FCBD Freebies!

I'm never one to pass up free stuff, and free comics is just gravy as far as I am concerned. So how was this year's crop of FCBD goodies? (Sorry that these are a week late, but hey, I had to go out of town on business. And, uh, I'm not done reading them yet. Stop laughing at me.)

All-Star Superman #1 -- I think we're all familiar with this comic by this point, right? Still, pretty kick ass!

Project Superpowers -- Pretty incomprehensible for the most part, even as a reader of the series. A very disappointing freebie.

Archie's Pal Jughead -- Archie and Jughead get jobs as night watchmen at Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore. No, I am not making this up. Actually, not a bad Archie comic, with some light-hearted hijinks and some goofy pop culture references.

Hellboy/BPRD FCBD Special -- I have never read Hellboy, but this special is making me consider getting some material. Three very neat little short stories which paint an appealing picture of life in the BPRD.

X-Men: FCBD Special -- Yeah, I know that I initially met this comic with disdain. But you know what? I was really very pleasantly surprised by it! I don't know the first thing about the lead character (her mutant power is... that she's a pixie?), but as a done-in-one X-Men story, this was a very enjoyable, fun comic book. Are all of Marvel's X-books like this, and I just haven't noticed since I haven't read one since the 8th grade?

Ape Entertainment's Cartoon Apalooza -- There were some good premises -- the superheroes that were all funny animals, or the strange 90s horror heroes who were turned into funny animals -- but overall this didn't do much for me.

EC Sampler -- Just head over to the previous Weekly Dose of Weird to get my thoughts.

Imaginary -- Mostly a puff piece, with introductions of each title followed by some interior artwork. Aladdin looks it may be a purchase for me.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All -- This oddly-sized freebie presents one typical Simpsons strip, and then a weird manga parody. Sadly, no Futurama this time, nor the awesomeness of Nuclear Power Man and Iron Foot, but Bongo usually doesn't let me down.

Gyro Gearloose FCBD Edition -- The most surprising aspect about this comic to me was how relatively recent most of the stories were; there was only one "classic" tale amongst the four. Still, don't take that as a gripe, as Gyro's goofy inventor schtick gets him into all sorts of good clean fun.

Marvel Adventures: Iron Man FCBD 2008 -- Guest starring Spider-Man and the Hulk and featuring the Mandarin. I guess this is more of a preview of the upcoming Marvel Adventures Super Heroes, which makes sense. Both of the Marvel freebies were superlative efforts (The Iron Man/Hulk preview book was alright, but not much more than a hype piece).

Transformwers Animated -- FCBD 2008 Edition -- I like the cartoon, so this series -- which looks like it essentially just screencaps with word baloons on them -- plays well for me. But I wonder, if the comic will just adapt the show, or actually tell original stories. If it's the former, count me out.

Owly And Friends -- FCBD 2008 Edition -- Personally, I'd like to see an issue of Owly entitled Orly?, mostly because I'm an idiot. Anyway, overall this was very cute. I especially enjoyed Johnny Boo, which I want to see more of.

Unfortunately, between travel and work, and soon, more travel, I have been unable to check out the balance of the free comics I picked up. So this little roundup will have to do for now, and hopefully I can get an opportunity to read the freebies in with the massive pile of new comics I am picking up this week.

So what did YOU think of the FCBD comics?