Solomon E Checks Pull List, Pits Botcomics vs Interweb Comics

Morning peasants!

It’s so difficult to keep up with modern entertainment these days. We’ve all been there, right? Maybe you fell behind on Disney+’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” so now you can’t discuss the latest episode around the office water cooler. Perhaps you’re stuck in line at Chipotle and overhear a spoiler from some jerk up front talking about “House of the Dragon.” It’s also possible that one of your demon henchmen won’t stop discussing 終末のワルキューレ and now you have to leave the room since your Netflix subscription expired. (TRANSLATION SIDE NOTE: If you don’t know what 終末のワルキューレ means in English then use an online translator. C’mon people, it’s 2022!)

Personally, I was unjustly imprisoned inside the Ghost Head Nebula by a clueless do-gooder. Hard to read new comics or watch current shows while locked inside a galactic gulag. Surely you can relate to my predicament.

So, let’s catch up together and check out my comic book pull list. (A pull list is a list of comics that a collector would want to buy every time those titles are released.) Think I’ll read a Halloween issue from Botcomics and another one from Interweb Comics. We’ll see how they compare.

Let’s begin with something from Botcomics. “Delicious Treats” was released as a one-shot on October 7th, 2020. It was written by DeLonge & Arcelsia with illustrations by Hartwell White. (SNARKY SIDE NOTE: It required TWO authors to write this 10-page, not including cover, comic with less than 300 words of dialogue?)

The plot is exceedingly basic. A witch, who seemingly wears a HHH-cup bra even before alchemical self-modification, makes a potion to make herself grow larger. One of the necessary ingredients is cum. In a stroke of fortuitousness, a pair of young men just so happen to arrive at her doorstep trick or treating. (NOTE: She asks “Aren’t you boys a little old for Halloween?” Really hope that meant they were at least 18 years old!)

Then the three of them fuck and the witch grows bigger than a house, pretty simple. Not much to say beyond that the art was decent. Although, there was a continuity error between pages one and two. In the first several panels on page one the witch was wearing glasses. Then, in the final panel, her glasses disappear. However, in the very next panel on page two her glasses reappear! Where did the spectacles go during the last panel of page one?

Regardless, the busty witch was attractive and much sex was had plus female height increase, penis enlargement, and penis multiplication (ergo more than one dick per dude).

Overall, this was an inoffensive, low-effort affair. It’s always nice to get something in your candy bucket for Halloween, but this was the equivalent of getting Swedish Fish. Technically speaking Swedish Fish is candy, but I don’t know many people who purposely seek it out. There are plenty of tastier sweets on the market.

Now let’s look at something from Interweb comics. “The Bad Omen,” another one-shot, was recently released on October 8th, 2022. It was written by Aloezec with art by Altercomics-FRANTIC. The plot summary is as follows:

“After a brief argument between two lovers, almost a dozen people are accidentally shrunken during a Halloween party. Unfortunately for them, their only hope of being discovered is a last-minute (and oblivious) guest…“

Not much to say beyond that. The argument between those two lovers was never meaningfully explained. Readers were made aware, in only two panels, that they have some sort of dispute. No idea how important or trivial their dispute was. All that was given is that they argued for an hour and that the Goth girlfriend, named Rose, told her boyfriend, named Mike, that he’d be sorry. That was the motivation which caused her to retrieve a spell book from the car and use it to cast an incantation that reduced Mike and the other guests. Maybe Mike’s misdeed was so offensive that it justified his death. Maybe it didn’t. Who knows?

The story was set on Halloween 1994. However, that particular date had no appreciable impact on the story. It would have been better if this story had used that date for something clever or at least to make references that would firmly place the action in 1994. For example, the film “Interview with the Vampire” was released in mid-November 1994. A party guest could have dressed up like vampire Lestat, arguably that film’s most popular character, in anticipation of its upcoming release. That film was based on a novel of the same name written by Anne Rice which was first published in 1976. Therefore, Lestat was already well-known to vampire fans. It would be reasonable to expect those fans to dress up like Anne Rice’s famous antihero for a Halloween party held less than two weeks before the movie came out.

Additionally, Jack Nicholson’s werewolf film “Wolf” was also released in 1994. It came out on June 17th, 1994, to be precise. Therefore, someone could have dressed up like a furry Jack Nicholson. Would have been neat to see subtle references, like people wearing clothes that call back to intellectual properties popular in 1994. Instead, everyone looked generic and would have fit in at any Halloween party held from 1982 until present day.

A counter-argument could be made that there’s no law mandating that people at costume parties can only wear outfits based on movies released during the current calendar year. That is, of course, true. Nonetheless, why set a story in 1994 if the year makes no difference and has no bearing on anything? <shrug>

The story itself was rudimentary. If you read the summary then reading the comic itself adds nothing else. Some shrunken people were inadvertently crushed by a woman who did not see them. They were shrunken by a Goth girl who can somehow do real magic. No further explanation was given. The End. Meh.

Overall, this was also inoffensive and low-effort. If Delicious Treats was the equivalent of Swedish Fish then The Bad Omen was the equivalent of Circus Peanuts. Surprisingly, Botcomic’s Delicious Treats actually had more dialogue and “plot,” using the term broadly, than Interweb’s The Bad Omen. Even though The Bad Omen was a few pages longer.

Hmm… now that I think about it, what exactly was the titular “Bad Omen”? Omens are events regarded as prophetic, predicting either good or bad outcomes. If a black cat crosses your path that could be an omen indicating that something bad will happen. However, a lover saying “You’re not even sorry? You will be, mark my words.” is too direct to be an omen. She verbally indicated that something would happen to make him sorry and then it did, that negative event being caused directly by her. That’s like me saying “I’m going to push someone.” and then I push them. It would be wrong to claim that my sentence was an omen of ill events. Omens require at least some interpretation. Ergo, an omen could be an eclipse, a strange dream, the passing of a comet across the night sky, etc., which is later interpreted to predict something good or bad.

Bottom line, if you like crazy transformations with sex then Botcomic’s Delicious Treats could be to your liking. Alternatively, if you enjoy scenarios in which tinies are smashed (or swallowed) by a woman who is unaware of their presence then Interweb Comic’s The Bad Omen could be to your liking. Just don’t expect high-quality writing.

That’s it for today. Hopefully, we can trade these mediocre Swedish Fish and Circus Peanuts for full-size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or Snickers next week. Until then peasants, keep screaming!

This review was written by Solomon E and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.

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