I'm going to make an assumption here: if you are reading this, you like comics. If you're like me, your love of comics started when you were just a wee nipper. Most of us started with the kiddie stuff before we moved up to the serious business of super-hero comics. I read comics from Harvey, Disney, and Archie. The choices for kid's comics in those days were endless, though Donald Duck, Mighty Mouse, and Richie Rich were my favorites.
I still love comics, but most of the books I read today wouldn't really be appropriate, or even intelligible, for kids. Marvel and DC, understanding that we need to introduce today's kids to the fun of comics and reading, have made some admirable attempts at creating all-ages friendly comics. Unfortunately, they are still just giving kids another version of their Marvel and DC properties. If you want to introduce the younger readers in your life to comics, you still don't have a whole lot to choose from. Luckily, help is on the way thanks to Boom! Kids.
The Incredibles #1, by Mark Waid and Marcio Takara, is a great example of quality comics for kids. Any kid with even the faintest interest in super-heroes has seen the popular Pixar film in which the incredible Parr family deal with the typical ordeals of family life while also beating the stuffing out of evil-doers of all shapes and sizes. Boom!'s new limited series perfectly captures the feel of the movie, while taking the Parrs on an all-new adventure, with great writing and awesome art!
The story begins when the Parr family is enjoying a peaceful family outing to the zoo. As expected, the day takes a turn towards super-villain punching when the robotic Futurian shows up to destroy humanity by devolving the zoo animals into a crazy army of mixed-up dinosaurs. Of course, stopping rampaging dinosaurs is only the beginning of a typical day for the Incredibles. Missing devolution bombs, new neighbors, and Mr. Incredible's missing powers all add up to a packed day for this super-family.
If you're looking to share your love of comics with the young uns (or if you are just young at heart!), The Incredibles #1 is a great place to start! With comics based on The Muppet Show and a whole host of other Pixar properties on the way, there will be a whole lot of great books to choose from. It's great to see engaging, intelligent, quality material that just might make kids pick up a comic and read, so try The Incredibles now, while it is Four Color Fantasies' guaranteed Book of the Week.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Ellis puts it in gear with Ignition City #1
What if all the high-flying, sci-fi, space heroes of the '40s and '50s were real? And what if those real heroes lived in a real world where politics and international conflict took all the fun out of being a space hero? Where do the space heroes go to die? Why, they go to Ignition City where all these questions (and more!) are answered!
Avatar's Ignition City #1, by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani, drops us into a 1956 where the great age of space exploration is rapidly dying. All those brave rocket men and women shooting off into space brought nothing but trouble for the Earth, so the world's governments have shut them down. Space launches are prohibited almost everywhere and, where they are allowed, they are strictly under government control and supervision. Ignition City, an artificial island covered with launch gantries and landing pads, is the last place on the planet where spacecraft can still launch, but it is a sad remnant of it's former self. It really is the place where the washed up space heroes go to drink themselves to death, wallowing in memories of their former glory.
When young adventuress and frustrated space explorer Mary Raven finds out her beloved father (former space hero Arthur "Rock" Raven) has died there, she knows she has to do whatever it takes to get into Ignition City and find whatever scraps of her father's life he left behind. It is a sad place, filled with washed-up heroes, drunken failures, and petty bureaucrats. It quickly becomes very obvious to Mary that she isn't going to like anything she finds on this bleak, hopeless island.
Most of you have probably heard of this Ellis fellow by now, so you know that nobody does dark humor quite like he does. (Well, maybe Garth Ennis.) This is not for the faint of heart! Ellis puts his hilariously foul-mouthed characters through their paces, giving readers the scoop on what happens to your poop when you live off of futuristic food pills, how to deal with alien lizard diarrhea, and what would really happen to a heroic space pilot who finds himself 500 years in his own past. Plus, the ridiculously violent bar bouncer Vanderkirk demonstrates the intestine-steaming effects of a space ray-gun on the human body. All this in just the first issue! Could you possibly expect more entertainment than that for four measly space dollars? I think not!
Fuel up the old rocket pack and junior bird-man your way on over to Four Color Fantasies, space cadet! You can try out life on Ignition City for yourself all week, with no risk to life and limb and no need for alcohol poisoning. Just watch out for the puddles of space lizard poop. That stuff NEVER comes off of your shoes.
Avatar's Ignition City #1, by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani, drops us into a 1956 where the great age of space exploration is rapidly dying. All those brave rocket men and women shooting off into space brought nothing but trouble for the Earth, so the world's governments have shut them down. Space launches are prohibited almost everywhere and, where they are allowed, they are strictly under government control and supervision. Ignition City, an artificial island covered with launch gantries and landing pads, is the last place on the planet where spacecraft can still launch, but it is a sad remnant of it's former self. It really is the place where the washed up space heroes go to drink themselves to death, wallowing in memories of their former glory.
