 50 year plus history of the band along with long form articles that dig deeper into the history of Queen as seen by a variety of artists.

Originally published in French in 2021, the comic segments were written by Emmanuel Marie. The text of the articles were by Sophie Blitman. I counted at least 18 different artists, presumably all French. None of the contributors are names I'm familiar with. 

A long time fan of Queen, I've seen several documentaries about the band. I have both Greatest Hits, Volume 1 and 2 memorized. Experienced their set at Live Aid, live from my cousin's house. I read a biography about Mercury and I saw Bohemian Rhapsody- in the theaters twice. So I have a fairly good knowledge of their history. Yet, I found myself learning some new facts and anecdotes about the group. Things like the near homicidal collaboration between Queen and David Bowie on what would become one of my all-time favorite songs, Under Pressure. I learned about Michael Jackson's influence on releasing Another One Bites the Dust into becoming Queen's best selling single in the US, as well as how Jacko's llama nearly scared Freddie to death during a recording session. Plus there was a lot of details on the solo careers of Brian May and Roger Taylor; two members of the quartet who often get overlooked despite still being the only original members of the band remaining and rocking to this day.

Learning some new facts about one of my favorite bands is not to say that some important segments of Queen's history weren't glossed over. Nowhere is there any mention of Queen's involvement in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie that bombed big time but has grown into a cult favorite. A lot is also made of Freddie's dying wish to spend his remaining days recording music with his mates. But important songs from this era like I'm Going Slightly Mad and Mother Love are omitted. 

Speaking of the dying wish of Freddie Mercury, in 1987, the singer was diagnosed with HIV which soon developed into AIDS. Just about every previous resource I have consumed on the history of Queen discusses Mercury's homosexuality and probable causes of where and how he may have contracted the disease. While Freddie being gay is mentioned as is his final relationship with hairdresser Jim Hutton covered, I felt like Queen in Comics decided that discretion was the better part of valor when it comes to the many excesses of Freddie Mercury. 

Publisher NBM Graphic Novels has several other music graphic novels in their coffers. Rock history lessons on Bowie, The Beatles and Michael Jackson have peaked my interest and I would not be opposed to reading and possibly owning those volumes in the future.

A really interesting read that changes narrative perspectives as well as art forms frequently, just like Queen. A bit of glam rock, some punk and bits of jazz and opera. Queen in Comics doesn't paint a complete picture of the band. But it does manage to capture the ever changing musical and cultural influences of these rock legends quite nicely.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Our Army at War #81 Facsimile Edition

Whether or not you consider this facsimile edition of Our Army at War to contain the first appearance of the tough as nails Sgt. Rock, this issue was a fascinating piece of pop culture history.

A prototype of Sgt. Frank Rock had appeared in the war anthology series a couple of years prior. Because the character is referred to as 'Sgt. Rocky', some historians and fans consider issues #82-83 to be the soldier's official first appearances in comics, when he receives his official moniker. It feels a bit like the debate over what is the first appearance of Wolverine. Is it #180 with the Canuck's entrance on the book's very last panel or is it Incredible Hulk #181 where not only does the mutant appear throughout the whole book but makes the cover as well? What cannot be denied is that Our Army at War #81 marks the first appearance of the World War II Army unit called Easy Company, whose troops are the focus of 2 separate adventures. 

The cover by Jerry Grandenetti is super clean. It features the Rock character taking on a Nazi soldier welding a potato masher, while the American hero carries a fallen comrade on his back. It, along with the vibrant reproduction of those late 1950s ads are what sold me on the book. As for the material inside, it was a bit of a mixed bag that had great art, neat ideas and very limited dialogue to the point of getting annoying.

