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PIKA-PIKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s right my friends, it’s the grand return of From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma-Rays after being gone for a few weeks here. So to celebrate, I thought I would give you a good old fashion Japanese onomatopoeia to start off with. Yes, that semester of Japanese Linguistics is paying off all these years later for me, now that I can flex my Snapple fact-like knowledge in a column. Like the noise a frog makes is “kero-kero” or the noise a dog makes is “wata-wata“! Keep these things’ sound effects in mind, impress your date tonight with your knowledge of another language!
To start off this week, check-check-check it out what I found while on a hunt shopping for Frankenberry:

That’s right! Hostess is putting superheroes back on boxes and taking names second. It’s like 1985 but it’s 2010! Amazing! These Twinkies look and taste like normal Twinkies! So the flaw is they should have Clark Kent on the box, since the Superman Twinkie is disguised as just a plain old mild mannered Twinkie when you open up the box! Apparently I also love writing in exclamation marks!!!!!!!!
Next up, I read an amazing reprint collection this week from our friends at Dark Horse comics of Thun’da, King of the Congo. I reviewed it a few days ago on the site, but loved this archive edition so much by them, I thought I would give it a second plug and encourage you to read about it here!
Collection of Awesomeness: Fraggle Rock Vol.1
Publisher: Archaia
Written By: Adrianne Ambrose, Nichol Ashworth, Jeffrey Brown, Bryce Coleman, Katie Cook, Leigh Dragoon, Sam Humphries, Neil Klied, Grace Randolph, and Heather White.
Art By: Jefferey Brown, Katie Cook, Michael DiMotta, Joanna Estep, Whitney Leith, Jeremy Love, Jake Myler, Fernando Pinto, and Jeff Stokely.
So this year one of the highlights on the comic book scene was getting to go back down to Fraggle Rock. This collection put out by Archaia collects the entire first mini-series (there is a second one coming soon) and the material from their Free Comic Book Day issue.
If you didn’t get a chance to read the mini-series, it is made up of a collection of stories done by a wide variety of new artists and writers. Gobo, Mokey, Red, Wembley, and Boober are all back and it’s a good time. The Archaia-crew stories are all original, unlike a majority of the Marvel Comics ones from the 80s that they lifted from episodes of the TV series, for the comic in their Star Comics line.
Each one of the tales has a different team on it, giving each tale a unique spin, therefore the art and writing is completely different tale to tale. However, don’t let that keep you from this great collection; each tale captures the heart and fun of the original Fraggle Rock to a tee, and deserves to be read. The comics are fun for all ages and Archaia has also kept the activity pages in the collection, that were also in the mini-series, which I think is a fantastic touch. I miss these from youth comics and am glad to see some fun activity pages in print. There is nothing wrong with getting in touch with your inner child, and this comic proves that (or letting your child read comics, because you should be letting them do that sort of thing). To give a little shout out, my favorite tale in this collection is “How To Catch A Fwaggle,” written by Coleman, with art by DiMotta. The tale is beautifully drawn and colored with great writing, and I think captures the Gorgs perfectly, so it’s a big payoff for a Fraggle Rock fan, like myself.
This collection is out in stores now, so pick it up, buy it, love it, and then buy four more copies and give them to friends.
Well, that’s it for this week, but glad to be back and happily can say once again: See you very soon, readers!
Click here for previous editions of From Friendly Ghosts to Gamma Rays.
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net