Free Comic Book Day 2024

Free Comic Book Day! It’s officially been two years since I first started my comic collection, launched a comic website with a blog. I now have roughly 140 or so comics in my collection and it’s climbing, slowly but surely. This time I managed to scoop up a few comics for myself and my two boys got some comics for kids. I missed out on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle issue but I did manage to get the three I was going for which were Image Comics Energon Universe, DC’s Absolute Power and Marvel’s Blood Hunt. The most recent stack episode from the Comic Book Club podcast talked about Energon Universe and how G.I. Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals are all in one universe. I was definitely intrigued because if you recall, at the very end of the last Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, they alluded to a partnership between the Transformers and G.I. Joe sector. So I had to pick that one up being a Transformers fan, though I am not sure what Void Rivals is.

The other issue I will be reviewing besides Energon Universe is DC’s Absolute Power, I’ll cover the FCBD Blood Hunt along with the first issue review of Blood hunt. Now as I said, I am only two years into collecting comics, I am fairly new and don’t know much about existing story lines or important events, so I had no idea what to expect. Really I just saw Superman, Batman and another cool looking Batman on the cover and figured this should be good. Besides these few comics, I also bought another copy of X-Men ‘97 so I could use it for a crafts project and a Deadpool & Wolverine themed comic box. Remember gang, don’t just pick up the free comics but also purchase a couple things to help support your local comic shop.

A little different with this review since it’s two books. I’ll be reviewing the cover art, but I’ll just touch on the story instead of a full review:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover - Energon Universe

What I really like about this cover is its creativity. Megatron looks menacing even though we only see his red lit eyes. He’s got a smoking gun that he most likely just shot off and the ground below him is crumbling with electricity. The orange and yellow colors combine to make a very rich and bright background that illuminates Megatron from behind, with a tiny bit of a machinery/Cybertron peeping through at the top. The title is very creative with the stars in the dark black space, but to me this is the only part I wish was done a little differently. I like the idea but with the machine looking graphics behind it, it doesn’t stand out as much. I think that title treatment would stand out a bit more had the yellow and orange background been extended to the top.

Story - Energon Universe

Overall I like this one but I think if I had read some of the Void Rivals line, I’d understand this issue a bit more. They do a good job at the beginning showing the three titles, Transformers, Void Rivals and GI Joe but I wish there was just a snippet of text that explained each one. The book starts off with some AWESOME action sequences of none other than Optimus Prime and Megatron. Colors, action, text treatment, all of it looks epic at the start. 

This opening action spread is beautiful with its choice of colors

Optimus bests Megatron and as he’s holding onto the ship for dear life, Starscream comes by to “help.” Megatron calls out to Starscream and then BOOM! Starscream blasts Megatron off the ship. Next we get brought to a story of some odd looking creatures and an Autobot named Hotrod but honestly it didn’t make sense to me. Finally we get the GI Joe story which is some high powered action sequences just like the beginning. Pretty much we see Duk wanting to recruit someone named Anastasia Cisarovna, but Colonel Hawk is completely against it. In the end this was a fun little issue to just see the action panels, but I don’t think I can see myself picking up a Void Rivals issue, but definitely interested in knowing where the story is headed for Transformers and GI Joe. Overall 4/5

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Cover - Absolute Power

Having touched on this cover a bit already we know that there is Superman and two Batmans on it, but it also features a few more characters. Amanda Wallace, who I only remember from the Suicide Squad movies. Then Wonder Woman and one other character that I have no idea who it is but they look like some sort of android. I’m just now realizing that this cover has the same yellow and orange color background that the Energon Universe cover has, maybe that’s why I was so drawn to it. The treatment of the title, Absolute Power could have used a bit of love since it looks like word art but other than that it’s a pretty dope cover with how the characters are laid out.

Story - Absolute Power

Holy shit this issue. Again, I had no clue going into this and man I am so glad I got it. What I really appreciate from the book is in the back they have profile spreads on some of the characters. For instance the two that I didn’t know on the cover were Failsafe, the cool looking Batman but is really a cybernetic killer and genius-level tactician with near-indestructible frame. Oof. Then the other was in fact, the House of Braniac, a superintelligent alien hive mind, whose primary focus on the collection and storage of data, power and culture. Another big oof. 

Ok, definitely need to read up more on Failsafe cause he looks freakin awesome. Reminds me of Batman Beyond.

