A few months ago the intrepid editor of this magazine took a trip to San Diego to one of the biggest comic conventions, and came back with a boatload of comics for us the poor slave driven [:^)] writers to review. So here are the first two reviews of some titles that she dropped on me.
Title: Gertie the Dinosaur
Company: Gertie the Dinosaur Comics
Issue: #1
When I got this comic, the first thing that stuck out was the fact that along with the drawn characters were two human characters that look like that they were photographed and pasted in.
The characters are: Gertie who is a green time traveling dinosaur, along with her friends Keller Eh Teel (a talking clock with a French accent), Moe Skeeto (a mosquito that is dressed in a tux with a bag.), Man (a rather well spoken caveman.) and the two human characters Walt (vary little is revealed about him in this issue) and Lilly (a young lady from the year 3855 with electric blue hair.) The bad guys who Gertie tries to stop from changing history every issue are: Mr. Michael (the "brains" of the bad guys), Soupcan Harry and Shorty are his accomplices throughout the issue.
This first issue drops us into the middle of things. Gertie and his friends are chasing Mr. Michael and his cronies out of Rome in the year 100 BC. Their chase leads them to the magic time traveling chest that both groups use to cause havoc. The chase through the chest leads them to the San Diego Comic Con in the year 1977. They chase each other through the con before they jump into the chest again that leads them to the San Diego Comic Con in the year 2000. Needless to say this is probably how every issue is going to be.
The art is nice and cartoony so it is not that hard on the eyes like some comics are today. The addition of the human characters is a nice touch that I have not seen before, but they just seem to be tacked on and really add nothing to the story. I like that in this age where gimmick covers and T & A books, someone took the time to come up with a book that looks good and is something that you can have your kids read without worry.
There are a few extras with this book that I like. First, there is the $3.00 Gertie fan club that gets you a free issue #2, a fan club pin, newsletter, membership card that gets you into certain parts of the web site and much more. Second, if you are too cheap to crank out the $3.00 for the fan club, then you can fill out a post card in the middle of the book with a brief survey about the first issue. Third, is the web site that has all sorts of things like; games, comics, contests, free stuff and lots more. You can reach the Gertie web site at: .
Bonus Review
Since the other book for review this month was not a full issue
like Gertie the Dinosaur, but more of a preview comic of about 12 pages.
Title: S.E.A.L.S.
Company: Studio Aires
The title makes this seem like it is a comic based on the elite US Navy division
known as the SEALS (like what Rudy was from `Survivor'), but it is not. Instead the
acronym stands for Surveillance Extraction And Live capture Specialists.
The comic is done in black and white which scores bonus points in my book because
you do not have to rely on the colors to make you pay attention to the art. The comic
starts with someone demonstrating the use of a powerful weapon. Then some type of
commando team boards the ship and steals the weapon. Then they cut to some person that
seems to be hooked up to a giant computer. Lastly, we cut to a US Aircraft carrier that
shows the S.E.A.L.S. team training. One of them seems to be a large cat like creature.
If this is an example of what they have planned for the first issue, then I'm eager
to see more. For more information, you can reach their web site at: .
Next month will have two more reviews. So I hope you will be here.