Bixby, Kevin & Arthur – Bixtone Productions 24 Hour Comic Madness Extravaganza

Website (for Kevin’s Facebook page)

Bixtone Productions 24 Hour Comic Madness Extravaganza

Ah, the 24 hour comic. When successful, it’s usually obvious to tell that it was done quickly, as the art is a step below the usual output of the artist. But when it’s not successful (meaning only that it wasn’t finished in 24 hours, not a knock on the quality) there’s a substantial amount of guesswork going on with the reader. Is this the way it looked on the day of the challenge or has the art/writing been touched up since then? I’m going to guess that at least the art has been touched up, but as Kevin makes it clear that these are three stories that didn’t quite meet the challenge of 24 hours, I think that’s still allowed. The stories in this one include a zombie outbreak (which I think is legally mandated material for all comics artists on 24 hour challenges to try at least once), the revenge of a villain who is currently posing as a hero after “foiling” a kidnapping plot, and Kevin giving up the reins of another challenge to a 6 year old nephew so he can plot out a story. Not really, of course, but it made for a good excuse on the art for that one. Let’s go through them in order! The zombie outbreak was a lot of fun. Not much new ground was broken, but I’m always up for scenes of human-on-zombie violence. The Devilman story was by far the most plot-heavy of the stories, but it also ends on a cliffhanger with no sign of the story ever being finished. Still, another fun read with some solid action. Finally there’s the utterly random story, which somehow managed to be the most enjoyable of them all. There’s no real way to summarize it, but I will say that it involves Pokeman eating Thor (and becoming Pokemon Thor) and a giant Batman robot fighting Godzilla through “yo mama” jokes. See? Random. My only minor quibble was that I could often see the pencils of the text bubbles, as they weren’t erased thoroughly in spots, but that kind of thing is far from a dealbreaker. It’s good clean fun and the three stories makes for a hefty book, so give it a look why don’t you?