4 out of 5

That’s right.  It’s like a full-length version of those Hostess ads from old Marvel comics.  How can that be bad?  Oh, because it’s like a 20 page commercial?  Sure, but it’s also ridiculously ridiculous.  The art by Richard Powell is actually beyond competent – it’s fun.  It’s colored brightly with nicely contrasting tones, lettered well and paneled well, with all the silly, stupid action popping off the page.  Dunno if Powell did the colors and letters as well, but the only other credit besides writing is art, so we’ll give it to him.  You get an origin story for Jell-O Man – Jell-O scientists trying to create holographic packaging and then something something goes awry and those Jell-O letters are popping off the box to form the titular ‘hero’ (whose power seems to be detaching his head – the ‘O’ – and rolling it at bad guys) and his dog, Wobbly, who can only say ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,’ leading to massive character development.  But thank goodness for experiments gone awry, ’cause Jell-O Man can roll his head at a robot that’s trying to steal all the world’s Jell-O.

Elsewhere we get Snackosaurus and The Shoveler (or something) who ALSO want to steal the treats.  (Spoiler: they also get defeated.)  The best is Kurt Busiek popping up and just scripting randomness, Jell-O Man tempting Snackosaurus to try to hold an extra Jell-O between his knees (what?) and the hero parachuting in from out of nowhere.

I also love the claim on the front that this is worth 1.25 and its a collector’s edition.  We were really expecting Jell-O Man and Wobbly to take off.  You too probably got a free copy of this at some point, but man, this is a full-length effort that I hope got the people involved something akin to worthwhile pay, ’cause I loved it as a kid and its still pretty fun to read now.