Best of the Free: Shawn's Top 5 FCBD Offerings

In which Shawn discusses her favorite FCBD books from 2011!

1) Captain America/Thor The Mighty Fighting Avengers

Captain America and Thor get swept back to Camelot and must defeat a familiar foe if they hope to return to their own time. Chris Samnee’s art and Matt Wilson’s colors are spectacular. Roger Langridge’s story is fun and action packed. It is the perfect gateway comic that will lead kids and adults to discover other fun Captain America and Thor stories.

2) Loose Ends/ICE flip-book

Loose Ends is scheduled to come out in July (which is only a couple months away) and I must say that all the previews and sneak-peeks of this book look amazing. I am super excited to see what Jason Latour, Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi have created. The ICE preview is a really interesting take on the typical cop drama story. Doug Wagner and Jose Holder make a great team. Holder is able to keep up with all the action Wagner throws at him.  12-Gauge has some great looking books coming out this year!

3) Oni Press Rated Free for Everyone and Spontaneous

Oni Press had two great selections available for FCBD. The first is their all-ages book, Rated Free For Everyone. It had two stories, Sketch Monsters by Joshua Williamson and Vinny Navarrete and Power Lunch by J. Torres and Dean Trippe. Both were great but I think Power Lunch was my favorite. It is about a boy who gets super powers from the foods he eats. Spontaneous was Oni’s not-all-ages FCBD book. People are spontaneously combusting and it is up to two young kids to figure out this mystery. Joe Harris’s story has me hooked and I look forward to seeing more moody art from Brett Weldele.

4) The Dark Crystal/Mouse Guard flip-book

The Dark Crystal story was an excellent preview to the original graphic novel which will be hitting stands late this year. I was pleased with the stylized art in this book. It has a strong digitally painted look to it but somehow it worked. The Mouse Guard story was fantastic. I love the way David Petersen is expanding upon this universe and telling character’s back-stories. This flip-book also contained an all-new Return of the Dapper Men story which is a hint at things to come in the next graphic novel that Jim McCann and Janet Lee are working on. There was also a preview of A Tale of Sand. Archaia is turning the feature-length screenplay Jim Henson was working on with Jerry Juhl into an original graphic novel and it is due in September. This flip-book is a fun preview things to come from Archaia.

5) Green Lantern/Flashpoint Special Edition

I was able to pick up the HeroesCon variant of this FCBD book. If you were lucky enough to snag a copy you can bring it to HeroesCon for a free gift (limit one per person)! The Green Lantern story in this book was a reprint of the second part of the Secret Origin storyline. It was a good introduction to the character and will make for a nice bridge for movie fans to jump into the comics. There was also a preview to the mega-crossover event Flashpoint. Wow there are a bunch of tie-ins that go along with that mini-series.

Runners up: John Stanley’s Summer Fun, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson, Criminal Macabre/Baltimore flip-book, Avatar The Last Airbender/ Star Wars The Clone Wars flip-book, The Amazing Spider-Man.