Small Press Heroes FCBD 2014

For free comic day this year, drivethrucomics had some new freebies. I decided to grab the Small Press Heroes. The title had several cover variants but the same content. I don't really care for cover variants. It seems particularly odd for digital issues but they are supposed to have print on demand issues later.

Small Press Heroes FCBD 2014 is a collection of four unrelated stories. The interior is black and white. I generally prefer full color comics. The stories are in the superhero genre for the most part.

The first story features Leaf, Canada's greatest hero. During World War II, Leaf travels to occupied France with some men to kill a vampire. I assume the vampire is aligned with the Nazis but it is never stated. The hero doesn't display any superpowers. Nazis stories with supernatural elements aren't that unusual. Nothing really distinguishes this one. The artwork is reasonable. As I'm not much of a fan of World War II comics, it didn't interest me too much.

The Skyscraper cover was one of the versions that attracted my attention. The hero is an armored hero like Iron Man. His father originally created the Skyscraper suit and defended the city. After his father's death, Chad Johnston continue that role. He is an inexperienced crime fighter and only manages to beat the villain due to a distraction. The last page informs you that Chad has gotten a number of concussions as Skyscraper and that if he continues he is endangering himself. I think that is an interesting idea but not really conveyed in the story. Granted I'm not sure you could in six pages so maybe just displaying how he get beat up is a good way to go. The last page has detailed artwork but the rest of pages were less well defined. If the artwork were more like the last page, I think it would be more compelling.

The Seer cover also attracted my attention. In the comic, Seer fights a valkyrie on a rooftop in San Francisco. Since they are only using swords and you don't see much background, I can only assume it is set in modern day. The story doesn't really have much to it. It is simply a fight scene. You don't learn anything about Seer during it except she has some master.

Warriors in the Wind is my favorite story in the issue. I'm a fan of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. This comic seems clearly based on a similar concept. In fact it is a little too similar in some respect with the lead female hero being a ranking member of the Royal Guard like Teela. Still it does a good job introducing two heroes and three villains. The fight is interesting and the heroes are captured at the end leaving you wanting for more. I like this artwork the best of the four stories. Unfortunately the author/artist doesn't seem to have continued the story as yet.