Aside from a couple of one and two-page shorts and a letters page, the main body of this book is written by Bob Haney. There's the Rocky story, the other Easy Company tale where 2 grunts take on an entire Nazi division, a morality play about a paratrooper jealous of his brother: the fighter pilot and a story of cat and mouse in the African desert. Each story focuses on a single phrase or word which is then used as nauseam in literally every panel. For instance, the paratrooper keeps referring to himself as a 'parachute pilot' because of how he can maneuver like a pro when falling while strapped to the silks. I've never heard this term before. It very well could be a thing soldier's during the second world war said. But the problem was that the jumper keeps beating himself up about not being good enough to be an actual pilot to the point I could pretty much determine what the character was going to whine about on the next scene... Verbatim!

I swear, if those 2 dog faces from Easy Company used the word 'pocket' one more time, I was going to scream. I think my wife appreciates that I kept my frustrations from just writing this review. But what do you know? The freakin' captured Kraut commander at the end of the story just has to say 'pocket!'

I did notice something unique about this DC Comics facsimile edition. At the bottom of the front page, underneath all the copyright jargon, there was a disclaimer. It stated that this issue contained material that was considered racist and stereotypical for the time period; both intentional and unintentional. Rather than remove the offense material, DC decided to leave this issue uncensored for historical purposes and in hopes of opening dialogue about sensitive matters. I'm perfectly okay with that. I just can't figure out what DC is talking about.

There's Nazis galore in this book. I think they get called 'Ratzis' at least once. Other than that, the stories in this book are extremely tame. I'm wondering if the disclaimer was about the ads, which are vintage 1959 comic book advertisements. One ad tells kids how to make money selling Bible Quotes door-to-door. Could that be the offensive material? The Bible doesn't offend me. But I know it can be a source of derision for some. Or is it the one-pager titled ' What's Your B.Q.?', brought to you by the National Social Welfare Assembly?

In this public service announcement, readers are asked to test their Brotherhood Quotient.  To do this, readers are asked to rate on a 4-point scale how well they like things such as 'cabbage, alligators, Catholics, Jews and Negroes'. The idea of this seems very shocking and misguided; which makes me wonder why the school district I work for hasn't tried to implement this test before with our high schoolers. You know what they say about where the road of good intentions leads to and I'm just gobsmacked to think that any public program with the purpose of spreading social unity thought this print commercial was a good idea! Even in 1959!!!

You know, I really can't figure out how to end this review. Holy cow! I'm dumbfounded. I plan on keeping this as I doubt I could ever afford a copy of the original and the Ross Andru and Russ Heath art is amazing. But man, I thought the tests in Cosmo were bad...

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Graphic Novel #18: The Sensational She-Hulk (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

John Byrne gives the Sensational She-Hulk the VIP treatment in the 18th edition of Marvel Graphic Novel. 

In 1979, when She-Hulk debuted in the pages of The Savage She-Hulk #1, aspiring lawyer Jennifer Walters would change into a rampaging green monster whenever someone made her mad. The transformation was like that of her cousin Bruce Banner, who was forced to give Walters a blood transfusion in order to save her life. Over time, Jen came to accept her She-Hulk form. When transformed, Walters is taller, stronger and much more attractive. Jen also becomes much more self confident and sensual as the She-Hulk, eventually earning membership as both an Avenger and part of the Fantastic Four.

The story opens with She-Hulk about to go out for a night on the town with her almost equally masculine beau, the Native American Wyatt Wingfoot. Unbeknownst to She-Hulk, she has been deemed a potential public menace due to a recent berserker rampage by the Incredible Hulk. The President of the United States has ordered SHIELD to bring in She-Hulk for a complete evaluation of the hero's prospective ability to become a threat to public safety. After a squadron of SHIELD agents in L-series anti-Hulk armor are unable to apprehend Jennifer, the law agency's acting director initiates emergency protocols and teleports She-Hulk and Wingfoot up onto the massive SHIELD helicarrier orbiting above the Manhattan skyline.

