by Mike Favila, Editor

In A1 Annual: The World’s Greatest Comics, Atomeka and Titan have put together an interesting mix of well traveled industry veterans and relative unknowns. Like a good playlist, it intersperses them seamlessly, as the reader is provided no expectation of a common theme. Consequently, you can read this nice little collection in one sitting. The variety of topics keeps you from getting bored, or wanting to break it up with different genres. Each story is then followed by a little biography of the creative team.

The first story, Island In The Sky, is taken from the Joe Simon / Jack Kirby Library collection from Titan (which we’ve gladly reviewed here). It’s about an astronaut who died in space, but was revived after being exposed to Jupiter. It doesn’t delve too deeply into the motivations of the characters, but it is a little fun bite of the power of Kirby’s imagery.  I was a little confused by the photographed coffee art. Though it technically counts as sequential art, I wouldn’t really consider this a comic. That being said, it serves as a nice little interlude before going into another superhero or science fiction tale.

Even within a story, the tones change from lighthearted jokes to science fiction, followed by horror.  Tales Of Old Fennario is another good example of the range of moods a narrative can go through.  At over 20 pages, it’s one of the longest stories in the collection.  It starts with a playboy type guy, Jack, who barges in on his landlord after being chased by some Keystone Cop types.  They banter back and forth, until Gustav kicks him out on the street.  Later on, Jack reveals that he’s been making a street drug derived from his blood.  When Gustav comes in contact with his blood, he suffers violent hallucinations related to his childhood.  Within a span of a few pages, Sandy Plunkett manages to jump genres seamlessly, without taking the reader out of the narrative.  

The section that really interested me the most was Image Duplication, by Rian Hughes and Dave Gibbons. I’d heard of Roy Lichtenstein and were familiar with some of his pieces, but I wasn’t as versed in how literally he copied (or stole, depending on your interpretation) from every famous . He’d taken so much from my favorite artists (John Romita Sr., in particular) that I’m not surprised there was more public outrage. I know that if Lichtenstein was coming up now, it would probably be impossible for him to achieve his level of acclaim without undergoing the internet scrutiny. With the rise of comics as an acceptable form of art in the mainstream, it would be hard to believe that he would be as revered for what could constitute as theft.

Overall, the stories from A1 Annual: The World’s Greatest Comics are a little bit out of the box. You wouldn’t expect Jim Steranko to put together a wordless story about frogs and experiments that could be assembled in a Rashomon style manner by the reader, but there it was! Thankfully there’s an explanation, but the story and concept is still pretty striking. I guess if there is a theme running through all these short stories, it’s that imagination and innovation aren’t limited to any specific genre or presentation. If you’re looking for a fun read and are open to your preconceptions being challenged, then A1 Annual: The World’s Greatest Comics will go great in your collection.

ComicsOnline gives A1 Annual: The World’s Greatest Comics 4 out of 5 frog dissections!

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