Oni Press Color Special 2001
Story:
Art:

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Tom Fowler, Arthur Dela Cruz, Chynna Clugston-Major, J. Torres, Jen Van Meter, Phil Hester, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone
Art by Michael Avon Oeming, Arthur Dela Cruz, Chynna Clugston-Major, J. Bone, Christine Norrie, Mike Huddleston, Stan Sakai, Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Lea Hernandez
Colors by Pat Garrahy, Arthur Dela Cruz, Guy Major, J. Bone, Andi Watson, Dave Stewart, Tom Luth, Laura Depuy

Published by Oni Press.
Price: $5.95

Notes: Contains, from the 15,000 creators up top, stories of Powers, the Fowler piece Adventure #206, Kissing Chaos, Blue Monday, Alison Dare, Hopeless Savages, The Coffin, Queen & Country, and Killer Princesses. 48 pp.

My Verdict: A lovely anthology of short stories to showcase the Oni line of books.

This is a sweet idea. It's a sampler platter from Oni, essentially, that gives you a taste of a great deal of what you can get from them. And although not everything appealed to me, that's kinda the point--it'll work for some and not for others. Pick what you like. Buffet style.

The Fowler piece is crazed. You'll read it a couple of times through before you finally grasp everything that he's doing, since the word balloons are filed with only colors. Really fascinating.

Hopeless Savages shows promise. I had already put down that book based on a recommendation from Ellis' Ordering Comics and I'm glad to see that it's going to pan out. Hand-to-hand combat and flirting always go together in the best stories.

The Coffin story is remarkably creepy and well-written, and I'm going to have to start picking up that book now. Queen and Country I'm already picking up, but the short story in this volume didn't really do anything for me.

What didn't really work for me was the unimpressive Kissing Chaos story, the equally unimpressive Blue Monday story, and Alison Dare, which isn't bad--it's just cute and I'm not its audience. Killer Princesses, I'm not sure what that was supposed to be, but I'd like to avoid any more of it, thanks.

The standout of the issue, though, is Brian Michael Bendis' story at the beginning, "Who Killed Madman?", which features Deena and Christian (from his title Powers) interrogating various Image and Oni characters to determine who was the culprit. Bendis makes caustic fun of everything: the creators, the characters, the styles, and...himself. All of the above a whole hell of a lot. Funniest thing I've read since Evan Dorkin's World's Funniest several months back. Highly recommended.

All in all, like I said--a good trip to the super buffet. Worth a look.

Quote: CHRISTIAN: "Poor guy. He's been through so much: Caliber Comics, Tundra, Dark Horse's awkward merchandising."

DEENA: "Caliber? I didn't know that. The horror."