The great thing about Comic Con International is that you come home with free previews of comics, so you can keep an eye on your comic shop’s shelves for them when they come out. That is, it would be a great thing if anyone had any previews of any decent comics! ARGH! What follows is a review of the three previews I came home with and didn’t throw out. First and foremost, because I’m still annoyed that I paid $5 for it, is The Lizard King Comic Con International 2002 Preview. The story is by Philip Vargas, the art is by Anwar Madrigal, and it’s published by Madgas Creative Development. Let’s see . . . Where to start. The art is actually pretty good. The faerie girl Gwenn is pretty cool looking, and you know a cool faerie is a way to win me over to a comic. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to save this preview. The story seems to focus on some humans battling some dragon clans. GO dragons! I hope the humans all get fried. Erhm, where was I? Oh yes, there are also some furry badger-looking people thingies, and a furry, bipedal rabbit person thingy who doesn’t like being called a rabbit. This preview could have used less furry people thingies and more Gwenn, but that’s just my opinion. What else could this preview have used more of? Preview material! Sheesh. I paid $5 for 6 pages of black and white story, and 8 pages of black and white concept art. This was the second-biggest rip off at Comic Con (second only to the price of water). I would have been happy with this preview if it had been free. I might even have been happy with it had I paid $2. But $5 for so little substance was a major disappointment. Well, it did come with a bag and board, maybe that was part of the price . . . Moving on to some free previews . . . First I have the preview from Twilight Comics, which apparently highlights all of the comics they have coming out this year. It’s an extensive list, and not a single one appealed to me. In fact, their amazing mangling of Egyptian mythology for "Night & Day" had me ranting every time I looked at the book. There’s also some comic called Anti about some rebellious chick with a gun . . . Oh, the blurb about her makes me laugh so much that I have to repeat it (man, I love being with the press, I can get away with this stuff): "She is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction cast in the form of a woman. She is the pinnacle of genetic engineering, human enhancement, and bio-science. The more you resist her the stronger she becomes. The harder you fight her the faster you sell your doom. In the end you really only have one option: head for the stars and hope she doesn’t find you . . . " Hehehe. I could spend all day ripping that one paragraph apart, but I’ll just settle for saying . . . Looking at her figure, they weren’t kidding when they said human enhancement! There’s also a comic called Vin Kent about a guy born powerless into a world full of psychics and mediums, and his quest as a warrior. It might interest me if everyone in it didn’t look like a linebacker with a cat head . . . scaaaaary. The last half of the preview is "Sudden Twilight", a quick preview of other ideas their creators are kicking around. They’re best left unmentioned. Oh yes, this preview was nothing but concept art and short blurbs about the comics, but it was FREE so that’s OK. Lastly, I have the preview for Legends & Lost Souls, the most low- budget preview I’ve seen. It’s comprised of one-sided black and white photo copies stapled at the top corner, but that’s OK, because it was also FREE. What’s not OK is how painfully bad the art was! This art has the definite look of someone who has some of the basic ideas of drawing down, but who really needs to practice and polish their skills... Very amateur, I’d even say childish (think pre-teen with a promising art career . . . you want to encourage them, but you don’t want them drawing comics yet). The story looks like it would focus around magic and martial arts (enhanced by magic) in modern-day Seattle. Not the most original idea, but it could have been enjoyable if the poor art hadn’t killed it. This sums up my quick report on Comic Con previews. Tune in next month for reviews of real comics! Yay!

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