The World’s Strongest

The World’s Strongest debuts on Wednesday as one of Action Lab’s “digital-first” (which may or may not mean it ever comes to print) titles. It’s $3 for 24 pages, which makes it a short read, but it touches on some insightful points. It also widens the superhero genre from its traditional focus, both in its black female hero and in the concerns it addresses. It’s written by Juan Ponce with art by Matthew Gallman, colors by Jon Yuen, and the […]

Read more

Spencer and Locke #1

Writer David Pepose’s high concept for Spencer and Locke is “what if Calvin and Hobbes grew up in Sin City“, and that’s pretty much all you need to know about the comic. Faux tough-guy narration comes from a jaded detective with anger issues who drags around a blue stuffed animal, a panther that he calls his partner Spencer and only he sees as a living, talking, full-size being. In a kid, it’s cute. In this comic, I’m just waiting until […]

Read more

Princeless Volume 4: Be Yourself #1-2

Princeless, the comedy adventure fantasy starring a different kind of princess, has now made it to four miniseries and the occasional spin-off. Volume 1, Save Yourself, establishes the premise, as Princess Adrienne, instead of waiting to be rescued, escapes from a tower with the aid of her dragon Sparky and sets off to free her sisters. (King Dad thinks that all of his seven daughters need to be rescued by a prince in order to find the most suitable suitor […]

Read more

Gronk: A Monster’s Story Volume 4

Gronk: A Monster’s Story volume 4 is the first of the webcomic collections to come out directly from Action Lab (without a previous self-published run). It’s full-color (colors by Kate Carleton, author Katie Cook, and Heather Breckel), which is nice, and it includes the Free Comic Book Day giveaway story. That’s great, because that comic was new content that provides insight on both the characters and Cook’s sense of humor, but it’s presented poorly. There are 38 strips before that, […]

Read more

Gronk: A Monster’s Story Volume 3

Gronk: A Monster’s Story volume 3 has the same appeal as the first book by Katie Cook. Each page is a four-panel strip, often quite funny. Dale’s still a beleaguered substitute parent, coping with the little monster Gronk. My favorite strips are those that either 1) comment on popular culture or 2) treat Gronk as the equivalent of a toddler, operating on her own logic and (usually) utterly destroying part of Dale’s world. You can imagine, then, how tickled I […]

Read more

Nutmeg Volume 1: Early Fall: Taste Buddies

It’s not too late to preorder the first collection of Nutmeg by James F. Wright and Jackie Crofts. Early Fall: Taste Buddies collects the first three issues of the series for $11.99. It’ll be out at the end of June from Action Lab. Poppy and Cassia, who met and schemed in the first issue, continue with their plan in the remaining issues. Turns out, though, that a nutmeg overdose can have very different effects depending on the amount and person. […]

Read more

Nutmeg #1

Nutmeg, written by James F. Wright and illustrated by Jackie Crofts, ships this week from Action Lab Entertainment. I hope you’ll check it out. The publisher bills it as “Betty and Veronica” and Heathers meets Breaking Bad, while the creators describe it as a “culinary coming-of-age crime comic”. In a 1960s girls’ junior high, Cassia Caraway is new to class. She pairs up with Poppy Pepper to learn her way around, and they quickly fall foul of Saffron, the leader […]

Read more

Gronk: A Monster’s Story

The first book collecting Katie Cook’s adorable Gronk webcomic is now more widely available in comic shops through Action Lab Entertainment (as announced last year). Gronk is a classic fish out of water. She’s a little monster adopted by Dale after she left the monster world because she didn’t like being scary. The comics mostly cover how Gronk misunderstands or learns something about how humans live. My favorites are when Gronk interacts with the huge dog Harli or the cat […]

Read more
1 2