Free Comic Book Day: Oklahoma City’s picks

Super Dinosaur – Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman is sort of a comic book god right now. He created The Walking Dead (now being awesome viewing material on AMC) and Marvel Zombies (featuring zombie versions of Spiderman, X-Men, Captain America, etc etc), both of which have established him as a great storyteller and inventive artist.

Which makes Super Dinosaur a really interesting foray. The main character is a 10 year old genius named Derek Dynamo who brags through the first comic about how awesome he is and how he’s got a T-Rex as a best friend. His father is the inventor of a vast number of stuff, some of which may be stolen from the bad guy/ex-colleague Max Maximus. Derek and Super Dinosaur spend their time being awesome and foiling the evil Maximus’s plans. The whole thing plays like the Power Rangers or Super Human Samurai Syber Squad: bad guy with seemingly no real motive fights the good guy kids and loses repeatedly.

But there’s more to this comic that what you see at first glance. Kirkman has a twist: Derek is actually the genius behind all of his dad’s inventions. This could mean that Max Maximus is actually justified in his “evil” actions, although it’s too early to tell. The FCBD comic will be Super Dinosaur’s origin story, which may expose more twists to the plot.

Baltimore – Mike Mignola

Here’s the kind of highly literary and dark story that comic books were made for. Baltimore tells the story of Lord Henry Baltimore, an English Captain in World War I who inadvertently picks a fight with a powerful vampire after losing his entire platoon in a night raid against the Germans. The fight escalates when the vampire, infuriated by Baltimore’s suckerpunch which took out his right eye (the Captain lost his leg, so quid pro quo), strikes down a “plague” upon Europe.

People call it Spanish Influenza, but really it’s vampires killing everyone including Baltimore’s wife. As you can probably imagine, vengeance is basically the first thing on Baltimore’s mind after learning that.

The story makes countless references and homages to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” which tells the story of a one legged toy soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina, and after some harrowing and horrible adventure, they are thrown into a fire and burn together.

It’s a very smartly done comic that’s definitely worth a look, especially when it’s free.

Locke and Key – Joe Hill

Recalling Pan’s Labyrinth and Lovecraftian lore on several levels, Locke and Key quickly became one of the best new comics of 2008 and kept right on being great following the supernatural and psychological morass that constantly rears its head at the Locke family. It is currently slated to have its own TV show on Fox with some major star power on the production side of things including Steven Spielberg, Orci and Kurtzman who wrote the latest Star Trek movie, and Josh Friedman who developed the Sarah Connor Chronicles. The pilot will be decided on in May.

This one-shot wastes no time in bringing the scary: a bad guy (actually the bad guy of the series, Lesser) is using a magic crown to manipulate the shadows and attack the Locke family. It sort of looks like those scenes in Ghost where bad guys get dragged into the blackness except with a lot more definition and form. It promises to be a quick, exciting, and satisfying read, as well as a good hook for reading the rest of the series.

Darkwing Duck/Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers – Ian Brill

Yes and also yes, I would like to relive a bit of my childhood in comic book form, thank you for printing it. The titles alone should be enough to clinch this as a definite pickup for FCBD. If you saw either of these as a kid, you know how freaking cool they are (on that note, there will also be an Inspector Gadget for your free comic book consumption). Add to that the Darkwing Duck story “The Duck Knight Returns” which begins with a city-wide blackout of all “Starducks” coffee shops… yeah, I’m stopping here. You already know it’s going to be great.

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #3

First off, if you’ve never heard of Axe Cop, do yourself a major favor and go here (http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/episode_1/) and start reading. Basically, this is a comic book written by a 6 year old boy (Malachai Nicolle) and illustrated by his crazy talented 30 year old brother (Ethan Nicolle). Malachai has the unchained, unfettered imagination of a kid, and what makes the comic really great is how well Ethan takes the insane ramblings of a first grader and turns it into a story that everyone can read and understand. Sort of.

Let’s just say, the story in this particular series Bad Guy Earth has so far involved a machine that uses Satan’s horns to mass produce bad guys, a flock of robot chickens, time travel to save/fight dinosaurs, and more… Ethan just opens Mal’s floodgates and draws whatever he can to make it make some sort of sense.

