The Tick: Local Comic Shop Day Edition #1

Local Comic Shop Day is an industry created holiday that many comic collectors and geeks look forward to. Though not as popular as it's sister festivity, the much more established Free Comic Book Day, Local Comic Shop Day seeks to encourage fans to support their nearest comic shop with some freebies and exclusives. FCBD takes place every May. LCSD is held 6 months later in November, with hopes that the proximity to the beginning of the holiday shopping season that a visit to your favorite comic book store will inspire shoppers and fill up wish lists.

This 2016 offering stars one of my all-time favorite characters, the Tick. Big Blue and his pudgy sidekick Arthur star in 2 stories. The first adventure sees the return of the original Tick villains, the Ninjas! Wanting to stop a resurgence before it gets out of hand, Tick and Arthur don ninja costumes to infiltrate the forthcoming interest meeting. Only, it turns out that this meeting was a sting operated by one of Tick's cronies. And then it comes to light that other attendees are also heroes in disguise hoping to stop the next generation of ninjas. Is anyone at this meeting an actual ninja?

Story #2 introduces a new villain to the Tick universe. Enter: The Lyme. Wearing a costume just like the Tick, only it's green, this guy is like the Anti-Tick! No, it's not Barry. This new player is genuinely rude, crude and unwilling to stomp out evil! Everything the Tick is not and hopefully, someone who will be making more appearances in the future!

A year later, New England Comics released a 4-issue all-color miniseries. Maybe this free comic was a glimpse into that title. There are ninjas on the cover of #1. But I've not read it yet as I just recently added issues 2-4 to my collection a short while ago. Maybe it's time to read it. 

This free comic was funny. It was a much needed read after a couple of tense, but not terrible, days at work. No matter who is writing or drawing this book, Tick stories are always good for some mindless entertainment and this book did not disappoint in the least.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #163

Issue #164 appears to be full of promise as 3 segments come to a close in this issue. 

If you recall what I said in my review of the last issue, the Vengeance/Diabolique story has been straddling the line between chilling thriller and occult horror that I just can't stand reading. Well, the finale crossed that line and scared the hell outta me. If you ask me, I don't think that this is the last we've seen of evil little Diabolique. That prospect is going to keep me up at night...

The New Warriors story ends with a pleasing guest cameo from a bizarre and rarely seen member of the FF Family. It was a great story if only for the inclusion of Slapstick, the Living Cartoon. I'm more than willing to give this era's New Warriors regular series a read in hopes it captured just a fraction of the insanity and laughs. 

As for the Mace story, it ended on an uptick. The middle two chapters had been rather cliched what with ninjas and clones and such. But the ending added a depth of mystery missing since the introductory chapter. Still, it wasn't enough to turn my into a fan.

Tigra's story rounds out the quartet. The former Avenger has taken refuge in the Australian Outback and everything seems idyllic. That is until a group of mercenaries arrives at the village that houses Tigra and kidnaps most of the population. Now Tigra is on the hunt for her missing 'kinsmen'.

The plot of the Tigra story doesn't really do anything for me. But that John Czop (New Warriors) artwork is just breathtaking. Pretty risque stuff for 1994 Marvel Comics.

2 great stories come to an end here. A third story at least comes to a thankful end. And the 4th is at least a feast for the eyes. Overall, it's a good read. But I can't wait to see what the next issue brings with 3 all new stories waiting in the wings.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Marvel Comics Presents #162

The lone segment that is brand new stars the former Avenger, Tigra. Having found a new home in the Australian outback, the bikini-clad hero has become a defacto leader of a tribe of indigenous peoples. She'll hopefully become their savior when a group of guerrillas arrives and enslaves a good chunk of the village population.

The Vengeance story continues to chill me to my very core. The demonic moppet known as Diabolique is pretty uh, well, demonic. We learn that while her green pal Playmate is technically her servant, Diabolique is servant to an ancient Persian evil...

I love the New Warriors story. Slapstick is a great addition to it. The time bending properties of the villain is awesome. The banter is hilarious. Art is excellent. I just love everything about this story.