Essentially the story starts with Failsafe and Amanda Wallace trying to achieve something with the use of electro-metas but we don’t know what exactly they’re doing or why. They bring in a super named Haywire, or Dylan Moore, to a small observation room with a metal ball figure in the middle and ask him to shoot it with all the electric power he has. Well long story short, they drain him til he ‘pops.’ It’s pretty wild. We’re shown a vision of the future thru another super named Dreamer, but it’s not good; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League look to be in shackles. The final story in the back we see Superman approaching a robbery of some sort. The criminals get scared about going back to prison, so one of them shoots their gun at Superman. I’m expecting the bullets to bounce off and kill them or something, right? Absolutely Wrong is what this issue should be called, because I was so off. Superman gets hit by the bullets, sees blood and the final shot we see is Superman falling to what we can only presume will be his death. Phew. What an issue and it was free! Overall 

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Let's Make a Coffee & Comics Canvas Tote Bag

How to Customize a Canvas Tote Bag

I’ve had this blank tote bag sitting around the house for about 2 years now with the intention to put some type of design on it. Honestly I think the only reason we’ve kept this tote is because of Colorado law having stores charge for plastic bags. Originally I wanted to do something for our canna brand but could never think of a good enough idea. It wasn’t until recently that when I finished revising the Coffee & Comics logo that I was like, “Oh, this would be perfect.” All I really needed to do was create a jpeg with the logo to use with the projector. My projector was a cheap $40 projector from Amazon that I knew would work for this project. My plan was to lightly trace the logo on the wall with a chalk pencil, then take the bag down and fill it in with the marker on a table. Should be easy enough right?

The materials I used but not necessarily needed: old ass fabric markers that I bought a year ago and one of them was completely dried out, a black chalk pencil for outlining, a projector, push pins, tape, cardboard and a ruler.

I started off with trying to figure out how big I wanted the logo to be on the bag. On the computer I put a big and small logo on my artboard so I’d have two options to work with when lining it up on the bag. After I figured that out, I got some tape and placed it from left to right so I could line up the logo with the projector. Once you’re done with that you can place the bag or whatever you’re wanting to trace on up on the wall. What is important in this step is to make sure you can get the bag to lay flat against the wall while you pin it into place. A canvas tote bag is a bit stiff so getting any wrinkles and bumps prior to tracing is highly beneficial. Lining up the projector and focusing the image on the bag is probably the most difficult part. I propped my projector up on an extra tripod so I could place my image higher up on the wall and stand while I trace the logo instead of being crouched or bent over trying to do it low to the ground. 

Now comes the easy or fun part, tracing! Take your chalk pencil and start to outline the logo without pressing too hard on the bag. The benefit of using chalk is that the marker will cover it up but also is easier to remove in case you mess up. On this logo I wanted to make sure the superhero eyes and the coffee cup details don’t get lost with the marker bleeding past the edges, so be extra careful and give your outline a little bit of extra room for the marker. I set up my camera and took a few videos of me doing this, you can find it on my TikTok here. Be aware of where you are walking so as to not to knock over or move the projector once you’ve started or else it will be a pain in the butt to try and line it up again. 

Afterward once you are done outlining it chalk you can take it down and start filling in the logo with your marker or ink. So my markers are about a year or maybe even two years old, but I think this helped in my case as I didn’t have to worry about the marker bleeding. Take a piece of cardboard and stick it in the bag in case the markers bleed through the material and you don’t stain the opposite side. You don’t have to do this extra step but I used some spray glue on the cardboard to adhere to the back of the bag so it wouldn’t move around while filling in with the marker. If you have extra material I would recommend testing out your marker before you start on the final product. Depending on how wet your markers are, this will either be a long or short process. I had to go over the bag a few times to fill in all the little spaces of the material of the bag. In the end it came out better than I expected. This was just a practice run to see if I want to make a few of these to sell on my website. Not sure if I should use anything to “seal” it but if I find anything I will come back and update this post.

Next time I’m going to try different markers and maybe even try fabric paint instead. 

Need a quick run through? See below!

How to trace a design on a tote bag:

1. Create jpeg with logo to transfer onto projector

2. Tape a line across bag or whatever you’re using so you can line up logo

3. Hang bag on the wall with push pins, try to lay flat

4. Line up logo with projector on the bag

5. Trace with chalk pencil, careful on details

6. Remove from wall and place cardboard behind material

7. Fill in with marker

8. Stand back and admire your work

X-Men '97 | Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 2

This is my first time writing a blog post about a show because holy fuck that was amazing. It’s currently 2:18 am and I’m in bed still processing what I just watched. I figured I would write a blog post and get my thoughts out without spoiling it for people on Threads that are just checking their feed in the morning. This way, if anyone wants to read ahead they can!

Ok, so gun to my head these are the first thoughts that come to mind of the episode!

• HULK! Fuck yeah that was so awesome to see him!

• Did NOT expect Roberto/Sunspot to join Magneto and Rogue

• The old suits fucking SLAP!

• Saw Wolverine in yellow & brown in WWIII yesterday, now in animation, wow

• HOLY FUCK MAGNETO DID THAT!

