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Last time in From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays: It all started when ComicAttack.net columnist, Drew McCabe, and his pet turkey partner in crime, Mr. Gobbles, took off in a submarine from his secret volcano lair. Interpol went on the look out for him, but came up with nothing but articles he had been writing, which led them nowhere. Feeling that they needed a P.I. with a little more experience, they decided to call in someone special to pick up the job of hunting Drew down, which leads us to….

Out On Stands: Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Unleashed #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Artist: Ig Guara
Writer: Chris Eliopoulos
Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers was an incredibly fun 4-issue mini Marvel released last year, and apparently things have gone so well with that mini and a few other Pet Avengers specials, that Marvel is at it again, bringing us this time another mini, reuniting the Pet Avengers.
Yes, it is talking animals; however it is not the camp of DC Comics animal characters or Marvel Apes. It is the best take that highlights animal-based characters from a superhero universe published thus far. Their adventures fit into the Marvel Universe perfectly as they save the day (usually without anyone ever knowing, but that’s part of the fun).
Marvel has smartly reunited writer Chris Eliopoulos and artist Ig Guara from the first mini-series to “unleash” (pun intended) this new mini, and so all pieces pick up where they left off and it feels like a good sequel thus far: solid art, solid writing. Looking forward to more Pet Avengers action as it rolls out.

Collection of Awesomeness: Gon
Publisher: CMX (DC Comics)
Writer/Artist: Masashi Tanaka
Gon is a fantastic comic by Masashi Tanaka, which ran in Japan from 1991 to 2002. It was originally collected and released here Stateside in the late-90s incompletely by Paradox Press, to the dismay of many fans. However, starting a little while back DC Comics’ manga branch CMX began to re-release the graphic novel collection and will do so in full.
Gon tells the tale of the pint sized dinosaur named Gon, who travels through our modern world with his bad-ass attitude and large appetite, destroying a ton of stuff, protecting the meek by kicking the crap out of bullies, and over-all just being plain cool. It may remind you of Dark Horse’s Age of Reptiles, but I assure you it is very different (I like it better personally, doesn’t mean it is a better comic, because they are two different comics which use similar means of dinosaurs and story telling, but the similarities end there).
The unique thing about Gon is that it’s a perfect comic by means of there not being a single written word on the page. The whole thing is one the greatest examples of the comic medium, and relies only on its wonderful illustrations to tell its stories; which is entertaining, allows anyone-anywhere to be able to read it, and shows a great amount of talent and skill from its creator Tanaka to have the ability and genius to pull off seven fully entertaining volumes. Volumes that don’t just give you action, but also make you laugh, and touch your heart over and over again.
Love for Gon grows every day, from an unlockable character in the videogame Tekken 3, to an upcoming anime series being animated right now. When it comes to masters of silent entertainment, I have no issue boldly stating that the Gon comic is up there with the silent films of Chaplin and Keaton. There is just no way you can read this and not fall in love with it.

Something To Watch: The New Adventures of Batman
In 1977, Filmation (animators behind Masters of the Universe and  Bravestarr) released The New Adventures of Batman as part of the Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour on CBS. This half-hour fun romp gave us a lot of adventure and had a few notable things that made this a great series. The first was that Adam West and Burt Ward from the live-action Batman series of the 60s returned to provide the voices for the TV show. The next of note was that concurrently the Super-Friends were airing, produced by Hanna-Barbera, and so only certain Batman villains could appear on one show, but not the other. So the better rogues of Batman, like the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, etc; appeared on The New Adventures of Batman (the Super-Friends only made out with the Riddler and Scarecrow). Finally, the make-it-or-break note of the series is that it is infamous for Bat-Mite being one of its main characters. Bat-Mite, for lack of a better comparison, is like Scrappy-Doo: you either loved him or you wanted to perform that scene from Reservoir Dogs on him. Sometimes Bat-Mite is not a problem and blends into the episode fine; and sometimes he ruins your day ’cause Batman is about to catch the Joker, then Bat-Mite accidentally interferes by hitting Batman with something along the lines of a giant pie (which is then followed by Bat-Mite’s infamous catch phrase in this show, “I just wanted to help!“).

The New Adventures of Batman will do just fine for anyone down with the Batman: The Brave and the Bold kids vibe of a more cartoony Batman. The animation is standard for 1970s America, and the writing fits in with the kid friendly Batman titles published at the time. So if you want to enjoy 16 episodes of animated Batman goodness, you can pick up the entire series available on DVD now.

Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net