When it comes to the story about Mace, the cloned ninja assassin, I've gotten bored with it. Just seems like every clone action movie story that floated around in the early 90s. I'll be glad when this one ends.

If Slapstick would have joined the New Warriors around this time period, I'd probably be adding those books to my wish list. While the Living Cartoon does eventually become a New Warrior, it's not until later on and probably not as hilarious as this story starring Slapstick has been.

I like the Vengeance story. It's a horror tale that is a good scare. Demons and that sort of terror isn't really my thing and Diabolique is just barely tolerable. If things get more evil, I probably will find my enjoyment of this story start to 180. Plus, that big baddie reveal; I feel it's taken some inspiration from Stephen King's It...

As for the Tigra story, the narrative is still building. But that artwork by John Czop (New Warriors) is, well, I like to think of myself as a gentleman. Put it this way, if you remember the Marvel Swimsuit Specials of the 90s, then you'll get my drift with how Czop has illustrated the very slinky Tigra. It's very risque stuff for a Comics Code approved work.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

G.I. Joe: Arashikage Showdown

Gosh darn it if ninjas aren't the breakout stars of the G.I. Joe franchise. You've got members of every branch of the US military. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard. There's probably a TSA agent on the team nowadays. On the side of the baddies, you've got swamp rats and punks, iron clad aristocrats, and robots. And just who are the more popular characters of the series? It's the freakin' ninjas!

Their popularity is all due to the godfather of G.I. Joe, Larry Hama. He was tasked with creating an interesting background for a Hasbro cost cutting measure and out of his bag of tricks, Hama gives us Snake-Eyes. Hama pulled from his Japanese heritage to give a rather bland looking all-black plastic 3.75 inch action figure an awesome background story. A veteran of the Vietnam war, Snake-Eyes is injured in a helicopter crash. Having lost his ability to talk and basically looking like a full-faced Two-Face, Snake-Eyes trains to become a ninja of the Arashikage Clan which is kind of a big deal since Snake-Eyes is a white guy and ninjas are supposed to be extinct. 

That's pretty much where we come in with this Manga G.I. Joe story from Devil's Due Publishing imprint D3. Snake-Eyes, along with Scarlett are summoned to Japan by former Joes Jinx and Nunchuk. An ancient scroll thought lost for centuries has been stolen. This parchment, hidden since the fall of the ninja, speaks of amazing powers that can make a ninja invisible in daylight. In the hands of an evil force like Cobra it can be destructive to world peacekeeping efforts. For the few remaining members of the Arashikage clan, it's personal.

I'm not known for being a fan of manga. But I am an established fan of G.I. Joe. I've read the complete Marvel run. I'm close to complete ownership of the other Marvel Joe supplemental series. And I am slowly getting the Devil's Due and IDW runs. Thus I felt when I found this book a couple of years ago, I couldn't pass it up. 

I didn't sit on this book because of any attempt to get the rest of the Devil's Due run. In fact, I didn't know that D3 was in any way related to Devil's Due. No, the reason I waited a while to read this is because I was looking for Volume 2. Guess what? There is no Volume 2! As with a lot of non-Japanese manga publishers in the 2000s, D3 went defunct soon after the publication of this here Volume 1. 

The story by Joshua Blaylock (Mercy Sparx) was very confusing. There's a bunch of names of clans, historical characters and Joe characters that I wasn't familiar with. That's because even though this is a one-shot manga, Arashikage Showdown was tied-in to the regular Devil's Due comic. Technically, it's also tied into the original Marvel Comics series. 

Keep in mind I haven't read any of the Devil's Due books. There's a character in this manga called Kamakura. He's Snake-Eyes apprentice. I had no idea who this new ninja Joe was. That was until I Googled him and learned that Kamakura is actually little Sean Broca, all grown up! (Don't remember Sean? Surely you'll remember Fred Broca, the Crimson Guardsman who is later replaced by Wade Collins!)

I think if I hadn't had Google at my beck and call, I would have hated this book. The artwork was decent. It didn't look all that very Manga-like. Well, until we had that very clunky looking ritual performed by Snake-Eyes. Over the span of several pages! Then the artwork got more emoji than emotional and it started to look less like something that was my thing and more of the interest of fans of anime would like. 

