2 crampons out of 5

It’s free, right?  Whadya want?  Perhaps to be interested by what I’m reading…?

Free Comic Book Day is a great concept that’s a total crapshoot.  It makes sense that companies aren’t going to offer any required reading for free, so you often get side stories or extra material that relates to whichever company’s book you are lucky enough to get.  I can’t speak to the purpose of FCBD.  In my head, it’s a way of giving new readers glimpses of what’s out there, introducing them to the many styles available in the comic world for the low, low price of free.  You could also see it as a thank you to fans.  Often you do get notable creators or books tossing bits into these freebies, so collectors have something cool to grab that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg from a shop.  But then the books distributions confuse me.  They are certainly first come first serve, meaning if you ain’t there on FCBD, you’re probably not getting what you want.  It’s also on a Saturday, which is good for average Joe, but not good for average comic Joe, who schedules his visits to the shops on Wednesday or Thursday, Wednesday being when new books arrive.  Lastly, I’ve never been at a store to get one, so correct me if I’m wrong, but all free titles don’t go to all shops…  Aw, duff, let me look at the wiki page so I have my facts straight.

Okay.  So my supposition as to the purpose of FCBD seems to be correct.  As far as what titles go where, apparently shops have to pay for these books, so it follows that they would order them similar to their regular orders – only paying for titles they imagine they’ll need, or ordering minimal quantities of those they don’t know the readership for.  Hence my trouble in getting that one special book I’m after.

Good?  You like complaints, yes?  Anyhow, back to the review itself.

The Dark Horse FCBD comes packed with quite a few stories for a regular sized book: an Usagi Yojimbo tale, Emily the Strange, a Beanworld bloop, an Indiana Jones tale and, flipping the comic over, a Star Wars tale.  Collections of shorts like this are tough.  When Dark Horse collected their MySpace series, I found those great examples of how to do the short-comic collection, as it was always a mix of funny and adventurous and strange, with a good balance of ongoing tales and one-offs, with rare appearances of side stories from regular titles.  Which are to be avoided, in my opinion, hence this particular free comic book not being all that great.  Unless your universe lends itself to it, just giving us a glimpse of an established character is rarely enough to merit interest.  So Star Wars and Indy, though obviously recognized characters, don’t connect unless you’re already interested.  Emily the Strange is very much a genre book, and it ain’t my genre, but I do credit the notable art and writing style and a nice compact tale with being the right mix of qualities for this presentation.  Beanworld is always insane, and this short blurb is all you need to make or break.  Another good entry.  And then Usagi.  I love Usagi and Stan Sakai.  His stories are very basic and so would seem to lend themselves to shorts like this, but they end up suffering as it only highlights the simplicity.  In a feature length book, Sakai has the room to stretch out the silence or action of his stories, giving the generally simple stories room to breathe and grow into something more affecting.  But compressed to a couple pages it loses impact.

So – I know it’s free.  I know it’s supposed to have wide appeal to have something for everyone.  But this FCB comes across as pretty bland, a couple moments that are enjoyable enough but not so much to encourage me to run out and check out a new title.