Free Comic Book Day 2012!

Oh, sweet sweet Free Comic Book Day. How I love thee! What a perfect way to get exposed to comics I might have missed any other time and read samples of my favorite series! I went to my local comic book shop, the Fantasy Shop, which had a limit of five per customer this year. That's fine by me, but it did make choosing just five a little tricky.


Here are the five I picked up:

1. Mouse Guard: Labyrinth And Other Stories. Publisher: Archaia Entertainment. Pretty handsome book - hard cover! And the art looks absolutely delightful. Probably the best free comic I've picked up yet, quality wise.
2. Yo Gabba Gabba!. Publisher: Oni Press. So cute! I'm not the biggest YGG! fan but I watch it occasionally and the comic is a fun read.
3. My Favorite Martian. Publisher: Hermes Press. You guys. You guyssss. I can't even. They're re-releasing the original My Favorite Martian comics and this is awesome. Now I want to re-watch the original TV series. Good job, Hermes Press!
4. Adventure Time With Finn & Jake. Publisher: Kaboom! This is really the comic I've been waiting months for. I can't wait to devour it wholly, then buy the comics ASAP. Look, there's BMO!
5. The Stuff of Legend. Publisher: Th3rd World Studios. I love this series - I even reviewed the first volume of comics - so this is a good reminder to keep reading the series. Plus, it looks like they'll be releasing the first two graphic novels in omnibus format soon. Can't wait to pick that up!

Also, my mom picked up an Avengers comic. I only flipped through it, but it looks excellent. A lot of characters that won't be in the new film, I'm sure.

So, what did everyone else pick up at their local shops? Did y'all pick up different comics? Let me know! Especially if your comic book shop gave out more than just free comics!

Graphic Novel Review: Lola - A Ghost Story

Lola: A Ghost Story

Author: J. Torres

Artist: Elbert Orr

Oni Press

112 pages (hardcover ed.)

Jesse sees dead people, monsters, demons, and lots of other things that go bump in the night that no one else can see. No one except his ailing grandmother - a woman who used her visions to help those living in her small town... the same rural community in all the scary stories Jesse's heard as a child. Man-eating ogres in trees. Farmhouses haunted by wraiths. Even pigs possessed by the devil. Upon his grandmother's passing, Jesse has no choice but to face his demons and whatever else might be awaiting him at grandma's house.

Content warning: Some of the supernatural imagery in the book can be quite gruesome. Not blood and guts gruesome, but quite vividly terrifying.

Oni Press is always releasing quality graphic novels since I can remember (they've been around since I was seven, so yeah), and Lola is certainly one of them. It is a ghost story for people who don't like ghost stories; a supernatural tale for fans of human stories in strange scenarios like Natsume Yuujinchou or Kieli that is never overwhelmed by the presence of ghosts to the point of becoming pure fantasy. Not like there's anything wrong with one hundred percent fantasy, but at the heart of Lola is a tale of humanity and that shines through brilliantly through all the layers of local mythos that gives the novel its unique feel. When's the last time you read a graphic novel exploring Philippine folklore? Exactly.