When young adventuress and frustrated space explorer Mary Raven finds out her beloved father (former space hero Arthur "Rock" Raven) has died there, she knows she has to do whatever it takes to get into Ignition City and find whatever scraps of her father's life he left behind. It is a sad place, filled with washed-up heroes, drunken failures, and petty bureaucrats. It quickly becomes very obvious to Mary that she isn't going to like anything she finds on this bleak, hopeless island.
Most of you have probably heard of this Ellis fellow by now, so you know that nobody does dark humor quite like he does. (Well, maybe Garth Ennis.) This is not for the faint of heart! Ellis puts his hilariously foul-mouthed characters through their paces, giving readers the scoop on what happens to your poop when you live off of futuristic food pills, how to deal with alien lizard diarrhea, and what would really happen to a heroic space pilot who finds himself 500 years in his own past. Plus, the ridiculously violent bar bouncer Vanderkirk demonstrates the intestine-steaming effects of a space ray-gun on the human body. All this in just the first issue! Could you possibly expect more entertainment than that for four measly space dollars? I think not!
Fuel up the old rocket pack and junior bird-man your way on over to Four Color Fantasies, space cadet! You can try out life on Ignition City for yourself all week, with no risk to life and limb and no need for alcohol poisoning. Just watch out for the puddles of space lizard poop. That stuff NEVER comes off of your shoes.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A Dark Psychoanalysis: Irredeemable #1
What happens when a super-hero goes bad? And I don't mean any old run of the mill hero, but a Superman level hero. Someone with the power to destroy anyone and anything in his path. Someone who is mind-numbingly powerful, and pretty much invulnerable, too. And I don't mean "dark vigilante" bad, but "killing cute children and fuzzy puppies for fun" bad. What happens then? Tough questions, but I'm here to tell you that the answers can be found in Boom!'s Irredeemable #1 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause!
The Plutonian is the world's greatest hero. He is beloved all over the world, idolized by millions, and respected by evey other hero in the world. Of course, living up to an image like that puts a guy under a lot of pressure. There are always voices of doubt, people who want to put you down, people who don't appreciate your efforts. In this first issue, we get a few hints that these negative voices were what wore the hero down. Whatever pushed him over the edge, the Plutonian is in full-on villain mode when we first see him in action. Yep, heat vision sure can skeletonize a baby in nothing flat.
The other heroes find themselves desperately scrambling to find a way to defend themselves from the Plutonian's onslaught, but there seems to be very little hope of success. No one knows who he is, where he comes from, or how to stop him. They don't even know if he is really from Earth. The only one who might know something is his teen sidekick Samsara, but Sam was one of the Plutonian's first victims, and he isn't going to be telling anybody anything.
Mark Waid, who has been, perhaps unfairly, categorized as the go-to guy for squeaky-clean heroics, is taking a deep look at the dark side of super-heroes with this book. What makes someone a villain? What makes a good person go bad? How does a flawed hero deal with the constant disappointments and losses any hero is bound to face? Waid, though not evil, as the marketing campaign for this book suggests, has enough experience as a super-hero writer extraordinaire to delve in to all of these questions. He is ably assisted in this examination by Peter Krause, whose pencils are perfect for both the silver age style flashbacks of The Plutonian in happier days and the dark happenings in the present.
Check out this Book of the Week now at Four Color Fantasies! Irredeemable #1 is guaranteed good reading all week. Mark Waid seems like a nice guy, but if you disappoint him by failing to try his new book, he might be upset. He might be REALLY upset. It could even push him over the edge. Unless you want Mark Waid to track you down and give you a sternly worded lecture, you better go ahead and try this book now, before it is too late!
The Plutonian is the world's greatest hero. He is beloved all over the world, idolized by millions, and respected by evey other hero in the world. Of course, living up to an image like that puts a guy under a lot of pressure. There are always voices of doubt, people who want to put you down, people who don't appreciate your efforts. In this first issue, we get a few hints that these negative voices were what wore the hero down. Whatever pushed him over the edge, the Plutonian is in full-on villain mode when we first see him in action. Yep, heat vision sure can skeletonize a baby in nothing flat.
The other heroes find themselves desperately scrambling to find a way to defend themselves from the Plutonian's onslaught, but there seems to be very little hope of success. No one knows who he is, where he comes from, or how to stop him. They don't even know if he is really from Earth. The only one who might know something is his teen sidekick Samsara, but Sam was one of the Plutonian's first victims, and he isn't going to be telling anybody anything.
