From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays, No.115 : Magic Time
Hey web-slingers, and welcome back to your weekly review source for all-ages comics, From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays! Let’s save the chit-chat and intros and just get down to it this week!
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Masters of the Universe #6
Publisher: DC Comics (digital first)
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Chris Gugliotti
What time is it?! It’s Orko time!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s right! Like Scrappy-Doo or Bat-Mite, Orko was the love-it-or-hate-it divider for fans of “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” He wasn’t part of the original action figures the cartoon was based off, but when Filmation decided the show needed a comedic relief, bam!, Orko was created and a new action figure was issued for him to join the line up!
Our story is straight forward. The Sorceress is trying to contain the magic from the Morgog giant’s skull and keep it from going out of control as He-Man and Battlecat arrive. Turns out Orko has tried to make a new magic home for himself inside, which upsets the fabric of their universe. Quickly, Eternia jumps through multiple cartoon worlds, from Orko and He-Man’s roles being reversed, a Sponge Bob-esque world, a Calvin and Hobbes-esque world, etc., until of all folks, Orko himself saves the day!
What DC has given here with issue #6 is a complete cartoon adventure, a 180 from the Noir stlye of the previous issue, and that is just fine! “Masters of the Unvierse” has rocked as a digital first bi-weekly series, giving us stories that highlight all the other characters in this world that aren’t He-Man, which is awesome. If you love Orko, Parker and Gugliotti have done a great job giving us a very Orko-feeling story, capturing everything about the character fans love. The bad news? If you didn’t like Orko before, this isn’t going to change your mind.
Issue #6 of “Masters of the Universe” is out now digitally from DC Comics!
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Adventure Time #8
Publisher: Boom (Kaboom! line)
Written By: Ryan North, Frank Gibson, and Becky Dreistadt
Art By: Braden Lamb, Shelli Paroline, Frank Gibson, and Becky Dreistadt
The eighth issue of “Adventure Time” hit stands last week, giving us an action heavy main tale and a hysterical back-up story.
In the main story written by Ryan North with art by Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline, Jake continues his adventure in the future, fighting alongside future-Princess Bubblegum and Jake to save the Candy Kingdom from a robot invasion! The story is pretty straight forward with that description, and is a heavy fun-filled dose of action. It was pretty cool to see some of the characters in their future forms, too! Being mostly an action tale with not much dialog, there’s not too much to say about the writing by North except that he tries to squeeze in a sweet moment here and there amongst the wackiness. Art side, Lamb and Paroline do great design work with the future-versions, as well as capture the right amount of cartoony-action for this world.
The back-up story, “Happy Birthday Hot Dog Princess,” written and drawn by the team of Gibson and Dreistadt, steals the issue with its awesome art and laugh-out-loud story. Plot again is straight forward; it’s Hot Dog Princess’s birthday and she misses her bun she buried years ago. To make her wish come true to see her bun again, Bubblegum commands Peppermint Butler to take her through the land of the dead to be reunited. The journey and final punch line are priceless.
“Adventure Time” issue #8 continues the great output of comics based on this show. Although it slightly misses the magic of watching the cartoon somehow, it’s by a small margin, and there is a ton to enjoy and love about this title. Available in print and digital.
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Princeless: Short Stories For Warrior Women #2
Publisher: Action Lab
Written By: Jeremy Whitley
Art By: Kelly Lawrence and Jules Rivera
Finally on this week’s list of all-age stuff to check out, we get the second issue of the two-part mini for “Princeless: Short Stories For Warrior Women,” which gives us side stories in the Princeless-universe, holding us over until the second arc of “Princeless” comes out.
In “The Runaway Prince,” we find Prince Wilcome of the Lumderia trapped in a prison when someone in the cell next to him bargains with him so he can get out. Turns out it is an elf, which Wilcome isn’t crazy about, and he’s afraid he’s going to get eaten. The story, without giving too much more away, leaves us on a cliffhanger. In the second tale, “The Smiths,” we are introduced to Bedelia before her time in the main title, and see the separation of her parents which leads her to do what she is destined to do.
The art on both stories is quality, giving off the vibe of the main title, but in their own slight ways. The layouts by Rivera on the second story, “The Smiths,” specifically has a nice flow to it. The writing is quality on both too, however, the choice to leave “The Runaway Prince” with a cliffhanger was unexpected, and I hope pays off soon in the main book. Writing on “The Smiths” was really great, not only setting up our characters’ back story while tugging on our heart-strings, but also just a theme that is so universally accessible any reader can get into this one.
All-in-all, the second issue here is a good book and you should check it out. Available in print.
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Well that’s it for this week, see you next!
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net