A saving grace for this book was the 4-page ending. It was powerful. It was deep. It was so good I re-read that segment twice. And it helps to save my review of this book!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #64

Vampires are the subject once more for the second issue in a row with a one-and-done starring Blade! With appearances of Safron Caulder, Hannibal King and Frank Drake, this felt like a missing issue from Tomb of Dracula. Old Fang-Face is mentioned. But he doesn't appear. Darn!

The Fantastic Four start off a 5-part series. It looks like the first 4 parts are going to focus on a single member of Marvel's First Family. First up is Mr. Fantastic.

Wolverine and Ghost Rider... AND Ninjas! Logan's foes are in Madripoor. Danny Ketch's are in Brooklyn. And it looks like both anti-heroes are heading for a showdown in the heart of Manhattan!

Meanwhile Poison finally meets the Mop Man and the reason why someone is trying to kill this poor paranoid schizophrenic with special powers is finally revealed. And it's one of the dumbest reasons for trying to kill a man. Apparently, when Mop Man is sane- he's quite the lover. And so jealous boyfriend who is like a wealthy day trader with fancy apartment, nice threads and an even nicer car has decided to hire a hit man. A hit man employed by one very large nasty crime lord.

A good run of 3 great entries and one tale that is completely flying off the rails. It's interesting. But geez, that Poison tale is it really implausible. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Volume 3: King Radical

 

Oooooooh, slanty.

 In volume 2, the whole world saw Dr. McNinja and mayor of Cumberland, Chuck Goodrich die in a fiery shuttle crash as they tried to save the world from dinosaurs. Or was it zombies? Or was it zombies riding on dinosaurs? Without it's heroes, a power vacuum forms in the city, as McNinja's arch-enemy King Radical seeks to claim the burg as his criminal base of operations under the guise of being the community's new benefactor. But when a hobo uses a bizarre clause in the city's charter to become the new mayor of Cumberland, it puts a serious crimp in the Monarch of Awesome's style. Though having a powerful mummy for assistant mayor helps too.

    Join McNinja's family, his 12-year old mustached sidekick Gordito, his ape secretary Judy, and the rest of the McNinja gang of oddballs as they try to keep the peace in the good doctor's memory. That's easier said than done now that a powerful demon has come searching for Mayor Goodrich's soul and an insane Jesuit gym teacher has shown up at the local Catholic high-school. And just who is this mysterious new doctor wearing a Lucha libra mask and has the ability to cure a disease that turns people's butts into spiders at night?

   Okay- I can't believe I just typed that last sentence...

   Anyways. I was first introduced to the madcap world of Christopher Hastings and Anthony Clark's Dr. McNinja about a year ago when my library had volumes 1&2 on the new shelf. The udder ridiculousness of a ninja doctor trying to thwart the attempts of a Burger King look-a-like powered by Mountain Dew from taking over the world was just perfect for me.  I love absurd stuff and this is about as surreal as it gets. Time travel, mummy's curses, cities turned into giant robots, zombies, and massive orders of 200 expensive pizzas are just some of the bizarre things waiting inside this book based on the webcomic of the same name.

    Readers of my blog will note that I love the oddball comic series The Tick. But Dr. McNinja is completely different. For one thing, the Tick is a parody whereas, okay, honestly, I don't know what the hell to classify McNinja as... The closest I can I come to classifying this series is that it is a surrealist slapstick comedy a la Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges. In terms of other comic books, this book is a lot like another Dark Horse publication called Axe Cop. Only, this book wasn't written by a 5-year. (And that's not an insult! Axe Cop really was written by a 5-year old, though he's much older now. Google it...)

    I enjoyed this book but not as much as I think I could have. Having been so long since I read volumes 1& 2, I was a little lost trying to re-familarize myself with this series. It's one reason why I like to have all of a series before I read it but when you are depending on the library to help supplement your comic book collecting and reading, then beggars can't be choosers.  But if you are new to this series and somehow get the chance to get your hands on all three volumes at once, I think you'll truly benefit by reading them all in a close grouping.