Ok, Ok let’s take a deep breath. That was AMAZING! Like many other millenials I grew up watching all the X-Men movies produced by Fox and the reign that Hugh Jackman has over Wolverine. Though I did not watch the animated show growing up nor was I into comics or superheros as a kid. I was a Dragon Ball Z kid growing up, so what am I getting at?

Well all of this is extremely new to me. The show runner Beau De Mayo, recommended reading a certain comic issue called Fatal Attractions in which Magneto removes the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton. I sure am glad I didn’t do that because watching it without knowing that was absolutely epic. “This feud is over.” CHILLS.

First off, absolutely loveeee the new outfit for Storm and finally see a good still of it since it seems like Storm has been flying around for what seems like a whole episode.

Storm is serving up looks this episode.

The episode starts off with the human sentinels continuing to threat the mutant population. Storm and Forge arrive to help out Jubilee and Roberto/Sunspot. Professor X surveys the destruction and chaos at the mansion, including his hoverchair that leaves him to use a wheelchair to move around.

Magneto looks so badass confronting the X-Men

During the time that the X-Men are figuring out what to do, Magneto is lifting a giant ass asteroid out of the ground and seems to want to use it as a weapon. The Master of Magnetism confronts Professor X and the X-Men at the mansion and pretty much says enough is enough, join him.

I did not see this coming!

To my surprise, Roberto/Sunspot joins. I totally saw Rogue joining not Roberto, but after the treatment he received from his own mother, I can see why.

Jubilee going back to her original black jumpsuit just fits

The X-Men retreat to a new base and gear up to go take on Bastion. We get a glimpse at some of the original X-Men suits, like Wolverine’s yellow and brown getup. While one team confronts Bastion, another team heads to fend off Magneto and talk some sense into him.

Hulk Smash! Morph Smash*

When the team takes on Bastion and his army of sentinels, Morph turns into Hulk and Morph Smashes! Haha that was awesome to see.

HULK BABY! Great “cameo”

Both teams are struggling to get their objectives complete. Storm and Forge are blasted out of the air by Sentinels. Magneto is holding off Professor X but not for long as Wolverine gets his helmet off for Professor X to take control.

I felt like this was the climax of the show.

We get some awesome sequences of Wolverine fighting Magneto, removing the helmet, stabbing Magneto, then Professor X using his mutant powers to over power Magneto.

This was such a sick sequence!

But at that moment Cyclops blasts Professor X because Gold team still needs time to complete their objective. However this was a horrible decision because Magneto goes super saiyan and puts his helmet on Xavier’s head and proceeds to crush it.

Oh man, I was at the edge of my seat here.

I got some major “Krillin’ is about to be exploded by Freiza” vibes when I saw this still of Wolverine. It was a look of helplessness. Brutal.

Fun fact, this scene of Krillin is tattooed right by armpit, ouch

But as Magneto is torturing Xavier, Wolverine comes up behind him and SLICE, the sextuple puncture wound, as Deadpool would call it. Magneto is stabbed by Wolverine but just as we thought things would settle down, Magneto turns around and RIPS the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton! FUCKKKK.

Can’t wait for the next episode.

Overall 5 / 5

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Review: Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII

Besides DC’s Poison Ivy the only other issue I currently have pulled is Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII. With the new animated season of X-Men ‘97 on Disney+ and the Deadpool & Wolverine movie coming out, this title is a hot one to pick up. From what I read on ComicGeeks, there are 15 cover variants for this issue! I picked up the regular print as well as a $5 variant, I chose this one because the illustration style looks like it was done with colored pencil. Not entirely sure but I love the texture it has.

I picked this up because I’m a big Wolverine fan, in fact one of the first comics I’ve collected is the Weapon X series that ran from 2009-2010. As well as the Wolverine Patch run in 2022. Both of these give very similar vibes to the same Wolverine portrayal in this issue. So as a reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

The regular cover is almost a bit of a summary of what the entire comic is about. Wolverine and Deadpool against what seems like the world. To be honest, of the available variant copies at my local comic shop, I like the regular print the most. You can clearly see Wolverine’s claws and Deadpool’s swords dripping with blood and both of them covered in bullet wounds. It’s really fucking sweet, pardon my French. As I mentioned earlier regarding the variant cover, it has a certain styling that is a mix of watercolor and color pencil, I just wish the colors were a bit more vibrant.

It starts off giving us a few panels in a horizontal view, so you have to rotate the comic book to view. 

Story

So I already planned on getting this issue, but after hearing on the Comic Book club podcast how great this issue was I rushed to pick it up before Free Comic book day on the weekend. I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy this issue. 

We see a dope ass progression of what we’re told is Wolverine's bloodline? I’m not really sure because it’s interrupted with a message of a flight getting ready to touch down in Vancouver. Wolverine talks about taking on some job that involves him eliminating the threat, that he is called only when it’s a scum of the earth type that can’t be helped. Wolverine suits up, in his old school yellow and brown and goes to meet this “threat.” 

