4 out of 5

Does-it-all man Jay P Fosgitt just keeps getting better and better.  There’s so little Bodie Troll material out there that every bit published is to be cherished, and this FCBD entry is a huge leap forward for a strip that was already great.  The humor is still that mash-up of Looney Tunes goofball with laugh-out-loud ridiculousness – like seriously, out-loud laughs occurred – and Jay’s laid back lettering and warm colors are delivered with more confidence and purpose; the coloring in particular is amazing, the amount of ranges in the colors while keeping to a set selection of ‘earthier’ hues.  Just look at how rich the cover is…  It’s so misleadingly meticulous for what could be considered a funny animal strip.  And then there are the layouts, with which Jay takes some amazing chances that totally pay off by adding to the energy and humor of the strip.  What’s it about?  Puppet marriages and getting drunk on root beer.  It’s wonderful.

…Though I can’t say the same about Drone, which is written with the type of high-level whimsy its premise – a video gamer hacks into something something and so now he’s chosen to control a super secret government attack drone! – suggests.  That is to say: it’s not very deep.  It plays at being serious, sending the drone into hostage situations, but it’s too filled with quips and smirks to settle and Randy Kintz’s sketchy art actually has a nice sense of motion, but it feels like the wrong fit for a book about robots with hard edges and right angles.  But: it represents the book well, I believe, and what’s offered here is complete while also giving us a cliffhanger, so in terms of FCBD value, it does what it’s supposed to do: effectively shows off its wares and offers a reason to read more if you’re interested.

No, the lack of star comes from Creature Academy (the indicia lists the third strip as ‘Agent 42’?) because it’s the kind of preview stuff that I don’t feel like should be in FCBD’s.  This really seemed like there were just some leftover pages and so they jammed in what they could and it’s just a big shrug.  The art (Erich Owen) is very cartoonish and lively, but the parallel world with monsters and magic is too big a concept to pitch effectively in the limited space, making it even more disruptive when the “Look for Creature Academy…” blurb is lain atop the final panel.

In other words: Bodie.