Mighty Samson #30

It's not really a Christmas comic book. But there are definitely elements of the holidays in this issue. It's been on my radar since I learned about it during the pandemic, when I spent a lot of time researching Holiday comic books. When I finally found an issue for sale, I pounced despite the fact that I probably could have gotten it cheaper somewhere else down the road.

Mighty Samson was one of several post-apocalyptic comics that came about after the premiere of the first Planet of the Apes film. The main character is a member of a tribe of mutants. Both a giant and super strong, he explores the ruins of New York which was devastated by a nuclear bomb. He's joined by a professor and his daughter. While quite brilliant, the professor doesn't quite get the facts about pre-war New York, now N'Yark, that quite right and it's that wrong information where the fun begins.

Samson and his compatriots are in need of supplies. So they head to the ruins of Macy's department store. It's there that they stumble across a few of the balloons used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Samson attacked one thinking it was a monster lurking in the shadows. But it turns out that the balloon had been revered as a god by a tribe of survivors who dwell in the derelict mercantile. Certain death is nigh!

After that a lot happens. The professor uses his knowledge of science disguised as magic to save their lives. A jealous witch doctor betrays the tribe of Macy's dwellers. A mysterious woman with her lustful eyes set on Samson arrives. As do a pack of mutant birds with the heads of dogs. Arm Samson with some beach umbrellas and put him astride a reindeer balloon and you've got yourself one heck of a story. Cheesy. But entertaining enough that if I ever came across another issue of the Otto Binder created antics of the Mighty Samson, I'd gladly find a way to purchase it.

I know I get mad if I buy a comic book with a holiday cover but there's nothing Christmas, Hanukkah or even Kwanzaa inside. I call such books 'Scrooges'. And if I'm being honest, this isn't a Christmas time cover. Even though Samson and a foe ride Christmas balloons on the cover of this book, nowhere does Gold Key make a claim that this story takes place during Christmas time. Having this book on my Christmas comic wish list was in error. However, any sort of belief that this was a holiday book was a mistake on my part. It was the idea of having survivors of a nuclear use balloons from the Macy's parade that awoken fantasies of a wasteland Christmas!  

This issue really entertained me. I felt the wonder of Christmas along with the happiness of Thanksgiving. Plus cameos from Bullwinkle and Tubby! This book is staying in my collection and I'm keeping it in my holiday boxes. It's a Christmas miracle of guilty pleasure proportions!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Showcase Presents: The Great Disaster Featuring The Atomic Knights

If you are a fan of the classic Jack Kirby disaster title known as Kamandi, this is the essential collection to read! Collecting stories from numerous titles including Action Comics, DC Comics Presents, Weird War Tales, and Strange Tales among others, you will learn everything that lead up to the Great Disaster and the coming of The Last Boy on Earth!

I started this book in September. Then I came across the section on the Atomic Knights. And I fell in love. These post-apocalyptic heroes who wear medieval knights armor (due to it's radiation resistant properties) just resonated with me. Maybe it was because I saw a little of myself in a pandemic atmosphere in the post-nuclear war struggle of those Knights. I'm not saying surviving COVID-19 is on par with surviving the fallout from World War III. But sometimes we find solace in our trials by experiencing worse fates in our fiction reads.

Anyways, by mid-September, I was not looking forward to saying good-bye to the Knights. That's when I came across the 'Thanksgiving. 1990' 2-parter. Being a lover of holiday comics and considering how few Turkey Day books there are out there, I got to extend my goodbyes for a couple of months. Then the holidays hit and I delayed things again.

Thankfully, I knew that there was at least 1 more Atomic Knights story based on this books cover. With the close of that main story, we are introduced to the Greek hero Hercules. The atomic wars weakened the prison in which Ares had trapped the half-human son of Zeus. Upon his released, Zeus befriends a number of humans and seeks revenge on his captor. With a friendly puppy in the mix, I found myself cheating ahead to make sure of one of my unforgivable comic book reading rules isn't broken- That doggie better not die!

While the pages of Atomic Knights and Hercules stories give insight as to why is it that animals turn into humanistic creatures, why do the humans turn into savages and what started the bombs falling in the first place, the last couple of stories inside offer alternatives. One ending is a trippy Superman team-up with those Atomic Knights. The other is a lengthy essay by Paul Levitz that blames the meddling of that dastardly New God, Darkseid. While I liked the adventure with the Man of Steel, I think Levitz's recount is the gospel truth. 

These stories are very Pre-Crisis; which I must admit, I love. The Greek gods aren't as evil as what happens to the Amazons at their hands in the midst of the George Perez Wonder Woman era. So if you adhere to cancel culture, you might have so difficulty admiring the heroic exploits of Hercules and his godly family in this book. But since all this occurs nearly a decade prior to the publisher's 1986's history change, it didn't happen! 

