Or what if Toy Story had REAL villains to fight.
Tristan & The Cuddly Defenders Free Comic Book Day
Altworld (2013)
CREATOR: Nick Davis
COVER ART: Josh Lyman
WRITERS: Nick Davis, Scott Markley, & Jean Byrd-Davis
ARTISTS: Dan Nokes, Keir Knikia, & Veronica Smith
EDITOR: Kat Rotes
This comic appears to be a promotion for the comic series Out Of The Attic, which looks like an anthology about toys not just moving around without the notice of a child, but protecting those children from monsters who want them to be afraid, because fear gives them power. It’s actually an interesting idea on it’s own, but how do the individual stories fare?
the title story
The main story is about Tristan, who fights the monsters on their turf with other stuffed animals as the Cuddly Defenders. This sets up the basic premise: that teddy bears and other stuffed animals fight the monsters who make kids afraid, a take on kids drawn to stuff animals and sleeping with them at night. There’s also the start of a running gang of one of the “no name” monster troops always saying “not again” as he and his fellow baddies get hit with water, cute stuffed fists, dart guns, each other…it happens once per story, so this same guy must get around a lot. The rest of the stories take place in the human world, so seeing this side of things, where plushies exist to attempt to hold the monsters at bay, is a good opener.
Forrest & Scout
A plush dog and his bear friend go to the attic to play while the girl they protect is fishing with her father. She must be a tomboy because her toys are soldiers and pop guns…and the monsters have decided to steal them. Like the other stories none of them end here, which does bother me as I prefer my Free Comic Book Day stories to be self-contained, and I don’t know why it starts out being a prose story before finishing as a comic when they leave the bedroom for the attic.
A Long Tall Tail
Fernando is a rejected plush mouse toy from Mexico, sent to the USA. I have a feeling writer Jeana Davis is making a statement about Mexican toys, though it’s never stated why he’s rejected. Bought by a woman for her niece, who loves the toy anyway, Fernando meets and immediately falls for Wilma Bunny, one of the Cuddly Defenders in the monster realm who is totally oblivious to his crush, and tries to help when the monsters show up, and to join her in the other world. At least hear we see a connection between the stories beyond the premise thanks to her appearance.
Hero Ted
In this one the monsters try to steal a child’s security blanket and Ted tries to stop them. This story further explains why the monsters try to make children sad and afraid, because it gives them power to cause more mischief. When Ted is wrapped up in the blanket he gains superpowers to fight the monsters and decides to become a superhero. Me being me, this is my favorite and the closest to being a self-contained story of the group. The only flaw is how much of it is told through narration. I defend narration but this feels more like an illustrated book with the occasional word balloon.
Helping Hand
Only one page for the story about Artie, a teddy bear who guards the child’s toybox like a treasure chest. Tells me nothing that sets it apart from the rest of the stories.
overall
This feels more like an ad for the stuffed animals at the back of the book than an actual series. Free Comic Book Day is for previews of other comics, and I don’t remember seeing a physical comic during Free Comic Book Day (granted I missed a few), which is the other purpose. The art is okay, but I’ve seen the concept of plushies fighting monsters before and while there’s more variety here, it’s not a complete tale. I like the concept but in execution it’s not worth the time. Also, if you do decide to read this through Drive Thru Comics, get the PDF version even if you usually prefer the CBZ version. I couldn’t get Comic Rack to zoom out enough to make it easy to read so I switched over.
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