    Amazingly clean art, crazy plots and even crazier ideas, and tons of surprises, Dr. McNinja, volume 3 is a great read, even if you did forget some of what happened earlier in the story. It's not like we've got the brilliant photographic memory of a ninja or something...

   Worth Consuming

     Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Adventures of Dr. McNinja, volume 2: Timefist

Well, it didn’t take very long for me to return to the strange world of Dr. McNinja. Part ninja, part doctor, all Irish (?)- and completely insane, in this volume Doctor McNinja experiences a number of space/time continuum bending adventures. First, The McNinja family has their annual battle with a clan of pirates and we learn the not-so terrible secret behind how McNinja was able to obtain a degree in every field. Then McNinja and a time-travelling clone of the mayor must hi-jack a space shuttle to prevent sentient dinosaurs from outer space from retaking control of the earth. Lastly, McNinja and the mayor clone end up in an alternate time-line in the future, during which said space dinosaurs have ruled the world with an iron stumpy fist for 2 decades.

 

While I very much enjoyed this volume and hope to get my hands on more titles in the future, this volume wasn’t quite as good as the first. The biggest problem was that there was a lot of references to works I hadn’t read yet. Dr. McNinja has been a web series for years and those stories have been reprinted before. Yet, Dark Horse Comics has only published 2 volumes; neither of which contain any of the stories that Christopher Hastings references to in his editorial comments.

 

Also making this story not quite as good as the first is the quantum mechanics of the plot. I love time travel and alternate timeline stories. These tales are very good. However, they may be a little too good. One thing that makes me a fan of Doctor Who is the Timey-Wimey/ Wibbly-Wobbly nature of time travel- meaning time can be rewritten. In this series, time can’t be rewritten, thus if someone travels in time, they create parallel universes, much like Marty does in Back to the Future (parts 1, 2, and 3- but mostly 2.) There’s even a chart in the last story that makes some of the timeline confusion involve a little less head scratching. It helps, but it’s a lot of information to keep straight.

 

Lastly, I want to give kudos to the short story at the end of this volume. I mentioned in my review of volume 1 that Dr. McNinja reminds me so much of Axe Cop, that I heard Axe Cop’s voice when McNinja talks. Well, in this book, I’m hearing double as McNinja and Axe Cop meet for a tale that involves pizzas that turn it’s eaters into blobbish mutants. No, this isn’t an allegory for the obesity problem in America in relation to fast food. Well, it might be, but I think it was unintentional. The team-up was also and I hope the two heroes of the bizarre will reunite real soon. Hopefully, the big-wigs at Fox will take note and add Dr. McNinja to their Animation Domination line-up on Saturday nights. (As well as renew Axe Cop for some new episodes.)

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja volume 1: Night Powers

 

Holey Mol-ey! Am I in love with the one web comic in world history to star an Irish Ninja physician! Dr. McNinja is all three things rolled into one and his world is totally insane. Helping McNinja save the world from evil is his gorilla secretary, Judy and his 12-year old sidekick, Gordito, a cowboy that rides a velociraptor and bears a full mustache.

 

If this series seems completely nuts, it is! There’s definite elements of the Tick, Deadpool, and Supernatural Law. But the comic that is the most like Dr. McNinja is another classic web series known as Axe Cop! This series isn’t written by a six-year old. But when I read McNinja speck, I hear Axe Cop’s voice in my head. (Axe Cop is also an animated feature on Fox and is voiced by the epic Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec.

 

Adding to the craziness are the tiny blurbs on the bottom on each page by series creator Christopher Hastings. They’re like a director’s cut for the absurd.

 

I found this book at my local library. I love that place. I am so glad that they had this book as well as a second volume in the series, which I look forward to eagerly. I have only read one book so far, yet Dr. McNinja has already become not only one of my favorite independent comics, but one of my favorite comics series of all-time. Fantastically bizarre stuff.

