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Young American Comics Anthologies – Wild Penny #5
Wild Penny #5
This is definitely the best issue of this so far. The first story is the origin of one of the characters from The Mighty Offenders, which is a good thing because I had very little who these people were when I read that comic. Then you have the second part of the Panda Warrior story, and I honestly still can’t see the point behind the story, other than the oddity of seeing a giant panda going around threatening people. This chapter was all about him getting hit with snowballs, then it was over. Not to give anything away, but I guess I just did. Oops. The last story is Tod’s from the 2002 SPX anthology. It usually bugs me when people pad other anthologies with already released stories, but this is a really great story that I had forgotten about, so this time it’s OK. No, that’s not consistent at all, but what are you going to do? It’s about Atari banking everything on the release of the E.T. video game and then rushing the thing out in time for Christmas. And if anybody out there has ever played the game, what an awful, awful mess. Contact info is up there, it’s $2. Oh, and Don McInturff wrote and drew the first story (don’t worry, Tod still managed to letter it) and Gabe Hunt drew the second story.
McInturff, Don – Bling Bling
Bling Bling
Well, the conditions for liking this one are pretty simple. Are you the type of person who would find a comic about the love of bling, done in a mostly hilarious fashion, humorous, or are you the type of person who would take one look at something like this and decide that’s stupid and move on? Well, it is funny, if you like this sort of thing, anyway. Especially the reference to his “international homies”. So do you like funny things or not? The choice is yours!
McInturff, Don – The Mighty Offenders #2 (with Tod Parkhill & Joey Mason)
The Mighty Offenders #2 (co-written by Tod Parkhill and art by Joey Mason)
I forgot to add those other creative folks in the last review. Sorry about that, I usually try to make all of that stuff clear. Anyway, onwards to #2! I said that this series could turn out to be one of the great parodies, and I still stand by that possibility, but this issue didn’t do too much to push that along. Our heroes have been captured by aliens in regards to that stolen jet pack, and most of this issue is pure mayhem and explosions. Which is fine, but… who are these people again? Please with some sort of synopsis of the previous issues before #3, it would be ever so helpful. Also, I have a tendency to bitch when people are lazy on the backgrounds, but this comic looks like it will never have that problem. Just check out the sample if you don’t believe me. EVERY panel is packed, sometimes to the point where you really have to examine it just to make sure you’re catching everything. All in all a good issue that looked fantastic. And it’s not like most parodies have the most well-rounded characters in the world anyway, so it’s entirely possible that I’m looking for something that will never come. Still, if I didn’t have that one minor complaint about a lack of character development (or even trying to remember who the characters were) then this would be a completely positive and gushy review, and who wants that? $2
McInturff, Don – The Mighty Offenders #1
The Mighty Offenders #1
I suppose there are already plenty of superhero parodies out there, and a whole bunch of them are bad. That’s fine, those things tend to go away on their own after a few issues anyway. This one (and I’m well aware of the fact that this is only one issue and it could go downhill fast from here) has the potential to be one of the best. The team is eclectic enough, as one of the members found an alien jetpack and watch in the mail, another can “think” at animals, anther one looks like the average strongman in the group, and the rest of them don’t get much time to develop. Why not? Well, because about half of the book is this frantic, completely insane car chase that involves a flying deer. The art looks vaguely like the best whorly animators on Nickelodeon or other animated shows, which fits the frantic storyline perfectly. Oh yeah, the story. The man with the jetpack has just gotten it in the mail from aliens and doesn’t know how to work any of this technology, so he’s trying to join this superhero group. One of them pulls the cord on the jetpack, he flies off and the chase scene ensues. It’s $2, you can find it here, and it’s well worth a look. Seriously!
