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Various Anthologies – Liquid Sunshine
Liquid Sunshine
Have you ever wondered what comics creators do all day when they’re stuck at a convention? Most of them don’t have a line at their desk all day long and some of them (especially when they’re at one of the big conventions where the small press people are sometimes all shoved into a far corner of the building) get very few visitors at all. Well, sometimes they do little jam comics like this, purely for the hell of it. This tiny comic contains all sorts of people, namely Andy Runton, J. Chris Campbell, Duane Ballenger, Chris Pitzer, Sam Henderson, Rob Ullman, Jacob Chabot, Chris Giarrusso and Justin Gammon. If it wasn’t for the table of contents I would have no idea who drew which pages, as they mostly aren’t even using their usual drawing style. This book doesn’t say for sure, but I’d guess that they would do a panel and pass the book along to the next person to see what they came up with, as this doesn’t follow much of a story or have much of a point. There’s some liquid sunshine, you see, and a boy is carrying it around. Another boy wants to steal this glass of liquid sunshine for the obvious piles of money he’ll get for it, but abruptly drops this idea to urinate in the glass instead. It wanders around a bit more after that, but you get the general idea. This is a great comic for those of you who are curious about what artists do in their spare time at these conventions, otherwise it’s easily skipped. No price, but it can’t be more than $1.
Runton, Andy – Owly: Breakin’ The Ice
Owly: Breakin’ The Ice
I’m pretty late to the phenomenon that is Owly, as I still haven’t picked up any of the graphic novels (and he’s up to three judging by the back of this book). Still, what better place to try something like this out than Free Comic Book Day? Here’s hoping this is still going to available somehow at the Top Shelf page or this is going to be a fairly pointless review… Owly is a completely adorable owl who seems to get into all sorts of adventures with his pals Wormy and Scampy. This issue is all about Owly noticing some hungry ducks and resolving to feed them, although he has to deal with a greedy friend and some thin ice in the process. It’s a silent book, which only adds to the cuteness here. Said cuteness can be overwhelming at times if you’re a cynical guy like me, but the inside cover goes to great lengths to quote mainstream places like USA Today and People magazine to say that these books have a lot to offer older readers while being sure to captivate the kids. The part about the kids I believe completely, and anything that might help kids catch onto comics is something that I’m behind all the way. Personally, I’m not going to rush out and get the other graphic novels here. It was a fun and completely adorable story, and there are some solid messages in here about friendship and sharing that aren’t heavy-handed at all (something that is tough to pull off). I don’t know, maybe I just have a bit too much of the year-round humbug in me to really get into something like this, but I could sure see a whole lot of people thinking this comic was the sweetest thing in the world.
