E-DISPATCH ARCHIVES: 2002-2007

Volume 2, Number 33 - November 2007

BIG BANG PRESENTS Vol. 3 Number 6 August 2007. Published by Big Bang Comics. Full color cover with 64 interior black & white pages. Cover price $7.95. Cover pencils and colors by Mark Lewis with inks by David Zimmerman. Inside front cover art by Tim Stiles. Stories by Gary Carlson and Edward DeGeorge. Art by Frank Fosco & Bob Rivard, Greg Kirkpatrick & Bob Rivard, Frank Fosco & Mike Mathew, Tim Stiles and Robin Waters. Back cover art by Frank Fosco and Mike Mathew.

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Graced with a stunningly beautiful psychedelic cover reminiscent of Jim Steranko's cover art on Marvel's late 1960s "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", BIG BANG PRESENTS #6 is an action-packed double-sized issue that is worth every penny of its cover price. The issue opens with a three part tale that begins during the Korean War and depicts the death of the Big Bang Universe's golden age mystery-man known as The Badge and then winds its way to the present concluding with the 21st-Century Badge engaged in combat with Ultiman's nemesis, the criminal genius Dexter Cortex. As the story unfold writer Gary Carlson reveals not only how the death of the original Badge leads to the creation of the super-spy organization called The Bureau of Advanced Defense and Global Espionage but also the part Cortex played in the creation of the present-day Badge. Rich in detail and action-packed from beginning to end this 29-page novella is both one heck of a good read and one of Gary Carlson's finest pieces of writing.

The second tale of Big Bang Presents #6 is a 12-page supernatural thriller featuring Dr. Weird titled "Invaders from the Dimension of Uttarack!". Written by Edward DeGeorge with art by Tim Stiles this magical adventure harkens back to the golden age tales of DC's Spectre and MLJ Magazine's Mr. Justice. While I am not in the very least a fan of any sort of Tim Stiles' artwork, despite the wide inconsistencies in he pencils in the story Stiles', errr, style none the less fits this piece and does not take anything away from DeGeorge's excellent writing.

The issue concludes with an 18-page story featuring The Atomic Sub titled "The Ancient Mariner's Wrath!". Written by Gary Carlson with art by Robin Waters this underwater exploit guest-stars The Aquatic Androids grand daughter Moray and pits Sub Atomic against the god Neptune. As a fan of underwater super-heroes "The Ancient Mariner's Wrath!" most definitely struck a cord with me and was an enjoyable read from beginning to end. All-in-all Big Bang Presents #6 was not only worth the entrance fee but was also one of the best issues that Gary Carlson has ever published. Sadly though it will be the last one for some time to come because as of #6 Big Bang will no longer be publishing comics on a regular schedule. As I've already commented personally to Gary regarding my feelings about this matter-much of which he's explained in detail in his editorial in this issue-I won't go into them here except to say that while I understand and agree with her reasons I am still going to miss seeing a regular Big Bang title. Gary does though plan to publish the occasional one-shot so fans of the Big Bang Universe won't be totally without their fix but it won't be the same that's for sure. And as well as doing the occasional one-shot Gary will also be writing other projects including one he is working on with Frank Fosco titled Ethriam which is slated to be published by Image some time in 2008. Meanwhile, if you can't wait for either Ethriam or one of the as yet unscheduled Big Bang one-shots you can always order a back issue of one of the Big Bang titles from www.bigbangcomics.com. As someone who has read every issue published under the Big Bang name I can promise you each and every one of them is an enjoyable read. Gonna miss the Big Bang stuff, Gary. Best of luck with future projects, my friend.

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And with that this installment of E-Dispatches from the Great White North comes to an end. I'm not sure when the next installment will be out or even what it will be about as over the past several months I haven't been sent any comics to review (and the closest comics shop to where I live is well over an hour's drive from where I live and as I don't drive, well, kinda hard to get there to say the least). So if anyone has any comics they'd like me to review they can mail them to me at.....Jonathan A. Gilbert/2-225 Colborne St./Box 10/Port Stanley, Ontario/N5L 1C2/Canada.