These days, I tend to stray mostly toward superhero comics. While the odd indie comic will sometimes make it into my pull list, the majority of my must-reads involve capes, super powers and insane cross-title events. It’s fun, it’s rewarding to get through title after title to piece the story together, but ultimately, it’s exhausting.
How I Spent My Summer Invasion, written by Patrick Rieger and illustrated by Mark Sean Wilson, definitely makes me want to stray further away from the supers.
‘Summer Invasion’ is the story of best friends Tim and Russ, two ordinary kids having an extraordinarily boring summer. That is, until they accidentally lob a baseball over the hedge and discover La Galatique, a resort for intergalactic travelers. Tim and Russ get roped into lending a hand as bellhops, and in the process stumble onto a crisis that threatens the entire planet.
The book is, without a doubt, delightful. The art style is reminiscent of something you’d find in the Sunday comics, which isn’t at all to say that it’s amateurish at all. The style works wonderfully for the subject matter, and while it should seem cluttered to someone like me, who is so used to reading comics whose layouts are less fluid, it doesn’t at all. I particularly enjoyed the different varieties of alien, which stray fantastically far from the cliched “little green man” into “giant six-eyed creature made of water and carnivorous fish.”
And while the book is aimed at younger readers, it never feels entirely like a kid’s book in the way that some titles do. In a way, it reminds me of some of the Saturday morning cartoons that I used to enjoy as a child, that were entertaining enough for me when I was younger, but that I can go back and appreciate as an adult as well, because of the few scattered jokes that would ultimately be funnier to someone older.
Issue #1 of How I Spent My Summer Invasion is currently available digitally at the WE comics website, and if you’re a Los Angeles local, at select area shops. But if you really want more of Tim, Russ and their antics at La Galatique, you can donate to How I Spent My Summer Invasion’s kickstarter.
