Red 5 Comics

As I mentioned in my next to last blog about Baltimore, the guys over at Red 5 Comics gave out a complete set of their launch line up at the Summit. I've had some time over the past week to sit down and read them and I must say I'm impressed. This is probably the strongest launch line-up I've seen in... well I don't know when. Now it's obvious that these guys are big Star Wars fans, everything from the name of the company to the ads in the books give you a hint, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Paul Ens, the former director for StarWars.com and Lucas Online is co-founder and writer of Neozoic. Scott Chitwood, the other founder, was one of the co-founders of TheForce.net.
Okay, that's all well and good, but what doe's any of this have to do with Star Wars? Nothing really, just a common bond. Of course that common bond is probably what got Kevin Rubio, creator of TROOPS, and writer of Star Wars: Tag and Bink to sign on with Red 5. Lucas Marangon, who did the art for the Tag & Bink books also came on with Rubio to create their new comic, Abyss. I don't want to say too much about Abyss because the plot is full of small twists and lots of funny little jokes that I might ruin. Suffice to say Eric Hoffman's father has died, and Eric is finding out his inheritence is a little more then he thought it would be. Easily the best out of all the Red 5 books, and that's saying something.

Midknight shows a lot of potential. Story-wise it's great. Art, not so much to be honest. There is certainly talent there, it just needs to be developed a bit more. I think by the time it gets through it's first story arc the artist, who is also one of the creators, will have it nailed. It just seems a little, I dunno, flat? It'll get there, but it'll just take a little time for the art team to come together. Maybe it's just different and I'm too set in my ways to see it for what it is. I mean the guy was the Wizard.com 2006 "Artist to Watch", that's gotta count for something, right? The writing is good and I really like the concept, it's something we're familiar with, but just haven't seem much of. "Husband and wife crime-fighters, fighting crime after the kid's bedtime." It's a good book and worth picking up.

Neozoic really gets going right from the start. The meteor that was supposed to wipe out the dinosaurs instead hits the moon. Of course this would've been almost as disastirous as what actually happened, but then again, they're finding many dinosaur races lived hundreds of thousands of years past the impact we had thought wiped them out, so whatever. It's a "what if" story and this one requires specific events take place and we just have to accept those. Once you have I think you will find a fun, witty, original story.

Lastly this brings us to Atomic Robo. Think Brit, Hellboy, and Nicolas Tesla all baked together into a delicious marble cake with Iron Man frosting. Yeah, that's it exactly. I don't know what else to say about it really. If Abyss hadn't been so damn funny this would have easily been my favorite out of the four, hands down. Buy this book. Seriously, do it. C'mon, I said DO IT! (5 points if you get the reference)

-Dan