Amazing Age

Amazing Age is a fun book, a colorful superhero adventure based on comics and characters the writer created when he was a boy.The story follows a boy named Sam who makes comics about superheroes based on his friends. Flash forward a few years, and those same friends do not associate with each other any more and Sam has not made any comics in the years since his dad died. Amazingly, those three former stalwarts all get teleported to a world where those old comics were set, and they find that the characters from those old stories are real.

 

The supervillains there have banded together in a nefarious plot to kill all the superheroes, and the trio are brought in because they are the greatest heroes that planet has ever seen. Saving the world is a huge burden for these teens, who have not spoken in years, don't know how to use their powers, and really just want to go home. Not only do they need to resolve their own personal dynamics, they need to avoid the dire machinations of the evil villains who want to annihilate them.

What I liked about this book is that it hearkened back to the kinds of all-ages superhero comics I liked as a child. There are silly acronyms, a plethora of super-powered characters, and high stakes adventure. It also has a fun, gripping plot, good characterizations, and interpersonal situations that I feel are relatable for children and adolescents alike. Also, I enjoyed that these are superhero comics that are not so bombastic or sexualized, as sometimes they are wont to be.

This book was a collaboration between writer Matthew D. Smith, artist Jeremy Massie, and colorist Christine Brunson. Smith and Massie have worked on other comics together, including Blood-Drenched Creature Double Feature. Massie has a few solo titles to his credit, including All My Ghosts and a quirky superhero tale called The Deadbeat. Brunson has colored a number of comics over the years, as well as writing the webcomic Undead Norm.

I did not find many reviews of this comic online, but the ones I did locate were very positive. Warren Elliot wrote, "The art continues to nicely blend realism with cartoonish fun, giving Amazing Age a very appealing Silver Age look!" Rachel Bellwoar rated it 4.7 out of 5 stars and summed it up as "nostalgic catnip, right up there with Stand By Me and Stranger Things in the 80's friendship department."

Amazing Age was published by Alterna Comics, and they have more info about the book here. This collection collects the five issue limited series released serially. It also has copious back pages that show the characters as originally drawn by Smith when he was a boy, which reminded me of my own drawings at a similar age.

I bought the first issue off the rack at my local Toys R Us (RIP), when it was in black and white and on newsprint. That format sparked my sense of nostalgia, but this trade paperback is in full color and on glossy paper, which I feel suits it better. I met the creators this summer at HeroesCon, and they were nice enough to sign my copy of the book. I think it's a good read, so go out and buy it already :)

Blood-Drenched Creature Double Feature

I had a chance to buy this book this summer at HeroesCon, but instead went with All My Ghosts. I really liked that one, and I was intrigued enough to buy this Blood-Drenched Creature Double Feature on Comixology. Like the title promises, it offers two stories (in a flip book format in hard copy). And I also must say that the title misses out on its other promise, as the book is sadly devoid of any creatures. Still, I found it a fun, if silly, romp through horror story genres.

The first story is a teen summer camp murder tale called Bee Sting. It is a fun, gory tale about a couple of teenage boys who decide to become camp counselors in order to meet and hook up with girls. Their plan seems to be working until a potential bee allergy leads down a path of unlikely twists that takes them to a convention of redneck cannibals.

Granted, this set-up is not the most novel or literary set of plot devices, but the story is still fun and energetic. There is an obvious love of the slasher genre that makes the book enjoyable and a sense of humor that sells a lot of ridiculous circumstances. I had a good time reading this story, even if it was not the most highfalutin kind of narrative.

For those interested, Bee Sting was made into a full length, indie film that led to a sequel called Bear Sting.

The second story in this book is The Curse of Stranglehold, and it is more of a horrific urban legend. The premise is that a teenage outcast mysteriously vanished 20 years ago, and he was presumably murdered by a mob of angry, jealous rivals. Two decades later, the teenage descendants of the townspeople dare to drive up to and make out in the infamous scene of that crime, and those who are sexually active pay a terrible price. They also learn much of the past misdeeds of their parents.

As with the first story, this one was a fun take on a hackneyed genre and has its charms, even it I saw the ending coming. I liked it less than Bee Sting, however, mostly because the end of the story devolved into many panels full of expository text rather than action played out via the images.

These stories were a collaboration between writer Matthew D. Smith and artist Jeremy Massie. The duo have another work under their belts, the current ongoing, all-ages series Amazing Age. Massie has a few solo titles to his credit, including the aforementioned All My Ghosts and a quirky superhero tale called The Deadbeat.

I was not able to track down many reviews of this book, and the ones I did find were somewhat negative. Jessie Sheckner concluded about Bee Sting, "Smith and Massie both have a great deal of talent – that much is plainly evident – however they’d do well to either channel their work into something with more originality and substance or, at the very least, avoid sleepwalking through clichés in a tired narrative that ends with a bad lesbian joke." Roby Bang called The Curse of Stranglehold "a decent comic," but felt that "the art is inconsistent and sloppy, dragging down the overall quality of the work."

Blood-Drenched Creature Double Feature was published by Alterna Comics, and they offer a preview and more info about the book here. Given the subject matter and gore, I recommend this book for more mature readers.