Wednesday, March 11, 2015

CBR Futurama Conquers The Universe


Welcome to the comics of tomorrow~

For more Matt Groening-related reviews, check these other pages below!

Comic title: Futurama Volume 3: Conquers The Universe
Art by Mike Kazaleh, John Delaney, Tom King and James Lloyd
Written by Eric Rogers, Patric M. Verrone and Ian Boothby 

Published by Bongo Comics 
From 2007
Lineup Futurama series
Format: Trade Paperback collecting Futurama Comics #10-13.

The scifi parody show created by Matt Groening came to comics back in November 2000 through Groening's own Bongo Comics publishing company.

Futurama was published as a bi-monthly. And for a while,  between 2003 and 2006 it actually was the only source of new Futurama material being made at the time!

Typical issues usually ran for about ~27 pages long and were done in traditional pulp scifi comic-style, continuing the tradition of the show to poke fun at the genre as well as a honor it.

This means lots of mock-up advertisements, plenty of pin-up art, character bios and fake interviews! And believe me, those are all worth a read!

Each cover, more or less connected to the actual content, also features a funny, silly caption as to imitate the title screens from the cartoon.

This third volume was actually the fourth one to be released. Following the 2004 trade collecting issues #5-9, the next one ("The Time Bender Trilogy") from 2006 would jump ahead to collect issues #16-19. And in September 2007 Bongo Comics went back and finally collected the missing issues #10-13 into this fourth book (but really, the 3rd TPB) Futurama Conquers The Universe!

Did you follow me? Never mind that... Here is Futurama Conquers The Universe (aka the real Vol. 3!).


Like I wrote above, this trade paperback collects issues 10 through 13 - 4 issues worth of storylines. Plus some bonus material!

First up, in "The Big Sweep" Fry finally gets to witness snow in the year 3001! Ah, no. Never mind that, it's just the ashes following a meteor shower. The next day Scruffy introduces them to the noble sport of Swurling (a spoof of the actual game of curling). They end getting pretty good at pushing rocks with a broomstick and get to enter the Olympics! But swurling's a much more dangerous sport than it looks... it's practically suicide!

"The Cure for the Common Clod" sees Fry catching what appears to be a simple common cold... Which turns out to had been cured from Earth these past centuries! Soon the entire New New York City is infected by the primitive disease. Fry keeps sneezing all over the place and contaminates most of his co-workers with the long-forgotten cold. They try to quarantine and contain it, but it's already too late. Maybe they can fight with fire...

In "Sideshow Fry", the Planet Express crew gets to visit a space-circus. They find out Fry has a disgusting outie belly button, and the circus owner tries to get Fry added to his "freakshow".. Fry meets this bearded lady named Katie.

Finally the book closes with "The Bender You Say". Bender's awful culinary skills puts everyone to sleep from food-boredom... But it ends up later killing the Robot Devil! Oops! Bender is then put in charge of Robot Hell! Yay?


Futurama Conquers The Universe also contains a bonus tale.

"Leela & Amy in Hostile Makeover" was some bonus new material made for this trade (which would later be reprinted in a 2009 issue of Bongo Comics Free-For-All #4). A short story in which Amy takes Leela shopping. One day when most of the guys are out of the office, Amy takes Leela out for a complete makeover.. Amy Wong-style. But this makeover proves quite successful, too successful apparently. Every men around can't take their eyes out of Leela. So Amy dresses Leela in a baggy dress and a Marge Simpsons wig instead. Leela decides to get her revenge... by putting Amy in even more revealing clothes! Leela then throws her regular clothes away in the trash and ditch her behind in the store!

This time there are no bonus parody pages, just a fun comedic tutorial "How to draw Fry and Bender"!

The art was once more pretty good. Great attention to the details, from the gorgeous backgrounds to the gorgeous crowd scenes.

The stories might not be as big or epic as in the TV show, but they were still kept pretty much in tone and the feel of the show.

Perfectly recapturing the cartoon series on the paper.


Overall, the issues contained here this time are not as strong as first previous books. I didn't find this one to be as much a page-turned this time, but it's still pretty good compared to most similar comic adaptations out there.

Recommended for the fans of the show. Check it out if you are looking for some more Futurama! It's easily well worth a read!

This was the last comic collection released to date, the previous trade paperback jumped ahead and had missed these issues. A few more issues have been collected in different one-shots for special occasions or conventions, these first 13 or so issues are the only ones Bongo republished over the years.

I give it:
2 / 3 Aaylas!

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