4 out of 5

It (was) free; it’s entirely creator-drive; it’s got 3-D ghost in it, rather meta rendered without any trace of 3-D; and Hellboy and Savage Dragon somehow occupy one body for a couple panels.  It… sounds like five stars?  And by all rights it should be, but things – for a book that tries to have something of a narrative – go just slightly astray, unfortunately keeping it from being a pristine chunk of awesomeness.

As an exclusive-to-a-shop (Challengers Comics and Conversation in Chicago) FCBD offering, Ryan Browne extended his God Hates Astronauts storyline to encompass this bit where 3-D ghost goes to jail, learns cosmic narration, then has his own badass Secret Wars riff, pulling in characters from all different creators and publishers – in Browne’s celebration of the freedom of creator’s rights – for some flexing of ultimate narration skills.  Which is also and excuse for Browne, Tim Seely, Luke Smarto, and Mike Norton to each draw a whole bunch of guys and gals a’brawlin’ and a random yuksin’ for 20ish pages before it all explodes.

It’s about as nuts and silly as it sounds, and acceptingly self-congratulatory of each contributor’s creations, as well as of other creators (thanked for, and presumably giving their permissions).  Somewhat frustratingly, though, Smarto refuses to play ball, drawing what I’m assuming are his characters in a completely dialogue / setting randomness attempt at meta on meta, which then tries to wink and lampshade by having 3-D ghost ask if this is still part of the same comic… but it falls flat.  The premise gives so many ways to work this, and Luke just ignored it and did his own funny, which, to me, backfired.

But: Unpaid work, and certainly a celebration of indie efforts all the same.  And by and large, all those pluses I started out listing are enough to conquer a few shruggy pages.