So not only is it beautifully rendered, it’s also mad clever. Totally worth your time. If you can get #1 and #2 as well, so much the better!

Kick-Ass 2 #1 (4th Printing)

This is the sequel to Kick-Ass, the comic book which inspired the movie about some regular people who decide maybe the real world can have superheroes, and maybe all you need is a costume and the will to do it. That may be enough of a selling point right there.

They’re reprinting this issue that week, so it’s a good time to grab it up, especially since they’ve only just released #3 on April 27th. You may even be able grab all 3 in one swoop (much like you should already be doing with Axe Cop), so that could also be pretty awesome.

I’ve been waiting for the reprint of #1 to get into this at the beginning, but you can bet I’ll be all over it when FCBD hits.

Fear Itself

This is Marvel’s latest series that they’ve been advertising super-heavily. It promises to be a longer story with lots of twists and madness involving nazis, cults, and Captain America. I’m excited to be just getting into comics at the beginning of this, since it looks like it will be a wild ride.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck ($1)

Don’t laugh at me here. The thing about Scrooge McDuck, especially classic Scrooge, is that the comic is really good and extremely inventive. Don’t believe me on how inventive it is? Here’s an article about 5 things invented by Donald Duck, most of them in Scrooge comics: http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html (the list includes the plot of Inception, a method for raising sunken ships, and a chemical compound called Methylene).

Boom! has taken to reprinting classic Scrooge comics, and when you get a Carl Barks or a Don Rosa, it’s like striking oil that makes you a genius if it gets on you.
Not to mention, this one will only run you a dollar.

Amazing Spiderman

Peter Parker was my only friend for almost a year in Jr. High. I was initiated into comics early but didn’t really feel like I found my own path until I wandered into the story of the web-slinging hero. Spiderman has gone through lots of changes through the years and it looks like he might be again. Bringing back one of the franchise’s odder characters, Madame Web who has an earth shattering prediction for the web head that just might change the title forever (or that’s the way they are selling this one). Amazing Spiderman is a good introduction into the world of Marvel and a title to pick up for anyone who wants to get into comics but doesn’t know where to start.

Captain America & Thor

Invariably, Free Comic Book Day is timed to coincide with a major comic book-based motion picture release. Last year it was “Iron Man 2” and this time it has two big summer movies being released. A WWII era, Steve Rogers and the mighty Norse God, Thor are thrown back in time to the era of Camelot in a time-twisting adventure just in time to get us warmed up for the release of the movie, Thor on May 6th (one day before Free Comic Book Day) and then Captain America: The First Avenger on July 22. I can’t wait for either movie so I can geek out seeing two of my favorites translated to the big screen.

Green Lantern: Flashpoint Special Edition

This is a perfect book to buy for someone who wants to see Ryan Reynolds in the new Green Lantern movie but doesn’t want to seem like a noob standing in line with her friends. This is a reprinting of Green Lantern #30 telling how and why Hal Jordan received his ring and powers. For the initiated and rookie both is a special sneak into DC’s big event, Flashpoint. Green Lantern has proven to be one of the more consistently interesting titles produced by DC and I think ready to keep pace with Supes and Batman at the movies as well.

Elric: Balance Lost

Michael Moorcock’s classic antihero, Elric was first introduced to Marvel Comics in Conan The Barbarian #15 (Conan by the way has a film out at the end of summer as well) but is an eternal champion of the multiverse finding himself thrown across world’s and meeting more of Moorcock’s heroic creations , Corum the Scarlet Robe and Dorian Hawkmoon. Here’s a book that I hope doesn’t just inspire someone to keep coming back to the comic store but to pick up the many adventures of Elric of Melnibone novels, one of the grittiest and darkest fantasy fictions on the shelves of bookstores and libraries everywhere.

The Tick

And now for one of the classics. This hero was part of the Fox Saturday morning line up in the 90’s and with a bowl of bran and raisins helped me get my weekend started on the right track (keeping me cracking up and regular). One of the more amusing satires of typical super heroics, Tick was always a welcome part of my morning. When does he get his movie?