The action also beams aboard a number of civilians, including a homeless man that in the chaos allows him to slip away unseen. This failure to notice the man will go down as one of SHIELD's greatest blunders as the vagabond is something far more than human. Birthed from the same radioactive energy that courses through the veins of the Hulk and his cousin, the vagrant in reality is a living swarm of cockroaches! And this hive has plans to feast on the nuclear powered core of the SHIELD helicarrier!

After Jen Walter's tenure with the Fantastic Four, John Byrne would continue She-Hulk's solo adventures in the pages of The Sensational She-Hulk. This series would run from 1989-1994 for 60 issues. Byrne would write and illustrate a majority of the series over a course of 3 tenures. Marvel Graphic Novel #18 is a preview of what Byrne had in-store for the emerald enchantress. Sexy costumes, innuendo and partial nudity teases, which would be a staple of Bryne's She-Hulk run, are all a part of this 72-page story. In one scene, Jen is forced to be stripped searched. In observing the over exuberance of the SHIELD guards, She-Hulk asks if she should also jump rope while nude. This concept would go on to be the subject of one of many controversial Byrne covers which depict She-Hulk in a near state of undress.

(Byrne actually gives his rabid male a glimpse of uncensored She-Hulk as her entire nude backside is shown on a monitor in the background of one panel.)

Thanks to She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, a 2023 live action series starring Tatiana Maslany on Disney+, She-Hulk back issues have been in hot demand. This graphic novel doesn't appear to have been off many speculators' radar. Copies of this book can be found online with asking prices as high as $200 with $25 being about the average price requested by online sellers. A non-graded issue was featured recently on a Central North Carolina area comic shop's Facebook page for a similar price. 

John Byrne's artwork was inked by Kim DeMulder and vividly colored by Petra Scotese.

Completing this review completes Task #19 (Recommended by a Comic Book Store) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Showcase Presents: The Atom, Vol. 1 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

When scientist Ray Palmer witnesses a meteorite crash on the outskirts of his hometown of Ivy Town, the event changes his life forever. Palmer determines that the fragment is part of an exploded white dwarf star. After several months of experiments, Ray makes a specially designed lens out of the material. When using light to focus the radiation from the meteor, it shrink objects down to about 6 inches in size. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, the shrunken item will inexplicably explode.

One afternoon, while spelunking a nearby cavern, a cave-in occurs, trapping Ray Palmer and some undergrads. Ray finds a escape. Only he's too big to make it through. Thankfully, Ray has his special lens with him and using sunlight pouring through the opening, Palmer is able to reduce his size and to create an escape for him and his students.

After the cave-in, Palmer develops a suit out of the remaining white dwarf material that allows him to shrink without becoming a human grenade. Palmer also equips the suit with a special control dial that not only shrinks him down to microscopic size, but controls his density. Now going by the name, the Atom: the World's Smallest Superhero, Ray Palmer fights crime with an ulterior motive - love. 

Ray's girlfriend, Jean Loring, is an aspiring lawyer. She refuses to accept Ray's many marriage proposals until she can make her name as a top defense attorney. Thus Ray will assist Jean secretly as the Atom in hopes that she'll eventually say yes. In order to finally obtain an 'I Do' from Jean Loring, the Atom will fight an assortment of small time crooks and advanced super villains. 

The Atom's early Rogue's Gallery will include the Floronic Man, Jason Woodrue, master of luminescence, Doctor Light and the time manipulating criminal known as Chronos. Sadly, Ray's relationship with Jean Loring and his battles with Doctor Light only happen to dredge up painful memories to devoted readers of the Atom, as later in pages of Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis, the two characters in the Atom's life will be responsible for the tragic death of fan-favorite character, Sue Disney.

The Atom was created by Gardner Fox, who frequently claimed that his ideas came to him in his dreams. A legacy character, the Atom was a Silver Age re-imagination of a diminutive powerhouse member of the Justice Society of America with the same name. The Silver Age character was designed by Gil Kane with Ray Palmer's features based on Hollywood actor Robert Taylor in his younger days. The Atom debuted in the September/October, 1961 issue of Showcase. The Atom would star in issues #34-36, before being awarded his own title in the summer of 1962. 

