5 out of 5

Some Charlton Neo pix-c originals collected in print form, and super-fun proof of how the appreciation of something from ages past can be carried forward and adapted into something new, fresh, and exciting.  The strips strips here are a riot.

First up is Paul Kupperberg’s time travel kookiness NEO, which vaguely recalls Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man, to me, in its approach of the future and present sort of like Rac Shade’s two dimensions, with a requisite amount of weirdness thrown in.  Intentional or not, the lead character’s escape to the ‘past’ (with a pampf!) hits the ground running with a smile and never looks back.  P.D. Angel Gabriele knocks the art out of the park – super dynamic and personable! – and the color work is typical Charlton Neo great.

Next, Sandy Carruthers tames his jagged Spook-pencils for mini heroine adventure Ms. Molecule, as scripted by Rene King Thompson.  This starts out a little too cheeky, spoon-feeding us an origin, but the subsequent medical mystery (and some other mysteries) has the shrinking Ms. Molecule getting involved in page-turners of well handled twists, exciting scuffles, and intelligent and convincing (since I never questioned the pseudo-science) dialogue.

Last, a short introduction to Jean-Emmanuel Dubois’ Mr. Krime, an Italian costumed anti-hero thus appropriately drawn by Italian costumes anti-hero appreciator Mort Todd.  At a few pages, you get the gist of where this is going easily enough, but it’s an entertaining buildip nonetheless and a great, evil-chuckle way to close out this collection.