Right in the middle end of National Youth Week, April 14 sees another batch of comics hitting the store. As such, another look at what could end up being taken home...

Spotted about eight pages of Imaginaries #1 in one of the Comic Book Digest sampler magazines a month or more back. It looked good, even in black and white. Story wise, here's hoping it gets beyond what could easily be passed off as another Tellos.

Having read the second, but not the first, why would there be a reason to pick up Lion Tigers and Bears #3? #4, perhaps, just to read the story in a flash forward mode. Like coming in to halfway through a show, flicking over to another channel and then back again to this when you realise that the reality TV show just before it went on for far longer than it should have.

Flaming Carrot #2 is bound for the shelves this week. Still have yet to read the first issue despite having bought a copy a couple of months ago -- some time in December. Did happen upon the two page inclusion within Negative Burn: Best of 1993-1998. Kind of in that superhero field without being all too serious.

Captain Gravity and Power of The Vril #4 continues on after what feels a lot longer than a month between drinks. Last issue might have been where Captain Gravity was lying in ditch. After letting Chase's captors steal her away of course. Not something along a line of a booze hound unable to withstand the pressures of the suit. Not one for those who don't like the old pulp era they might only know from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or The Rocketeer.

For those who missed them the first time around, the Astonishing X-Men volume 1: Gifted and The Sentry trade paperback collections are back again. Get them before someone else does.

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The ballot for the Squiddy Awards of 2004 are out there. Winners of 2003 include Brian Bendis for Best Writer, DC for Best Company and the Hulk hands toy for Best Merchandise.

For those looking at voting for science fiction shows and such, the Spaceys 05 Viewer's Choice awards are up and open for casting those fish in the pond with no fish.

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Ever is the intent to read the new stuff. This going along with the old stuff makes for a lot of stuff to read in aggregate. April 7 sees a bunch of losers, a bunch of firsts and a bunch of philosophers take to the "interesting" pile.

Ultimate Spider-Man #75 continues the Hobgoblin story. Part 4 of a six part arc. Having only read the first part a couple of weeks ago, it looks like Harry could be getting far more stroppy than we've seen before. After all, the guy comes back from wherever the looney bin was and finds that punk kid Parker having relations with his girl MJ. Yeah, like when was that really? You missed the boat Harry. Let's see what do to bring it back.

GLA #1 takes on the Avengers in a way not unlike that of Formerly Known as the Justice League did for the JLA. These Great Lakes Avengers are said to be the losers of the bunch, the dumb lucks struck by their own hand. The cover should be a good indication of the whole flavour of the title.

Vertigo First Taste is a gold mine of the Vertigo Comics stable. Y: The Last Man #1, 100 Bullets #1, The Books of Magick: Life During Wartime #1, Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, Transmetropolitan #1 and Death: The High Cost of Living #1 all jammed together into a tight little US cover price of only US$4.95. Bargain.

Action Philosophers #1 really sounds like someone was off their rocker when concocting this one. Nietzsche, Plato and kung fu master BodhidharmaFu appear in a "a hip and humorous way" and let's just hope that means fun. Be a weird way to teach the new kids a bit about the old folks outside a take through Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

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The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis II #2 closes out the second crossover between the Springfield and Planet Express worlds. For those who missed out on the first issue, it does a pretty good job of bringing up the major plot points. Namely, fictional characters -- and this would include the Simpsons -- have broken through into the real world. There is a sneaky use of a deus ex machina to clean up the whole mess of the situation which turns out to be some good clean fun.

Freedom Force #3 continues to blaze on through at their break neck pace. If last issue's mob of characters wasn't enough, there are even more new faces and costumes to be had this time around. Liberty Lad tackles the letters pages and it's all like one of those Amalgam comics of a few years ago. The energy is just sheer and the speed is near obliterating. And where is the time for a rest and chance to develop characters? Nowhere. Yet despite this, why then is there a compelling want for the fourth issue?

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Reeling from the waft of the old age smell of some nasty comics. Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk to be precise. Issues 179, 180, 182, 183, 184 and 185 to be just so pedantic about it. That's right, no magical 181 in that lot. Just the famed cameo in 180, then the story picks up just after the full on debut issue of the Canuck.

A customer was kind enough to drop them by for the boys on the weekend. They had a hard time divvying up the goods. Naturally, referring to the guide on which half of the six was best taken to, taken to after the split.

Written by Len Wein, pencils by Herb Trimpe and inks by Jack Abel. The issues are both fairly fragile and rather stocky. Nice heft to them too. The stench like an invisible clouded punch right to the back of the brain. A percentage of the hit you'd be facing if you walk into a certain comic book store in the city.

Maybe this is right, and maybe you shouldn't dig your nose into the spine and crank up the olfactory vacuum for kicks. People do, and those people are the people you best leave alone.

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So here's a reprint collection from Slave Labor Graphics that grabs the nads of the original Marvel Comics run. This volume features the first four issues of Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book along with the Bogus Journey adaptation.

The characters look vaguely like their movie counterparts of Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin et al. Probably for the best as it is rather madcap lunacy on air. At first it would read like an avalance of "dude," "excellent" and out of nowhere air guitar solos. Get to the end of the little book and it's like just the right amount. Not too much, not too little, just Wyld Stallyns right.

Enthusiastic jokes and all don't rise above the high brow and spend it in the middle. The compact size -- talking digest here -- make reading the panels close to the spine a worrying effort. Luckily, there are no centre crash splash pages to warrant that much of a split.

On occasion, lines suffer from fraying, disconnected on the transfer from archival prints with what might have been lifted direct off the original comics themselves. The clarity in the inked pages still hold up well despite the fade away here and there. On the whole it's just shy of being a most triumphant effort, though it totally is in keeping with the spirit of the two movies and their characters.

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