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Everything #1 (with Mark Hensley)
I said in the review for Try Adventure that I doubted that all of Chris's comics would be as great as that one, as it was a pile of undistilled awesome. I would like to happily report that, as of my reading the second comic in this pile, I was wrong. Sure, it's possible that some of the ones left to read are going to suck, but at this point I highly doubt it. This is the story of, well, everything, and it boggles my mind that there's so much crap in the movie theaters over the summer when somebody could just get the rights to this comic and have the biggest summer blockbuster of all time. This is going to be a tricky thing to review, as I don't want to give away a single thing about this comic. The real joy of this issue was in seeing what Chris and Mark were going to come up with on each page. Still, I do have to give a few things away, don't I? I can't just tell everybody to go out there and buy this and expect to have it happen. OK, fine. The comic starts off with you (yes, you) waiting for your estranged father to meet you for dinner. Your ex is serving you, and you can tell she wants to get back together with you. Your father arrives, and he turns out to be Mike Tyson. Sadly, there's very little time to enjoy your meeting, as the kitchen staff is trying to impregnate a gorilla with human sperm. This leads to a kitchen brawl, as you turn into an Ankylosaurus (thanks to your amulet) and Mike Tyson (who wears his boxing gloves wherever he goes) obliterates the doctor. You swat another doctor with your tail, knocking him through the window, into space and directly into the sun. Sadly, it turns out the gorilla's intentions were pure and he wanted to be just like us. I have just described the first five (5) pages of this 28 page comic. I haven't even mentioned the lizard men, your concert or the fact that every woman in this comic would clearly love the chance to sleep with you. I've said it before, but only when it's been completely true: it's comics like these that keep me happy to sit down and work on this website every day. If you have a sense of humor you're only hurting yourself by not checking this out. No price is listed, I'd guess $2, but really any price he asks for this is more than fair.
Try Adventure #1
More often than not "#1″ in the small press world means "the only issue ever". I'm really hoping that's not the case with this one. Chris sent me a pile of comics, so you'll be seeing plenty more of his stuff in the weeks to come, and the pessimist in me says that there's no way they'll all be this good. First off, kudos on the package, as he left a nice illustration on the envelope and, just as I was about to start raging about a lack of contact info, I saw an envelope marked "secrets". Well, I won't go into all the details of what was inside, but it also included two websites. Really, he already won me over with the packaging, making the first comic I grabbed out of the pile amazing was just a bonus. This mini has three adventures, each more awesome than the last, except for the fact that the middle story was the best. First up is the tale of a rogue chronomancer who travels through time doing… something. He spends most of the story (after our hero gets shot and tended to by a nurse from olden times) explaining who he is and what he does, and Chris managed to make the whole thing more of less make sense before ending the story. Next up is Lady Girl, the story of a mild-mannered librarian who can turn into a superhero who happens to be a homicidal lunatic who still talks like a mild-mannered librarian. Her confrontation with the boss behind the big bank robbery is a thing of beauty and pretty much everything she says is both hilarious and horrifying. Finally there's the tale of Barry the Barbarian, who goes to the rescue of the local village (with his giant bunny steed) mostly so he can talk to this girl he likes who is seeing another man. Awkwardness ensues, and really, who does call themselves Michael and not Mike? All told it's an excellent issue, Chris does some really expressive work with faces considering that the artwork is overall a bit minimalistic. No price, but let's say $2 and I can't wait to get to the rest of the stuff in this pile…
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