The latest issue of Titans excellent anthology series A1 features dinosaurs, Super Mario, and a magic Saddam Hussein. I can't imagine you'd need more persuading to pick up this comic but if you need it, here it is. For newcomers to this series, A1 is an anthology series featuring 3 ongoing stories with different creative teams contained within 35 pages of comics. First off, for the price alone youre getting a better deal than Marvel/DC who, for the same price, will give you fewer pages and if that comic sucks, youre stuck with it. Here, if you dont like one story, chances are youll like one of the other two. So its even better value that all three stories here are awesome. The first one, The Weirding Willows, creates a story using famous literary characters, kind of like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but the early books, before Alan Moore went overboard and the series became engulfed in references to the detriment of the stories. Here writer Dave Elliott is still having fun playing with characters like Mowgli whos tied up in Dr Moreaus basement about to be vivisected alongside his animal buddies Bagheera and Baloo. Meanwhile Beatrix Potter animals are in a fight with Frankensteins Monster whos looking for his friend Rozalind - that is unless Alice (from Wonderland) can stop them. Oh and Rozalind is a T-rex. The second comic, and my personal favourite, is CarpeDiem, featuring computer game characters named after the days of the week living in a computer game world. An attack by the terrorist group calling themselves the Button Mashers (nice) has led the mayor of the city to ban the latest and most popular computer game, Solid Slug 3, but all is not as it seems as the shady mayor is manipulating the publics opinion on violence in video games for his own nefarious end. The comic opens with a gamer running alongside Mario - yes, THE Mario! - through a pipe. I immediately knew this comic and I were going to get along. And then they get into a fight and Mario eats some mushrooms, becoming enormously massive... and then something terrible happens. I wont say what but, hey it was a helluva cameo! The comic reminded me a lot of 80s TV show Captain N: The Game Master partly because the characters use gamepads and consoles as real life weapons and partly because everything is framed like a computer game, like the fight sequence. Oh and the mayor looks like M Bison from Street Fighter 2! If you love comics and video games, youll love CarpeDiem. The comic ends with Odyssey, set in September 2003 in Iraq as US forces invade a childrens hospital where Saddam Hussein is being kept while he undergoes treatment. The main character looks identical to Captain America, minus the iconic shield, so being a huge Marvel fan, I really dug this comic. Dave Elliott also writes this great piece and is joined by the brilliant Garrie Gastonny who supplies fantastic artwork despite this story being the most real of the bunch with fewer opportunities for flights of fancy. Partly why this comic is such a satisfying read despite being three short comics in one, is because they utilise characters were already familiar with and get on with a good story. The Jungle Books, The WIzard of Oz, The Island of Dr Moreau, Super Mario, Captain America - these are all cultural touchstones for many of us so when we see them in a story, we already know enough about them for the writers to get on with making them do exciting things. There is some character building but the main focus is on story, plot, getting things moving, and it works really well. Thats what sets this anthology apart from others, the shorthand of using familiar characters while also putting them in imaginative and involving scenarios before moving on to the next story.
A1 continues to be one of the highlights in Titans newly relaunched line-up of creator-owned titles. Each one of these comics could work well as their own series but collected together between two covers? Unbeatable. A1 is a smart, funny, and entertaining comic that shows you how great anthology comics can be when they're done well. Definitely worth checking out.
A1 #3 by Dave Elliott et al. is out now