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

 

Guns of the Dragon #4

This “prequel” comic concludes with an epic battle between Bat Lash & Enemy Ace vs. Vandal Savage. If you remember in the last book’s review I said that a character’s death was “actually something I saw coming. However, I would not be surprised if this character pops back up” in issue #4. Well, that prediction came true. 

But it’s the predictable resurrection that isn’t what’s wrong with this issue. No, that so of thinly veiled plot is forgivable. What isn’t pardonable is how poor the art is. The first three issues were fantastically drawn. The art was very much in the style of the great Joe Kubert. The art in this issue was drawn by the same artist as in all of the other issues. But, the art in this chapter looks rushed and the inking is quite heavily. It’s almost as if the inker’s brush was frayed and dripping ink everywhere. Yes, an inker can affect the art, but upon closer study, I really don’t think the lack of quality is his entire fault. At least half of the blame falls on artist/ scribe Timothy Truman.

Overall, this was a really good series aside from the piss-poor art and inking in this final chapter. Guns of the Dragon is full of action and adventure, it was like reading a Saturday morning serial. I could see Spielberg directing this with special effects by Lucas’ ILM studios. The ending is left open. I wonder if there were intentions to craft a sequel. Maybe there is a sequel to this mini-series and I just don’t know about it yet. It’s very possible that the events of this series affect another series, like Justice Society or Jonah Hex. Allusions are made to both in this book. But if it is, I just haven’t found the sequel- yet.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Guns of the Dragon #1

 

Essentially this comic is a prequel to the DC universe. Taking place in 1928 Shanghai, this miniseries pits an elderly Bat Lash, an aging Enemy Ace, and a complete unknown named Biff Bradley together. It appears that this Bradley is related in some way to another obscure DC hero, Slam Bradley.

The trio are summoned to help the Chinese Nationalist government recover a pair of mystical swords that are rumored to unite a warring China in times of need. It’s a kind of Arthurian legend essentially that these explorers are on the hunt for. Adding to the excitement, the trio must  bring back a dragon! It seems that the clout of these swords can only reach its apex if there’s proof that they can slay dragons. Now, there are race against time as the Communist Chinese, some Japanese Ninja, and even Vandal Savage are also on the hunt for these swords.

This is a really neat series. It pits some of the more colorful non-super powered heroes of the 70s together in a Jurassic Park type adventure. Yes, there’s even some added dashes of Indiana Jones and the art looks like it was rendered by that legendary DC artist of war comics fame, Joe Kubert. The book is written and drawn by Timothy Truman. I’ve never heard of him, but I wonder if he was a student of the Joe Kubert School of Art or was just a fan of his art. Regardless, it’s got that gritty quality 70s drawing style Kubert that I just adore. This first chapter starts off a little slow but by the cliffhanger, the pace is so fast that I raced to break into issue #2 in record time.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils #1

Not only is this the first issue, I’m pretty sure it’s the only issue as well. In this one-shot, a trio of suburban housewives from New Jersey must fight an ancient evil by using the ninja skills they’ve amassed over the years. The whole thing reminds me of Buckaroo Banzai, especially with the heavily Japanese influenced style and slang.

  I thought this was both awesome and weird. Especially the villains, who basically seem played out as a bizarre Asian fetish creature. For example, the main villain uses her giant lips to possess and poison a man’s mind while another creature uses her giant wooden stakes to paralyze the She-Devils and ends up impaling a host of demonic langoliers in the mouth and privates. I told you it’s bizarre.

I found myself wondering both when will this end and I can’t wait for what happens next. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever get to know what else ever happened to the Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils and their mission against ancient evil.

Rating 5 out of 10.

The Tick: The Naked City

 

The Naked City is a collection of the earliest Tick comics ever published. Now reprinted in startling color, marvel at how Tick escaped his mental institution hum-dum existence and became the hero he is today. From meeting with a certain reporter who looks an awful lot like George Reeves to teaming with a samurai named Paul and eventually gaining a side-kick named Arthur, who looks like a moth, a comic legend is born!

  The best part has to be the Ninja shrubbery (Nothing to see here. Yes, I’m a shrub) I so want that T-shirt.

  Classic stuff, very hard to find, but worth every minute of searching.

  Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.