Starburns Presents (Free Comic Book Day 2018)

If you were a fan of the NBC comedy Community, then you are familiar with the character of Star-burns. For those of you who have absolutely zero idea what I am talking about, Star-burns was a burnt-out stoner with sideburns shaved into the shape of stars. He wasn't very smart and often ran slightly illegal hustles on campus.

The character was played by Dino Stamatopoulos, who was also a producer and writer on the show. A good buddy of Community creator Dan Harmon, Stamatopoulos along with Patton Oswalt and Harmon sought to create a Kickstarter funded comic book publishing company called Starburns Industries. Well, I don't think things got off to such a great start as I cannot find anything in print by SBI other than this 2018 Free Comic Book Day release. 

Starburns Presents is an anthology made up of 5 different stories. Patton Oswalt pens a true life tale about his first encounter with the costumed performers on the streets of Hollywood. Penciled by Troy Nixey (Vinegar Teeth), it's the best story of the bunch. 

The David Clarke (Heroes R Us) story of Oddwell is supposed to be about a frog hero in a mythical land. But the story has zero frogs and dozens of houseflies.

Hellicious by Welcome to Paradise's Alan C. Medina is about a little blonde haired moppet who might be the devil incarnate- or maybe one of his kids. 

Dan Harmon's Gregory Graves was my least favorite entry. It did have a good cliffhanger ending. But for the most part, this story was very confusing. Plus, I don't think we'll ever get a conclusion to this adventure since it looks like SBI is defunct.

The last couple of pages are from Stamatopoulos himself. It's a blend of weird infomercials and parody ads like you would see in a comic book. It's got a funny charm. But there are a lot of inside jokes that if you aren't really hip on the Dan Harmon conglomerate, you will more than likely miss out on the punchline. 

If you do a search for SBI, you find a website that specializes in online animated shorts and humorous cassette tapes. (Who still listens to cassette tapes?!) But there's nothing to be found in the comic book or graphic novel department. Chalk this book up to one of the many big ideas that never was fully explored in comics... But from the reading of most of these stories, I can understand why!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Rick and Morty, Volume One

 

   When it comes to the subject matter of the graphic novel that I'm about to review, Rick and Morty, let me be very clear: I've never seen the show! In fact, if it wasn't for my receiving a copy of this book in a Comic Bento Box, I probably wouldn't have bought this volume.

      If we're confessing secrets here, I had been sitting on this book for a while and if it was for a recent episode of Comic Book Men which features the first issue, I probably would still be letting this book collect dust on my To-Read shelf. But the gang on the AMC show pique my interest, so I gave it a read.

    Rick and Morty is an animated series that airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. It's been described as a naughty and wicked version of Back to the Future. After reading this collection of the first six issues based on the Dan Harmon (Community) series, I would have to agree.

    Rick Sanchez is an inventor with a mysterious past. For the past 20 years or so, he feel off the face of the earth, literally. During his 'lost weekend', Rick manipulated and profited from misuse of the time-stream and the multiverse. The inventor has become such a menace that not only is he on public enemy #1 of various agencies that govern time travelling and intergalactic empires, but he's also the target of the infinite number of Rick Sanchez's of the multiverse in whom's names and reputations he has ruined.

    Laying low, Rick Sanchez returns to the present day where he lives with his daughter. But domestic life has very little thrill for Rick. So when adventure calls he recruits his grandson Morty to help him reek more havoc on the multiverse. Up first- playing the futures market for fun, profit, and maybe some mass destruction of a universe or two.

     This volume was crazy. I enjoyed it, though I've never seen the show. Has this made me want to turn on Adult Swim and binge watch it till the cows come home? More than likely no- though if I was flipping channels and I came across and episode, I would definitely give it a shot. 

     I'm also not likely to collect this series. But if I found further volumes for a decent price, I would buy them, not wait so long, and read them. But like I'm going to do with this volume, I will probably sell them to a used book store to get trade credit for something else I want as a permanent addition to my collection. 

     BTW- folks, this might look like an innocent cartoon comic. But Rick and Morty is one of the darkest cartoons out there. This is not for kids. With excessive violence, unedited language, and some mildly heavily sexual themes, this is a teens or older book for sure.

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.