Mark Waid, who has been, perhaps unfairly, categorized as the go-to guy for squeaky-clean heroics, is taking a deep look at the dark side of super-heroes with this book. What makes someone a villain? What makes a good person go bad? How does a flawed hero deal with the constant disappointments and losses any hero is bound to face? Waid, though not evil, as the marketing campaign for this book suggests, has enough experience as a super-hero writer extraordinaire to delve in to all of these questions. He is ably assisted in this examination by Peter Krause, whose pencils are perfect for both the silver age style flashbacks of The Plutonian in happier days and the dark happenings in the present.
Check out this Book of the Week now at Four Color Fantasies! Irredeemable #1 is guaranteed good reading all week. Mark Waid seems like a nice guy, but if you disappoint him by failing to try his new book, he might be upset. He might be REALLY upset. It could even push him over the edge. Unless you want Mark Waid to track you down and give you a sternly worded lecture, you better go ahead and try this book now, before it is too late!
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Dark Reign: Elektra #1
Ninjas are somewhat ubiquitous in the land of comics. Because ninjas are everywhere, often used as faceless cannon fodder for the major league bad guys, they are sometimes cast as feeble thugs, easily bested by pirates, zombies, or other comic book staples. Personally, I think that is all part of their greater ninja plan to lull us into a false sense of security before unleashing their ninja wrath on us all. You'll know I'm right when you wake up (or not) with a throwing star lodged in your brain case.
Regardless of the greater ninja threat, one ninja no one wants to mess with is Elektra Natchios. Daredevil's formerly dead girlfriend is one lean, mean, killing machine. She is a cold-hearted engine of mass destruction who will take out any opponent without a second thought. If you mess with Elektra, you're likely to be dead before you know what happened. Even unarmed, she can find a way to take you down with her left pinky toe. Because of her uber-deadliness, it seems pretty crazy that the Skrulls (Those darn, dirty, Skrulls!) chose her as one of the first abductees in their Secret Invasion plan. Stupid Skrulls.
As you may know, thanks to the Elektra Skrull being no where near as deadly as the real thing, her death and return to her true skrully form, gave the heroes of the Marvel Universe the first hint that something green and nasty was afoot. Dark Reign: Elektra finally reveals what happens to the real deal when she returns to Earth. Unfortunately, with Norman Osborn running things around the Marvel Universe, Elektra's return home is pretty darn unwelcoming.
In Dark Reign: Elektra #1, by Zeb Wells and Clay Mann, our ninja heroine finds herself a guest of Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R., and they are not good hosts. She is poked, prodded, tortured, and studied. Of course, Elektra takes it all stoically, as only an unbelievably disciplined martial artist can, but her eyes make it clear that her tormentors are in for one serious load of ninja whamma-jamma if she ever gets loose. Do I even need to mention that she does, in fact, get loose? She does.
If you need definitive proof that a ninja is WAY more dangerous than any peg-legged, parrot-fancying pirate, you can start by reading Dark Reign: Elektra #1. It's the guaranteed Book of the Week all week at Four Color Fantasies, so you can read it at no risk to your wallet! Of course, if you don't read this book, you may incur a serious risk of throwing star to the brain case. I don't think anybody wants that.
Regardless of the greater ninja threat, one ninja no one wants to mess with is Elektra Natchios. Daredevil's formerly dead girlfriend is one lean, mean, killing machine. She is a cold-hearted engine of mass destruction who will take out any opponent without a second thought. If you mess with Elektra, you're likely to be dead before you know what happened. Even unarmed, she can find a way to take you down with her left pinky toe. Because of her uber-deadliness, it seems pretty crazy that the Skrulls (Those darn, dirty, Skrulls!) chose her as one of the first abductees in their Secret Invasion plan. Stupid Skrulls.
As you may know, thanks to the Elektra Skrull being no where near as deadly as the real thing, her death and return to her true skrully form, gave the heroes of the Marvel Universe the first hint that something green and nasty was afoot. Dark Reign: Elektra finally reveals what happens to the real deal when she returns to Earth. Unfortunately, with Norman Osborn running things around the Marvel Universe, Elektra's return home is pretty darn unwelcoming.
In Dark Reign: Elektra #1, by Zeb Wells and Clay Mann, our ninja heroine finds herself a guest of Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R., and they are not good hosts. She is poked, prodded, tortured, and studied. Of course, Elektra takes it all stoically, as only an unbelievably disciplined martial artist can, but her eyes make it clear that her tormentors are in for one serious load of ninja whamma-jamma if she ever gets loose. Do I even need to mention that she does, in fact, get loose? She does.
If you need definitive proof that a ninja is WAY more dangerous than any peg-legged, parrot-fancying pirate, you can start by reading Dark Reign: Elektra #1. It's the guaranteed Book of the Week all week at Four Color Fantasies, so you can read it at no risk to your wallet! Of course, if you don't read this book, you may incur a serious risk of throwing star to the brain case. I don't think anybody wants that.
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