The first of two volumes of Showcase Presents featuring the Atom; this collection was published in 2007. It collects those trio of appearances in Showcase along with the first 17 issues of The Atom. Readers will delight in the hero's first of many iconic team ups with Hawkman. The Atom also has meetings with several important historical figures in a series of time traveling adventures. Referred to as ' Time Pool Stories ', the Atom frequently traveled through a time vortex, unbeknownst to a colleague of Ray Palmer's. In the past, the Atom would assist Henry Hudson, Edgar Allen Poe and others as the pint-sized hero solved some of history's greatest mysteries.

Gardner Fox wrote all of the scripts with Gil Kane as sole artist. Duties on inker were primarily achieved by Murphy Anderson, with Sid Greene as a substitute.

Completing this review completes Task #34 (Written by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane or George Tuska) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Owly: Tiny Tales (Family Comic Friday)

Owly and his adorable forest friends are back in this all-new collection of short stories!

It's game night at Owly's house. Only tonight, the gang decide to explore their host's photo album. Each picture sends the group of friends on a trip down memory lane in a series of 9 shorts. There's adventure, drama, comedy and above all, love in these tales that prove that Owly really is the world's best friend!

I've sung the praises of Owly before. Series creator Andy Runton developed this magical world filled with creatures that I am just in love with. My favorite character is Possey, an encouraging opossum who can wrangle Owly's friends behind any cause. In Tiny Tales, I was introduced to Scampy, the ever hungry chipmunk who will steal your heart.

I had worried for a brief while that there weren't to be any new Owly stories as Runton had gone an a bit of a long hiatus. Thankfully, that break seems to be over with this return of Owly and friends. Though I have got to wonder, why hasn't Owly received the animated series treatment?! Andy Runton's comics would make a great pre-school series that easily could be at home on Netflix or Nick Jr.

I feel like Owly has grown up a bit with this revival title. Maybe I'm wrong. But I seem to remember all of the characters speaking in pictograms with just the occasional word to help along the narrative. Here, Owly still speaks in pictures but his friends now all seem to speak a kind of pigeon dialect of pics and words. Plus, there's an unseen narrator who helps the stories to progress. If this is a new direction for the series, then I am all in.

One thing else that I noticed with Owly's return: the art. I've long since been a fan of it. But gosh darn it, it appears that Andy Runton's work has just gotten even more polished and oh that much more adorable. Runton's smaller characters such as Possey and Scampy look like what you'd imagine Charles Shulz's Peanuts characters would appear as if they were all woodland creatures. When Runton illustrates those characters with their tiny paws pressed together and their faces are glowing with joy, it just melts my heart and I wholeheartedly believe that it will melt the hearts of the young reader in your lives too 

Ultimate fun for readers ages 5-9. The pictograms can make the stories fun for younger readers. However, the story 'Breakin the Ice' where Owly accidentally falls through a frozen pond may be a little too intense for them. Thankfully, it is an episode that ends with a happy ending.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Ghost World (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Now considered one of the greatest Indy graphic novels of all-time, Ghost World was first a serialized segment running throughout  several issues of Daniel Clowes' anthology series Eightball. Ghost World ran from issues #11-17 over the time span of 1993-1997. As with many Indy comics, funding and time can be tough to obtain. Thus, that is why it took nearly 4 years to teach the coming of age story of two best friends, Enid Coleslaw and Becky Doppelmeyer.

Brunette Enid is very cynical and opinionated. She loves to play pranks and to express herself creatively. Blonde Becky on the other hand is very reserved. Considered not as pretty or smart as Enid, at least to herself, Becky is more kindhearted and willing to learn other people's perspectives in order to find her place in the world. Together, Enid and Becky are two young women fresh out of high school, attempting to navigate their looming post-high school future.

