5 out of 5

Man, the Archaia anthology FCBD’s pack so much goodness into small packages.  And then, of course, the ability to be able to claim (on the back cover) that this is the ‘first-ever Free Comic Book Day original graphic novella hardcover anthology.’  It’s a mouthful and super-specific but it is a pretty meaningful boast, considering a color hardcover book with more than 30 pages illustrating your favorite character going ‘weeeee’ or whatnot could end up costing you $13.95, or some similarly odd amount that we somehow justify.  But this was free.  Free.

So bonus points.  Good work.  Doing the extra credit totes paid off, even if the glued binding and super-narrow opening angle make me not want to crack the book open beyond like 45 degrees or something.

6 stories, all intended as lead-ins to their respective publications, whether they’re truly intros or just well-chosen representative supplemental material.  The ‘Mouse Guard’ mini probably works better for readers, as you get your linking character nod in the last panel, but writer/artist David Petersen’s narrative mechanic of a puppet show that summarizes the ethics of the Guard is a smart, compact way to give the gist of the book, and certainly shows off Petersen’s unbelievably developed balance of framing and detail, plus giving him some new ‘material’ to draw with the makeshift puppets.   Sometimes action panels in his books feel a little static, so I found it amusing that the action here is a drawn image – thus a static image – intended to imply motion of a ‘static’ device like a puppet that is being jiggled by a 3rd party to imply motion.  Aaand it works.  Woof.  The ‘Labyrinth’ short by Ted Naifeh and Adrianne Ambrose is just a buildup to a gag, but it’s super cute and admittedly funny, with really warm and expressive art by Cory Godbey.  The ‘Dapper Men’ intro by Jim McCann and Janet K. Lee is one of those ‘too vague to be interesting’ things that’s trying to draw you in with oddity but just ends up feeling like unconnected sentences.  However, it’s committed to doing what it does and I imagine it’s a fair lead-in to the book it precedes.  The ‘Rust’ mini is as perfect as the book, though I’m not sure if Royden Lepp’s slowburn narrative style will grab readers within its few pages.  But there’s a kid with a jetpack.  So.  …Jeremy Bastian’s ‘Cursed Pirate Girl’ exists in that same oddball world as Tony Millionaire.  It’s black and white and stuffed with art, and amusingly odd.  Finally, Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos deliver another ‘Cow Boy’ masterwork.  Though not as ‘meta’ as their other FCBD flip-flopping entry (from 2013 I think), it shows us how effectively Chris’ aged coloring mixed with his cartoonish art sells Cosby’s tough little kid.  It seems like a joke but its not, and as with the other short I mentioned, this little glimmer would have been enough to get me buying up the hardcover full version.

And to think I sometimes pay $3.99 for a full comic of filler.  Harumph.