Action Lab Comics 2017
Written & Illustrated by Marty Legrow
Coloured by Mindy Indy
Lettered by Justin Birch
In the world of Toyetica, a tiny race of humanoids called Bittles jockeys for its place in the world alongside humans. Luckily, there's always steady employment as models for children's toys! At Dollington Academy, young Bittles go to school to hone their toy theme, choose their accessories and prove to toy companies that they're the most marketable, lovable and toyetic of them all. Whether it's as an action figure, fashion doll or The Next Big Thing, for these young students, the race to the toy store is on!
I will say this much I wasn’t expecting anything quite along these lines. I figured this would be an all-ages series kind of geared towards girls and while it is for the most part, note I said for the most part, has that great blend of a message woven into a seemingly innocent fun filled adventure. This turns out to be a wonderfully thought out alternate reality world where two sets of people find a way to coexist and strike a bargain that needs to be seen to be fully understood.
Marty does a fantastic job in starting us off with a brief history of the two peoples. She really piques the interest, curiosity and imagination behind it so that we want to know more. So hopefully as we meet the cast of characters which come and go throughout the series we’ll also learn about their people, how they managed to survive for so long and what ended up making them so unique and sought after to become what the world so desires. What is it that the world so desires, uh uh uh uh (in my bed Nedry voice) that magic isn’t coming from me.
Mindy’s interiors do some really interesting things. Her fantasy style characters have this wonderfully unique quality to them. There are so many great moments throughout this issue that capture the mind, imagination and creativity and really make you wish to be a part of this world. The use of page layouts through their angles and perspective are well done. While backgrounds aren’t utilised as much as i’d like the attention to detail Mindy has here makes up for it.
The structure of this issue has a very strong ebb and flow to it. From the brief history lesson to the introduction of a new classmate for a group of students, which is the perfect opportunity for one of those students to send the new girl a note telling her, and by extension us, about all the other classmates we get the best introduction to the series. Yes it’s a bit of biased look at the other students, from one of their own, but it’s is a great way for us to get a glimpse of what is in store for us.
Creative, imaginative and cute as all get out this may be one of those series that could end up rivaling Monster High.