(Fun Fact: the name Enid Coleslaw is an anagram for Daniel Clowes, who in many ways saw the young girl as a personification of himself and his views on life.)

In 1997 Ghost World was finally compiled into graphic novel form by Fantagraphics where it began to garnish more mainstream attention. But what sent Ghost World into the stratosphere was a 2001 motion picture adaptation starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. The film was made for a moderate price of $7 million dollars. It co-stars Steve Buscemi, Debra Azar, Bob Balaban and the late Brad Renfro. Directed by Crumb's Terry Zwigoff, who co-wrote the screenplay with Clowes., the film is a rather tight adaptation, though a few characters in the film are composites of those in the comic.

Unfortunately, the movie, released by United Artists, only made about $9 million dollars in theaters. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Ghost World was a critical hit. It later garnished cult film status and is regarded by many as one of the best comic book movies of all-time. Ghost World was added to the Criterion Collection in 2017.

As for the graphic novel, it too is considered a masterpiece. It reads more as a series of vignettes than as a long-form cohesive story, as many key events in Enid and Becky's final Summer before womanhood are never seen; just mentioned in passing. In 1998 it won an Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel. Ghost World now ranks up there with Maus and Watchmen on many experts top lists of greatest graphic novels and comics of all-time. The success of the graphic novel and film adaptation of Ghost World have elevated Daniel Clowes as one of history's greatest Indy comics creators, culminating in a coveted Inkpot Award in 2006.

Completing this review completes Task #45 (A Comic or Graphic Novel Made Into a Movie) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Generic Comic #1

Never before has a comic book cover offered so little that it has inspired generations of fans to seek it out as a part of their collections nearly 40 years after its release.

According to the cover, this one-shot offers a self-doubting superhero with real life problems, a villain with a shtick out to rule the world, a good looking (but otherwise absent) girlfriend, family drama, conflict, twists, turns and fisticuffs. Basically the sort of stuff you would find in just about any other Marvel Comic on shelves in 1984.

Marvel's Generic Comic was the idea of then Marvel editor Larry Hama. Hama had been toying with the satirical idea of a story that checked off all the boxes of the Marvel style of comics a year or so earlier. Hama had planned to include such a story in the pages of Marvel's humor mag Crazy, when the publisher unceremoniously pulled the plug on the MAD Magazine imitator. 

Larry Hama was not a creative force known to let a good idea die, no matter how generic. Over the course of about a year, Hama kept pitching the idea until editor Tom DeFalco caught on to the concept and the project was greenlit. Steve Skeates was assigned writing duties for a project he went on to proclaim the most fun project he had in his career up to that point.

Generic Comic tells the origin story of a character commonly referred to as The Unnamed Super-Hero. With his brother Bobby in a coma and a girlfriend tired of waiting for a proposal, he's desperate for a long promised promotion. A collector of glow-in-the-dark chatchkes, the lad gains all around super powers when he smashes his Three Mile Island snow globe in frustration. Along with abilities of flight, speed and super hearing, the young man's lanky body begins to rival that of a bodybuilder. 

Seeing a chance at changing his fortune, the man decides to become a super hero. Thanks to an ad in the morning paper, he heads down to a superhero supply store for a costume. All he can afford is a generic all-white bodysuit complete with equally plain domino mask and cape. It's not much to look at. But at least it matches his hair which turned white thanks to all that radioactive day-glo.

Things begin to look up for the newest hero of the world designated Earth-84041. He performs a couple of acts of heroism. A couple of goons are defeated. However, this string of good luck comes crashing down when the Unnamed Super-Hero meets the Unnamed Super-Villain who comes complete with a special hypnotic helmet that causes the protagonist to lose his confidence and become a quivering ball of jelly!

