Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Comics Re-re-re-review*: RICHIE RICH IN WELCOME TO RICH RESCUE! (Ape Entertainment, 2012)

*  No, the persona of Max Headroom hasn't suddenly engulfed my spirit.  It's much worse than that: Ape Entertainment has served up yet another reprinting of its pitifully small manifest of RICH RESCUE material.  For those who haven't been counting, that makes four such out-dishings, to wit:

1.  The original appearances in the Free Comic Book Day giveaway and RICH RESCUE #1-#4.  Only "Eruption Disruption," the Dr. N-R-Gee story from the FCBD book, isn't included in this 104-page trade paperback, possibly because the story didn't have much to do with the story arc in #1-#4... which, in point of fact, isn't a true story arc at all, but more of a collection of loosely-wound-together stand-alone stories, which I assume will be neatly chained together on that apparently-far-in-the-future day when RICH RESCUE starts publishing again.

2.  The so-called "digests," which are more like glorified pamphlets.

3.  The reprints of back-up stories that we've been seeing on a regular basis in RICHIE RICH GEMS.

4.  The present warmed-over warming-over of warmed-over leftovers.

Seriously, now, is Ape trying to piss off the people who would legitimately like to see RICH RESCUE continue?  I admit, it's convenient to have all of the stories from #1-#4 between a single set of covers, but it's almost as if Ape is jerking our chains on purpose at this point.  Come on, Apesters, get it together and get this country... er, title moving again.  (Apologies to JFK.)

1 comment:

Aaron Sparrow said...

Hi Chris,

You'll be glad to know that RICHIE RICH 5-7 are finished and on the way to print; as a matter of fact, issue #5 (by Buddy Scalera, James Silvani, Dustin Evans and Deron Bennett) should be in stores now.

I can assure you, the delay was not intentional; these things happen with licensed comics, as I'm sure you've no doubt experienced. And just as an FYI, the digests are done at the request of the book market, and the full trade collections are more for the direct market (although sold in bookstores as well.)

Thanks for reading!