Aw Yeah, Comics!

     

So, there’s this comicbook shop near me—just across state lines, about half an hour away called, interestingly enough, Aw Yeah, Comics. The shop has three locations, the one near me (in Harrison, NY), one in Skokie, Illinois, and one in Muncie, Indiana, and needless to say, they each sell comics. I recently visited the one here in Harrison and discovered something truly wonderful, a set of four comicbooks specifically produced by Aw Yeah for young readers. I honestly couldn’t be more excited.

Sure, sure, I’m an adult who has been reading comics as long as I’ve been able to read, and yes, I totally love adult, superhero, corporate comics, but I also love Indies, Westerns, Sci-Fi, historical, and others. Comics are comics, and well-written, entertaining comics that are fun to read are my favorite kind of comics. And these four Aw Yeah comics, are just that. Each of the four comics are by Art Baltazar (writer and artist) and Franko (writer) and feature cartoon-style art with stories about Action Cat and Adventure Bug, who are, not only the official mascots of Aw Yeah Comics, but—by their own admission—are the greatest super-heroes ever.

The first issue opens up with a bear named Hammond (the owner of the comic shop) calling out to Cornelius and Alowicious (who are secretly Action Cat and Adventure Bug), and then sending them of to lunch, where, at a local diner they happen to cross paths with their old for, Evil Cat, who has just ordered a giant pancake, and then electrified it into life. As can be expected, this action galvanizes our heroes into action. Ironically, Evil Cat’s great plans for his Giant pancake fall apart when the sentient pancake doesn’t want to do what Evil Cat wants, but, hilariously, do his own thing.

In the back-up tale, we are introduced to Adorable Cat and her sidekick who are looking for the Goojie-Nana. The rest of the comic is packed with one and two-page vignettes featuring numerous other characters from the comic as they play out a number of humorous actions.

Issue #2 has Action Cat accidentally hypnotized by an app only to discover that the App has now taken over his mental state, and it is up to Adventure Bug to rescue him. Apparently, it is the evil Cell-Phone-Guy’s intent to have Action Cat and the other Apps to head to the mall, unplug the cell tower so that he can take over the world. Fortunately, Adventure Bug manages to un-hypnotized Action Cat and together they manage to put the kibosh on Cell-Phone-Guy’s plans in the second half of the story. Once again, the final pages of the comics are filled with an entertaining back-up story involving multiple characters.

Issue #3 begins with Action Cat and Adventure Bug in Italy chasing a buzzard on a motorbike tossing bombs into the street. They disarm him in short order and then break for lunch. We are then treated to three full-page pin-ups of what the comicbook duo would be called in different countries. This story is followed by an origin story for Hammond who is now known as Awesome Bear. According to this story he not only came from a distant plant, but was born a mutant, and bitten by a radioactive bug, and now he too is looking for the Goojie-Nana.

As it turns out, this is all a story that Hammond, the comic store owner, is telling Cornelius and Alowicious when new comics arrive, being delivered by Alice (whom we actually met way back in issue one). Cornelius thinks that he recognizes Alice but is unsure. Moments later, Hammond sneaks out the back door of the shop and becomes Awesome Bear for real. In the next story Awesome Bear helps a little girl rescue her football that is stuck up in a tree. Two more shorts fill out this issue, one where a pair of costumed dogs track down a cat that ate all the fish in a pet store, and another where a bunch of evil characters are meeting in their secret headquarters.

The fourth issue introduces Zombie Cat in a story where Evil Cat and Zombie Cat are in something of a beef over who gets to keep Ghost Bug as a sidekick. Story #2 has Adorable Cat helping out Action Cat who is being assaulted by yet another cat. In the stories that follow we get to meet Anti-Gravity Bear, Blorg the giant robot, as well as a number of other adorable characters in a couple of silly adventures.

What we enjoyed the most about these comics were the outright silliness of them, and that they were most assuredly targeted for a younger audience. Personally, in all my years of reading comics, I’ve often felt that we as an industry have forgotten kids start reading comics when they are kids. Over the years comics have gotten more sophisticated, and intricate, and “aged up” as we all got older. There should be more comics that target younger kids as that is the way to hook them into not only reading but reading comics as they grow older.

The fact that Aw Yeah has done just that is really a pretty cool business model. The comics are bright, colorful, easy to read, and thoroughly engaging. Also, as the series has progressed, the original creators have been joined by a number of others, who have helped create subsequent stories. Meanwhile, the comics themselves are affordably priced at $3.00 and available at the stores, or online from their website. According to their website, Aw Yeah Publishing has not only produced their own comics under their house banner, but they’ve also worked with other comicbook publishers including Dark Horse, Dynamite, and Action Lab to bring all-ages fun to every reader!