It seems rather odd that Marvel would back such an unusual project. Especially one that openly mocks the very formula of the House of Ideas. One theory is that Marvel supported the project in order to secure the copyright to the terms 'Super-Hero' and 'Super-Villain'. If you use a magnifying glass or a dose of super-vision, readers will notice that under the copyright information on the bottom front page, it does indeed state that Marvel co-owned both terms. If it's true, this seems like a legal blunder on par with Marvel's earlier attempt to enforce their copyright on the word 'Zombie.' However, some fans dispute this theory claiming that the copyright statement was a joke put in by Hama or DeFalco.

Unfortunately to this day, we still don't know how illustrated and inked the book. Not a single by-line credit is attributed to anyone, anywhere in the book. Despite both Hama and Skeates discussing their roles in creating the Generic Comic in interviews, it's a real head scratcher that nobody has ever asked for them to identify the missing staff members who contributed to this uniquely common work.

Worth Consuming!- if only for being such an oddity!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Smurfs Olympic Special (Family Comic Friday)

The Olympic games in Paris are less than 3 weeks away and I'm absolutely thrilled that Papercutz is celebrating with this Smurftastic special. Reprinting the story 'The Smurf Olympics' from 1979, the torch is passed to the next generation of Smurf fans with this one-shot floppy.

Hefty Smurf is unhappy with how lazy his fellow Smurfs are. In order to help get them into better shape, he proposes a series of games in which the winners get medals. Oh, and a kiss from Smurfette!

The village splits into 2 teams. Sadly, nobody wants fragile Weakling Smurf on their squad, so he becomes a team of one! 

This yarn becomes two stories at this point. Hefty is engulfed in a comedy of errors as he can't get any of his fellow Smurfs to act serious. Meanwhile Weakling Smurf is starring in his own version of the Tortoise and the Hare as he tries so very hard to train (in vain) for the forthcoming Smurf Olympics. Add in Brainy Smurf driving everyone crazy as the official referee of the competition and the wisdom of Poppa Smurf and you've got yourself about as perfect as a Smurf adventure as you can get without the presence of Gargamel and his cat Azrael!

I had debated on whether or not to pre-order a copy of this book from my favorite local comic shop. I'm trying to scale back my collection a bit. Plus I read about this book a week late because I was on vacation when the Previews for this special dropped. I figured if I tried to order it later, I probably wouldn't get my hands on a copy until AFTER the Olympics had passed. So I was content to miss out on a copy. Imagine my surprise when I went to my favorite store just yesterday and they had a couple of copies available on the shelves at the checkout. I figured this is kinda a holiday special and since they went to the trouble of ordering this, I happily made it a part of my collection.

Now this isn't the story's first time in print. There's the original version in France which a year later was serialized in a couple European mags. Just a couple of years ago, Papercutz released the story as part of their Smurfs 3-in-1 anthology series in volume 4. There have also been countless adaptations of the story in the 40 years in-between publishing. I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying a comic book, especially if it's one I review for Family Comic Friday. However, as there isn't any new material in the Smurfs Olympic Special, if the young reader in your life already owns Smurfs 3-in-1, Volume 4 already, save your money. OR... buy a copy for another deserving young reader who might be thinking about getting into comics. 

Lastly, for those of you parents and guardians who like me heard the myth growing up that the Smurfs are demonic. There's no magic in this story. Except for a couple exploding tricks from Jokey Smurf, this isn't even a violent tale. From what I can tell, it was the Jehovah's Witnesses who declared the Smurfs to be Satanic. As with every family friendly book I review, I leave it up to the parents to ultimately decide. However, if this book ends up being a hit in your home, check out the Smurfs official channel on Youtube where they've got the 1983 hour-long animated Smurf Olympic Special ready for viewing! It could be a lot of fun and cool way to beat the Summer heat as you prepare for the real games later this month!

Nostalgic with a heart-warming ending. A very liberal use of the word 'Smurf' as a substitute for other words that can get a little confusing and annoying. But something multiple generations of readers can enjoy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.