While wandering about Comic Con in July, I was meandering past the "Big Boss Comics" booth. The young lady working the booth gave a pretty good sales pitch for their two titles, so I went ahead and took them up on their "package deal" for the two titles, figuring it would give me some review material. This will not be the easiest review for me to write. Big Boss Comics currently publishes two titles, both of which are new publications. Their first is "Plan B", preview issue #0, and their second is "Advice Man", Issue 0 Volume 1. Both show a print date of July 2003, just in time for the San Diego Con. Big Boss’s web page is still under construction as of this writing, so little additional information is available beyond what is in the comics themselves. I’ll profile the two comics separately first, and then give a collective opinion. Plan B "Plan B" is a team effort of Joshua Williamson and Jacob Glaser. Williamson writes the story while Glaser does the artwork. In the preview issue, we are given a brief introduction to the primary characters, a team of super-heroes. The focal character in this mix is Figment, a somewhat irreverent character whose main claim to fame in the comic is that he is the only one who realizes that he is a comic book character. His goal is to figure out how to escape the comic book and find himself in the real world. The preview story involves the team in opening and then sealing a gate to hell which can unleash demons on the Earth. Their logic in doing so is to accomplish the once-a-century opening under controlled circumstances, lest some unwitting person or group do so and not be able to confine the evil creatures that issue forth. Figment tends to take nothing seriously, realizing it’s all just the "figment" of some comic writer’s imagination, and therefore not real at all. He’s joined by the rest of the group, starting with Crush, who comes across as the leader of the team in the Comic. She uses a weapon reminiscent of the double ended Light Saber used by Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace". Peak is next, something of a material girl whose talents or strengths we’re not introduced to in this first issue, other than it appears she can fly. Coming in together are Brutal and Farside Jack. Brutal is an armor suited fighter who comes across as something of a Berserker, while Farside Jack has that hooded street fighter look to him. Not appearing in the Preview story, but having pin-ups in the back of the comic are Carbon, Stoker, Bubba BFG, and Stayne. Presumably they’ll show up in future stories. Plan B is published in full color on glossy, heavy paper. Coloring is by Tribal Rose, and the suggested retail price is $2.95 U.S. Advice Man "Advice Man" is written and drawn by Vincente "Vinny" Navarette. The primary character, whose real name is not revealed in the premiere issue, is a homeless man that people seek out for advice. We’re not given a reason why people seek out this street person for advice, and part of the irony of the first story is that the advice he gives the "Seeker" in the first issue is really the kind where the seeker is pretty much told to simply make up his own mind. More of the premiere story revolves around the Advice Man fighting an insolent rat. This short introduction to the title character takes up just under half the pages of this first issue. Several pages of the back half are given over to a comic titled "Perpetual Circumstance". What’s unique about this offering is that all the dialog balloons are left blank. Vinny Navarette has given us the art, and left it to us to fill in the story to match. This offers some potential, and it might be interesting to take the comic to a copy machine and make several copies of these pages just to see how many variations could be made to fit the drawings provided. One could make a "Party game" out of it, by starting with one guest and having them fill in the balloons on the first panel, pass it to the next person for the next panel, and so on until all the panels are filled in. Be advised, though, that this unscripted story involves some violent actions. The final pages of "Advice Man" are devoted to some sketches done by the artist during the development stages of the comic. Some hints may be hiding in there as to the background of the enigmatic title character, while potential visitors to Advice Man are shown on another page. Advice Man is pen and ink art on heavy paper. The cover colors are also done by Tribal Rose, and the suggested retail price is likewise $2.95 U.S. My observations? As a writer, the toughest challenge I face when writing fiction is to get the reader to care about my characters as much as I do. Whether it’s a story for text only, comic format, or a movie, the audience has to be "hooked" in the early stages of the story, or they won’t stick around for more. As I said starting out, this isn’t the easiest review for me to write, as I would much prefer to write enthusiastic reviews encouraging others to share the same entertainment pleasure I received from the object of the review. The problem is, neither of these two titles left me with much desire to run out and buy the next issues. If they show up at my local Comic Shop, I may go ahead and pick up the next issue of each to see if the story progresses, but truth be told, if they don’t show up, I won’t feel like I’ve been left hanging. Big Boss Comics invested considerable time and resource into producing a high quality publication. Unlike many "starter comics", they did not cut corners on the quality of the printing or on the paper used for the comics. I’ve bought comics from "big publishers" that weren’t as nicely produced. The art in Advice Man is solid and consistent, and I would not be surprised to see Vinny Navarette go a long way in the art world, whether it’s in comics or other formats, or both. Plan B’s art showed an inconsistency which I hope Glaser works out. Glaser’s artwork for the bodies and backgrounds is for the most part terrific, but I found that his character’s eyes seem to have trouble staying in the proper place. Eyes, while such a small part of the body, are a huge part of a character and our attention is drawn to them by nature. It’s a difficult task to keep the eyes in the proper alignment as the face is posed in different positions, and I cannot say that I would do any better at it. However, after years of reading comics and graphic novels of many different styles and genres, I can say that, from the audience’s perspective, the effect is worth the effort. The Big Boss team of writers and artists show potential. They show a willingness to invest in their art beyond the superficial level, and I sincerely hope that investment pays off for them. Both "Plan B" and "Advice Man" seem to hint at entertainment value beyond what I found in these two premiere issues, and I would love to find future issues that really do hook me and make me want to read more about their characters. Big Boss Comics is on the web at http://www.bigbosscomics.com/

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