Bear with me, even if you think you don't like comics. As I mentioned Tuesday, I couldn't possibly be less impressed by Jim Lee's new super hero designs for DC.
Coincidentally, last night, Mike Allred's issue of DC Comic's Solo (from 2005) was on the top of my reading pile. What an absolute delight.
The first story features Hourman, a character I always thought was ridiculous. If you're not familiar, he has a supply of pills and when he swallows one, gets superstrength . . . for one hour. He wears a sandtimer around his neck to keep track. Silly right? But Allred's story is a beautifully-illustrated, funny tale of what Hourman does when he swallows a pillow, but finds he has no crime to fight. Even if you're not a comic book fan, you should read the whole thing here (site is probably NSFW).
You can also read another story from the issue here (also NSFW). Allred makes the classic designs shine:
It's a terrible shame that the Solo issues were never collected (I think?), although you can find some issues at eBay. If anyone has some they'd like to swap for some Threadless credit, please get in touch. I have the Darwynn Cooke and Teddy Kristiansen issues.
