DC COMICS/Young Animal – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Lee Allred
ART: Michael Allred
COLORS: Laura Allred
LETTERS: Nate Piekos of Blambot
COVER: Michael Allred with Laura Allred
VARIANT COVERS: James Harvey; Paul Pope with Paul Maybury
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2017)
Mature Readers
The Bug and Fourth World characters created by Jack Kirby
“Domino Effect: Part 1 of 6 “Bughouse Crazy”
Forager is a DC Comics character that first appeared in New Gods #9 (cover dated: August 1972). Created by writer-artist Jack Kirby, Forager was a character in Kirby's “Fourth World” universe. Forager's people were a society of humanoid bugs that thrived in colonies built beneath the surface of the planet, New Genesis. Forager lived among these beings, but was apparently really not one of them. The character was later killed in DC Comics' Cosmic Odyssey (1988) miniseries.
Forager returns in the new comic book, Bug! The Adventures of Forager, published under DC Comics' “Young Animal” imprint. This imprint, curated by rock musician/comics creator, Gerard Way, reinvents, re-imagines, and modernizes eclectic, oddball, and cult characters (Doom Patrol and Cave Carson, among others) in new comic books series. Bug! is written by Lee Allred; drawn by Mike Allred; colored by Laura Allred; and lettered by Nate Piekos.
Bug! The Adventures of Forager #1 (“Domino Effect”) opens with Forager finding himself alive again! After he meets “Ghost Girl” and her teddy bear, Forager learns that he might be dreaming, but can a corpse dream? Then, there are the weirdies and beasties and... The Sandman.
Bug! The Adventures of Forager is a family affair. Lee Allred and Mike Allred are brothers, and Mike and Laura Allred are married. I guess that is kind of neat, but even neater is this comic book. Bug! The Adventures of Forager is a good-old-fashioned comic book – full of fun, adventure, and strangeness. It is wild, weird, and wonderful.
I have had mixed feelings about Mike Allred's comics over two decades+ reading them, but I like Allred's touch with the more eccentric Jack Kirby characters, such as Allred recent run, with Dan Slott, on Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, a classic Kirby character. There is such delightful kookiness in Bug! The Adventures of Forager. I liked it so much that I wanted to read the next issue right away, and that is one of the highest compliments I can give as a comics reviewer. I am also going to do something I don't always do – give a grade to a first issue.
I implore you to try at least this first issue.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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