Comic Bento August 2016

The theme for the August 2016 box from Comic Bento is Animal Planets. All of the books in this box feature an animal of some sort.

First up is Xoc: The Journey of a Great White (Matt Dembicki, Oni Press). Clearly this book is about a shark. It follows the creature on its journey from California to Hawaii. I tend to enjoy books that flirt with educational material like this. The art is beautiful too. Comixology has a free preview for anyone on the fence about this one.

Second is Homecoming, Volume 1 (David Wohl, Emilio Laiso, Brett Smith, and Josh Reed, Aspen Comics). I'm a little torn on this one for a couple reasons. The books I've read from Aspen have been middling at best, but I'll try to keep an open mind on this one. The other reason is that the "animal" featured in this book is an alien. Feels like a little bit of a stretch. This book is centered around a high school coming up to homecoming. The premise reminds me of the movie The Faculty in a way. I like the look of the art on this one, so if the story works out this might be my favorite book from Aspen. And like the last couple books that Comic Bento included from Aspen, this one has an exclusive variant cover for the trade. Even though I've seen it before, it is a nice touch for the Comic Bento customers.

The next book is Jurassic Strike Force 5, Volume 1 (Joe Brusha, Neo Edmund, and JL Giles-Rivera, Zenescope). The title alone is ridiculous. The actual concept takes things to the next level. A group of dinosaurs battle an evil alien that is trying to conquer the universe. The colors look great and the book is full of dinosaurs. Enough said.

Last up is Sam & Fuzzy Fix Your Problem (Sam Logan, Blind Ferret). Fuzzy is the connection to the animal theme for this box. This was originally published as a web comic, but it looks to be a lot more cohesive than the web comics I'm used to seeing. The character pairing looks to be pretty entertaining, so I am hopeful for this one. The edition included in the box is actually printed by Blind Ferret, which is the same company that sells Comic Bento. I don't see a problem with this, but figured I'd include the information for disclosure.

So the real final point relates to the picture above. Every box for this month included one of three Pokémon prints. I feel like this is a nice addition to the box. I wouldn't want to see Comic Bento move toward including more items like this because the real draw for me is the graphic novels. There are other boxes out there that include comics and miscellaneous items that someone could subscribe to if that's what they wanted. Anyway, I'm glad I got this print because it was my favorite of the three. Next month the theme will be As Seen on TV!