So relax and enjoy an engaging read about a future to come that never come to be!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Lola XOXO: The Complete First Volume

On the day of the nuclear apocalypse, young Lola was travelling alone by airplane to visit her grandmother in Chicago. But the child's plane had to divert to another city. At the airport, a kind man agrees to take Lola to see her nana. But when news of Chicago's destruction breaks, the man becomes Lola's caretaker.

Flash forward and Lola is now a teenager. Along with her adoptive father, Lola travels through the wasteland in hopes of one day finally making back to Los Angeles to her true parents. Unfortunately, this region that was once the American mid-west is filled with the most vile inhumanities ever encountered on earth. And when her guardian is kidnapped, Lola may have to stoop to the level of those dregs of incivility in order to get him back!

Last Christmas, my wife got me a couple of Comic Book Bento Boxes. They're essentially graphic novel grab bags. You can buy boxes individually or do a subscription service of 3,6 or 12 month. 

This book was in one of those boxes. I forget the theme. I think it was something about comics set in the future or something like that. It was produced by Aspen which isn't really a publisher that has impressed me over the years. One reason is because how founder Michael Turner is like the Tupac Shakur of comic books. The artist died in 2008. Yet it seems that he continuously has new series coming out every year. I can't figure out if he was that prolific or if someone is ghosting for him (no pun intended.)

Anyways, I actually like Lola XOXO. The story was pretty good. The concept was fairly original. Though I felt like there were elements of that very short-live NBC series Revolution mixed into this. That Eric Kripke series debuted in 2012, about 2 years before this comic book debuted. So there's a possibility that Lola XOXO creator Siya Oum was influenced by it in some way. 

Oum's art is really, really good. Lola is drawn in a cheesecake, but too non-defenseless, way. Each scene has amazing detail. Want proof, examine how comprehensive the city in the background of the cover image is. It's utterly amazing!

I would like to read the other 2 series in the Lola XOXO franchise. I'm not planning on keeping this book. But I surely would not mind a couple of return trips to learn if Lola finds her parents or not. My guess- she returns home but finds out they went east to find her. That would be a freaking awesome twist!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Frostbite #1

   57 years after the next ice age, it's a balmy -24 degrees F in Mexico City. Young Keaton, who grew up an orphan on the desolate ice plains, is the leader of a group that specializes in transporting goods across the frozen tundra to the few hospitable cities that remain. But the cold isn't the only thing that threatens mankind's survival. A new virus called 'Frostbite' is turning it's victims into living ice sculptures, freezing them from the inside out.

    Keaton's crew now holds the key to curing the Frostbite when they agree to transport a pair of doctor's to  a research facility on Alcatraz. It seems that one of them has a formula that could end the frigid plague. But on their tail is a powerful gang of marauders from Los Angeles led by a despot named Fuego. For whomever is in control of the cure pretty much will become the new leader of those few who manage survive...

   Frostbite is a brand new miniseries from Vertigo by Joshua Williamson (Captain Midnight) and Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone.)  In this new world, heat is the new currency. Survival is a warm blanket and death hides within the corners of every snowflake. A cross between Mad Max, Ice Station Zero, and Dawn of the Dead, this apocalyptic tale is just a delight for someone like me who prefers to huddle in the snow to fun in the
sun. 

    Deep down this book is a thinly veiled allegory about climate change. But unlike other post-apocalyptic fodder out on the market today, this book isn't preachy. It also doesn't pull any punches. The gore factor hits 11 from the very first page. 

    I definitely have this book on my wish list. Whether I wait for the trade edition or will continue with first run issues might depend on my budget as I'm not sure how many issues is this mini slated for. But mark my word, this series is going to be huge. It's either going to become a major motion picture or the next Walking Dead. 

    If you want to get in on the bottom floor of the next big thing in comics, you better get started fast. I expect this first issue (which hit stores yesterday) will sell out quick.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Black River

Set in a post-apocalyptic world that no one is quite sure how it got that way a group of women, a single fella, and a pair of dogs make for a fabled town called Gattenburg. Gattenburg is rumored to have plenty of food, drink, shelter, and most importantly- ammo! But the road to Paradise is a journey through hell on earth.

  For some reason, I thought that Josh Simmons’ Black River was a Western. It was anything but. By the grim events of this graphic novel’s midpoint, I was seriously wondering just what the hell had I gotten myself into.

  Black River, while intriguing, is the type of work that after you read it, you feel like needing to take a shower. This is not a feel good and be cosy kind of read. Plus I highly doubt that this book would ever see the big screen as several scenes are beyond words.

  I'm really not sure why I finished this book. Maybe it was the promise of a brighter tomorrow for this band of survivors. I was not a fan though the twist ending brought my rating of Black River up a couple of notches… that is until Simmons decided to include a cryptic final scene of what appeared to be a wizard walking in the snow. There's no magic in this graphic novel, so what was that all about?

  Definitely not for kids and the faint of heart. Prospective readers, consider yourself duly warned.

  Not Worth Consuming.

  Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.