#FCBD Free Comic Book Day 2015: CJ's top 10!

This is the 2015 Free COmic Book Day special! Today, in the US (and most of the world) it is FCBD, brought to you by Diamond Comics Distributors, where your local comic book stores have loads (around 50 this year ) of  comic books for FREE! Now, some retailers can choose to make you buy a certain amount of stuff before giving them away, some charge a couple of pennies for them, and that’s alright.  The comics are free to us, but not to the retailers, so remember to buy some other stuff while you’re there, support your LCBS, they will love you for it! Also, if you like these books, put them on your pull list, ask your LCBS how they handle those lists, I mean, a lot of these are big sales attempts anyway, if you like them, make them work!

This time around, I’m going to give you my top 10 comics from FCBD, in relatively no particular order, I’m not going to spoil you on them, but I’ll give you a little bit on what they are.

• Pokemon XY

  • Perfect Square comics

  • Three Pokemon comic stories, one from X/Y, One from Emerald, and one from Black & White.

  • Reads like a manga, so opens “backward” and reads left to right, instead of right to left

• All New All Different Avengers

  • Marvel comics

  • Two post-Secret Wars stories, one from the Avengers, and one from the Inhumans.  You may be a bit confused on what the backstory is, but that's OK

• Avatar: the Last Airbender

  • Dark Horse Comics

  • A post-television show story about Tai Lee & Toph

  • Also contains a Plants vs Zombies & Bandette story

• Secret Wars #0

  • Marvel Comics

  • Not the full story of Secret Wars, and barely enough to be considered an episode 0, but if you are really confused, this may help.

• Fight Club

  • Dark Horse Comics

  • A post-movie book about Sebastian

  • Also has The Goon & The Strain comics

  • NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN

  • One of my favorite books

• Boom Studios’ Ten Year Free Comic Book Day celebration

  • Lots of stories from the Boom Studios library

• Mega Man

  • Archie Comics

  • World’s Unite prelude

  • Contains the Sonic the Hedgehog world’s unite prelude

  • The entire Worlds Unite is out on trade paperback.  Why not pick it up when you’re out at FBCD? ;)

• Doctor Who

  • Titan Comics

  • Three amazing, only found in this book Doctor Who Stories from the 10th, 11th, and 12th doctors

• Street Fighter

  • Udon comics

  • a completely kid-friendly book about the characters from Street Fighter

  • A pleasant surprise, I wasn’t really looking forward to this.

• Attack on Titan

  • Kodansha Comics

  • Some backstory (outside current Canon / TV canon)

  • Manga-style (opens to the left, read left to righ)

  • My favorite book

Clown Fatale #1: Review

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Released: 13th November 2013

“Sexy female clowns are mistaken for contract killers and abandon their shabby traveling circus for a world of violence and cruelty—with clown makeup.”

Sometimes the publisher’s description is the best place to start and in this case they’ve done a pretty decent job of summing up Victor Gischler’s Clown Fatale; a grindhouse movie-style comic that wears its influences proudly. This issue starts with a group of sexy clowns…

OK I don’t know WHY they’re clowns. They could have been strippers, though I guess that would have been a little too on the (red honking) nose. I guess given the genre they have to have some sort of hook and this probably seemed as good an excuse as any to have them unhappy and undressed. As long as you can keep Stephen King's Pennywise out of your mind, you'll be fine.

This issue starts with a group of sexy clowns not having a particularly good day working in the circus. There’s a little exposition in the form of narrative introductions to the main characters but for the most part this story starts off in high gear and doesn’t really let up; the entire first issue is designed to set them up as assassins and very little more. Fortunately the writing is enjoyable to read and any bad dialogue feels like an added touch of Exploitation movie authenticity rather than a lack of quality. This faithful adherence to genre tropes extends to the characters too as there doesn’t seem to be a single likeable person in this world. It’s something that’s par for the course for the style they’re going for but it says something when the main characters are so immoral that their first target has to attempt rape before the book can justify killing him. It does make me wonder how things will play out in future issues.

The artwork, like the writing, matches the tone they’re going for perfectly. It’s not as clean or finished as some of the larger titles but it’s not supposed to be. Each of the main characters seems to be designed to tick off some fetish or other and I’m sure anyone reading it will find they have a favourite in the group. No I’m not telling you who mine is. There’s also a fair bit of nudity here and if it feels gratuitous then, frankly, it’s supposed to. Maybe that’s where the beauty of the clown theme can be found; clowns are funny or scary but they should never be scary, and in putting them in stripper outfits (or less) it’s the reader’s own comfort that’s being exploited?

If there's a take-home sentiment of this review, then it's this; Clown Fatale is a perfect example of what it sets out to be, it just never attempts to be anything more.

And I’m alright with that. Clown Fatal is a fun read that delivers on every promise and I'm sure Quentin Tarantino is already bidding on the movie rights. In his honour I give this four naked Uma Therman's feet out of five.