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Fantastic Comics

Image Comics

64pp Full Colour  $5.99 

Well,I’ve been previewing and pushing this one for a while so the question is;is it any good?  Being slightly larger than a standard US comic book and approximately four times thicker than,say,Fantastic Four #554,it certainly stands out.  And Erik Larsen’s cover really catches the eye.  There are nice,crispy pages on white stock and a thicker,card-like stock.  I’d guess that Image was looking for a 1940s paper shortage style look? 

Larsen’s Samson strip was quite goofy and,I’d guess,meant to be tongue-in-cheek and fun.  And it worked. I’d have to say that Samson was one of the best strips here –staying true to the original character. 

Joe Casey wrote,while BillSienkiewicz drew “Flip Falcon In The Fourth Dimension”.  Sadly,only the first page or two stick to the original character –Flip changes into a totally different form and character.  Not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t purchased a copy yet,but if you are going to revive a character use that character the way he was meant to be used and not “re-create”. Nice to see Sienkiewicz but… 

Thomas Yeates and Bryan Rutherford bring us “The Golden Knight” –set in a US comic version of Medieval times!  Again,nice and crisp artwork with a humour twist in the story.  Actually,quite enjoyable and reminded me a little of European characters such as Sigued and Roter Ritter.  

  

Yank Wilson is a character I’m not familiar with,though he is billed as “Superspy Q-4”. Looking more like something from S.H.I.E.L.D. we have the character up against [yawn,here we go] “Rajiv Bahdgi..a Pakistani national with ties to several known terror organizations”  A pointer here to Americans who desperately need a sneaky evil foreigner as villain while American college kids go round killing their school mates –did that seem to be an offensive stereotyping of white American students?  How do you think Pakistanese people feel being stereotyped constantly as terrorists-in-waiting? 

The ending here was humorous but not that original [remember how Kirk punished Harry Mudd in the original Star Trek TV series –the one with the “femme-bots”? 

Tom Scioli,on the other hand,brings us the excellent retro “Space Smith”.  Reminded me a little of a certain Outlaws strip being drawn by a Mr Brown.  Lovely retro space craft and aliens! 

Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca brought us “Captain Kidd –Explorer” A world travelling pilot-adventurer who becomes “the greatest game of all” –hunted in the air by a madman who collects trophy adventurers.  Initially,I thought this was all a bit bland BUT this is exactly the sort of strip you’d get in a Golden Age US comic.  So read it as it was intended and not as a jaded old comic geek! 

The two-page “Professor Fiend” by one Boris Hembeck [hmm –wasn’t there a Fred Hembeck who—oh].  This is a nice piece of colourful fun and I’ve not seen Hembeck for a while. 

 John Keatinge wrote,while Mike Allred drew,”Stardust The Super Wizard” –one of the Golden Age’s odder characters.  There were elements I liked but thought the computer had been used a little too much.  Pity,but I’ll certainly re-read it later. 

“Sub Saunders” by AW was awful.  A mess.  Not sure what AW was trying to do but it failed.  Unless he was trying to annoy me?  The last sketchypage of “Automated Keates” was probably the only thing out of the six pages even worth glancing at.  It would never have gotten into a Golden Age comic. 

Over-all,this was fun,pricey but fun.  Though I again have to ask why there is a need to resurrect Golden Age characters if you are not going to present them as they should be? 

Forbidden Planet in Bristol tells me that people were coming in and just buying Fantastic Comics.  That’s great –it shows there is hope out there!  Talking to retailers I found that they ordered extra copies and sold them after customers and non-regulars said they had read about the comic on CBO.  Great.  

Be interested to know what other readers think?  Next up,of course,is Crack Comics.  Go out and buy a copy and have some fun.