Upon arriving he encounters Deadpool and who I can only assume is named “Summer?” I’m not entirely sure as it seems like he’s having a conversation with Wolverine and Deadpool but isn’t making any sense. But we get to see some sick ass fight scenes, Wolverine and Deadpool take turns trying to eliminate the threat. It’s really funny when Wolverine enters the scene and Deadpool says, “I’d recognize the sound of that sextuple puncture wound anywhere! There’s also a funny panel where Deadpool is riding the shoulders of Wolverine. Classic banter and badass fighting, just what I need.

The yellow and brown suit is starting to grow on me, I think I just don’t like the illustration style from the 90’s animated show.

They take care of the threat, Deadpool invites Wolverine to hang out but Wolverine brushes it off. After a night of drinking at the bar, Wolverine heads to where Deadpool told him he was staying. We’re then taken to a new part of the story as Wolverine is now searching for Deadpool after being left a burner phone. Wolverine ends up in Russia, of course, to some building and it’s full of people in nice attire celebrating his arrival. What? Deadpool got an upgrade and fights Wolverine?! Holy shit. Pretty dope ass illustrations and gets me excited to pick up the next issue.

Overall 5 / 5

Going into this I already sorta knew what to expect but was still happily surprised with the funny banter between Deadpool and Wolverine. Paired with the awesome fight scenes and blood splatters, this comic just had everything you’d expect from this duo. The plot and writing seemed a little jumpy but I understand having to explain so much with little real estate. Can’t wait for the next issue.

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Review: Transformers Primacy

Another TPB but this one of Transformers, a great cartoon and comic since before I was born. I can still remember the Hasbro Transformer of Rhinox as a kid. Quite possibly my favorite toy growing up and still hold a grudge with my sibling for breaking it. There have been some new movies that are trying to find the magic from the first movie, but can’t seem to hit the mark. The most recent Beast Wars was a bit of a miss. As a huge fan of that arc, I wish they focused more on the Transformers than the human characters.

Which is what I’m excited about for the new movie called Transformers One in which we are getting origin stories of Optimus Prime and Megatron. So because of this recent trailer release, I thought it would be a good time to revisit Transformers Primacy. My first TPB given to me from my friend, the first purchase I made was Saga Vol 1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Anytime you feature Optimus Prime on the cover of a comic I’m going to pick it up and read it. The artist of this book is Livio Ramondelli, who has a great portfolio of amazing Transformers illustrations. Check out an interview with him and Canvas Rebel in 2023 here. There are two other Autobots on the cover along with a third Transformer but no visible badge. We also get a glimpse of what I'm assuming is Cybertron. Their home planet and the one they are always trying to save from the civil war.

Here is an example of the action sequences and how the artwork is great but sometimes a bit hard to “see”

Story

I have collected some Transformers comics before, here and there some off issues as well as trying to collect the 2021 release of Beast Wars. With that being said, I have not read a full Transformers story from the first issue to the end. Which is really the entire reason why Trade Paperback books are the best because you get the entire release in one book and don’t need to go searching for individual issues. 

The story starts off with some indication that Cyberton was no longer going to be peaceful and an evil entity was going to emerge. I really like the opening scenes in which we see rival Autobots and Decepticons talking to each other and eventually arguing over who is being brainwashed by their leaders. 

We then are shown Optimus Prime and Ironhide on a wintery “vacation.” We see them climbing a mountain and upon getting to the top they spot some sort of figure in the distance, just standing still. After some careful reconnaissance, Optimus and Ironhide get closer and realize it’s an Omega Sentinel. 

This is my first time encountering something called an Omega Sentinel in the Transformers universe

Our story then takes us to Harmonex where we see Megatron trying to strike a deal with Trypticon to destroy the Autobots once and for all. I don’t want to give it all away but it’s a bit like good guys vs bad guys with a curveball here and there. Still a very good short and concise story. Now throughout the book the action scenes and fighting sequences are great, but the art itself is a bit “muddy.” In the sense that some things are hard to distinguish and find yourself squinting to really understand what you’re looking at.

One thing I REALLY liked about this trade paperback is that it included the variant covers that must have been released when the title was released by issue. It features the more clean type of illustrations and really gets you hyped up. 

This illustration by Sarah Stone is absolutely killer!

Overall 4 / 5

Now the main reason for the 4 out of 5 rating on this is simply because of the artwork. I really like the styling but for a comic it just made it a little hard to follow along. As I was reading I had to stop more often and for a longer time to digest what I’m looking at. But as I mentioned before, I like that it was short, concise and didn't leave me wondering what is what or if I need to read previous stories to understand the plot.

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