“How can one Smurf weigh more than an elephant?”
The Smurfs Free Comic Book Day (Silver Book) 2014
Papercutz (2014)
LETTERER ON MOST STORIES: Janice Chiang
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Michael Petranek
Another anthology featuring the Smurfs and other kids Papercutz comics. Chiang is the only recurring creator except for the one comic she’s not part of. I’ll list the rest with the review.
The Smurfs: “A Kiss For Smurfette”: STORY/ART: Peyo | TRANSLATION: Joe Johnson | CONSULTANT: Matt Murray
Smurfette is handing out candy but what the Smurfs was hoping for was a kiss (except Greedy, who wanted the candy but got a kiss instead). Meanwhile, Gargamel puts a curse on Smurfette but accidentally takes the elixir himself. Only a kiss will break the spell, but Gargamel makes a mistake in that the cursed has to do the kissing. It’s a fun little tale.
The Annoying Orange: “Quest For The Golden Grail” & “Comic Conflict”: STORY/ART: Tom Shaw | COLORIST: Laurie E. Smith | CO-LETTERER: Tom Orzechowski
I’m not sure what the inside cover is talking about. There is no “Quest For The Golden Grail” and “Comic Conflict” is just one of a series of one page shorts featuring the cast. The jokes are okay at best. Maybe fans of the YouTube show will get more out of it than I did.
Ariol: “The Book Signing”: WRITER: Emmanuel Guibert | ARTIST: Marc Boutavant | LETTERER: Michael Petranek
Ariol goes to a comic convention with his dad to get his book signed by the creator of his favorite comics. Two kids in line talk him into joining them while their dad distracts Ariol’s dad but they prefer video games to comics. Ariol gets lost trying to return to his dad and the comic line but because he worried his dad and disobeyed him he won’t get his comic signed. Lucky for Ariol the creator got confused and overheard dad calling for Ariol and wrote the wrong name on a comic, which the owner switched with Ariol. It doesn’t really send a good message to kids and continues to make Ariol look bad, but thankfully not as bad as the previous issue. Not really a fan of this series.
Dinosaurs: “The First Dinosaur” & “Tyrannosaurus Rex”: WRITER: Arnaud Plumeri | ARTIST: Bloz | COLORIST: Maëla Cosson
In the Triassic period a bunch of reptiles stumble upon Eoraptor, the first dinosaur, and aren’t impressed with this new “dinosaur” idea. In the second story a young T-Rex is getting picked on by other dinosaurs, who learn years later that was a mistake. Or would if they put two and two together. This is followed by some untitled gag stories that serve as a fun way to introduce kids to dinosaurs, or what we know about them now. A lot of what I learned about dinosaurs as a kid is outdated, but some of those new details are still debated.
Overall this was a decent story. The bookending comics were fun, the Annoying Orange was meh and Ariol is not a good representative of young comic fans if you ask me. Still, while still technically a preview it felt more like a standalone comic, which works better for Free Comic Book Day. If you aren’t drawn to any of the series you still get a full production out of it, but it might also tempt you to look into more. This is the last one in my ComiXology library for this run though.
BW Media Spotlight 