Freelancers #1 – Quick Review

By: Ian Brill (writer), Joshua Covey (art), Justin Stewart, Vladimir Popov & Zack Sterling (colors) & Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Two young PI-ish ladies are “freelancers.”

Review: I hate to use a cliche term like “meh,” but that’s how this comic left me feeling: “meh.”  The internet is so full of hyperbole that if you aren’t calling a comic the “greatest thing since Watchmen” it somehow means you hated it.  That’s not the case here.  Freelancers #1 is a perfectly fine comic; there are a lot of comics better and I presume there are many comics that are worse (although I don’t really know because I don’t read crappy comics).

The set-up is pretty basic: two young ladies have known each other since they were childhood orphans.  Now they are bottom rung “freelancers” at a kinda private investigator agency.  They’re kinda sexy and kinda sassy.  They know kung-fu.  They go out on cases and are jealous of the #1 freelancer at the agency.  That’s the story…

Marijuanaman OGN – Review

By: Ziggy Marley (creator), Joe Casey (writer), Jim Mahfood (art & letters), Justin Stewart (colors & design)

The Story: An evil pharmaceutical company is pushing a synthetic mood-altering pill.  The good citizens of Exodus aren’t going to stand for this ignorance of good, natural weed and enlist their hero, Marijuanaman in the fight for righteousness.

What’s Good: This is a book that is going to appeal to people on a very personal level.  The overall story of the book comes very strongly from the Rastafarian religion and the great Bob Marley’s “One Love” mythos that we should commune with nature, love our brothers and sisters and, of course, smoke lots of marijuana to expand our consciousness.  Even if you don’t practice that type of creed in your daily life, it is hard to deny a certain attraction to it.  I’ve certainly been on vacation and seen those dudes in Jamaica and thought, “Those dudes seem to have a LOT less stress than I do….”

Of course, if this were just a religious pamphlet for the Rastafari religion, it wouldn’t be a very good story, so Ziggy Marley and Joe Casey came up with this story of an evil pharmaceutical company that is selling a mood altering pill.  Naturally, the pharma company is very threatened by sweet, natural weed and hires a mercenary – who is meant to further embody mechanized industrialization – to take out the resistance fighters of Exodus.  The good guys aren’t without resources as they have on their side an alien from another planet, whose lifeforce is based upon THC (the active compound in marijuana).  Whenever someone smokes weed around him, he turns into Marijuanaman and gains superpowers that help him take on evil and win the affections of an attractive female love interest.

It’s a pretty fun and whacky story and even if you’re kinda a proponent of free markets and industry (like I am), it is always educational to see how some other, more laid back folks may see things.