Previews: Boom! Studios
The fine folks at Boom! Studios sent over a trio of new books, so I wanted to share the advance look with our readers. They’re three pretty widely different series, though everything from Boom! falls into that over-arcing “guy stuff” label. Zombies? Check. Action? Check. Lovecraftian suspense? Check.
Let’s start out with Fall of Cthulhu (all these books are $3.99), the aforementioned Lovecraft modernization. The cover on the copy sent to me isn’t the same as that pictured here, but both are pretty cool (mine shows some giant tentacle-y creature with wings and people worshipping). One interesting thing about Boom! is how almost all of their books have the same coloring style (I don’t know why I bring this up here, but bear with me). It’s a sort of gentle fade that gives the art a more life-like feel than the extremely superhero-y stuff from most publishers. It’s a subtle way that the company accomplishes its goal of creating books that are aimed at the same target audience as DC and Marvel stuff, but varies significantly in tone and content.
That aside, this first issue was lots of set-up with not a whole lot of action, aside from a suicide that didn’t hold quite enough impact and a later dream sequence that more than made up for it. There’s way too much expository dialogue (if Boom! needs anything, it’s better editors), but there are some very good layouts in this establishing effort. I’d call next issue the make-or-break one, but worth checking out.
The Boom! title that’s received more attention is Tag, which takes a zombie curse and combines it with a children’s game. Okay, it’s actually like zombies mixed with Stephen King’s Thinner. Great premise, but the meat isn’t there. Aside from an iconic cover (Vietnam-era soldier with face zombified), the issue brings a whole bunch of exposition to the table. That’s be fine for a first issue, but a second issue needs more oomph. Here, we’re following around some sad sack as he traces back the curse, but he doesn’t directly encounter it. It does look like things will heat up by next issue, and it better. As they say, three strikes…
By far my favorite of the lot is the action title Mr. Stuffins. Like all Boom! fare, it’s a great idea. And, by in large, the creative team delivers. What starts with the exact same sequence that began Enemy of the State, a secret disc is dropped off by a generic rogue employee. Except he stashes it in a toy store, in the box of an animatronic teddy bear. There’s a pretty serious gap in logic (the mysterious disc is somehow compatible with a disc-reader in the teddy bear), but it doesn’t really matter. Writers Andrew Cosby and Johanna Stokes play things light and loose, so it’s all good fun when the teddy bear suddenly comes alive as a super-tough “agent” whose mission is to protect the child that purchased him (the lovable loser kid).
Boom! has a habit of promoting every book by saying it’s a combination of two movies (“Cover Girl — A Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour-style action-comedy!”), so I can’t resist but say that Mr. Stuffins is the mad mash-up of James Bond and kiddie flick Blank Check! Really though, it’s a furry blast. Or a blast of furriness. Just read it.