All this month I'll be reviewing different comic books by African-American creators, based on submissions from the actual creators of the comic books themselves. A quick note - since this month is so relatively short, I'll be featuring an extra comic every week, for a total of 32 comics spotlighted! Here is a list of all the comics spotlighted so far!

In this installment we take a look at Turner Lange's The Adventures of Wally Fresh: Take the A Train, which is a collection of the first eight issues of Lange's The Adventures of Wally Fresh comic book.



The Adventures of Wally Fresh is an interesting combination of different genres. It is about a young unemployed man, his neighbor (they're just friends but it is clear that they're perfect for each other) and his roommate, which is a spirit animal (a beaver). In this story, subway trains are disappearing and his neighbor, Valerie, and his roommate, Barry, decided to investigate. Wally explains to them why that is a bad idea...









After Wally explains that he needs to get through his date with his girlfriend tonight to essentially "lock her" into a relationship for the rest of the year (as according to Wally, if you date for more than a season, you have to wait until the next season to break up - and they started dating in the summer and fall is about to start). However, she IS ready to break up with Wally, mostly because they never actually do anything interesting. Naturally, they get caught up in Valerie and Barry's investigation, which involves a hidden city underneath New York City and an alien invasion plot.

Wally's girlfriend encounters a good alien and they have a spark...



What I love about Wally as a hero is that he is very much a reluctant one. Check out this inspired little exchange between his girlfriend and Wally...





Of course, despite his best efforts, Wally can't help but be a hero. The action sequences are frantic and elaborate. The comic basically reads like a hilarious big budget science fiction film - only, you know, good (very few films can mix funny and big budget action).

The heart of the comic, though, is the heart of the characters as they are all good people worth rooting for.

You can buy the entire 230 page epic for just $17 from Indy Planet here.