Free Comic Friday: Choose Your Own Aspen Adventure

Choose Your Own Aspen Adventure
Written by: Vince Hernandez
Illustrated by Simone Di Meo, Joie Foster and Melissa Ballesteros Parada
Colors by: You!
Lettering by: Zen
Riddles and activities by: Gabe Carrasco
Cover: Di Meo
Editors: Carrasco and Frank Mastromauro
Design and production: Carrasco and Mark Roslan
Published by: Aspen
Released: Oct. 28, 2017

When I opened this Halloween ComicFest freebie from 2017 the other day, I was dismayed to see it had been written, drawn and colored in. This is not how I treat my comics! There are bags, boards and a general effort to keep them as near to mint as possible – or at least stacked and stored in such a way as to keep them in good condition until such time as I can sort, catalog and then bag and board them.

But this wasn't my comic – and the fact that it had been through a mild ringer is evidence that as a free comic giveaway, this issue was a success.

My oldest daughter is the one who took pen and marker to this comic, as she was absolutely supposed to do. If you'll notice in the credits, the colorist is listed as You! The entire book is black and white, just begging to be colored in. There are games and puzzles to entice interactivity. Whether this was a sales pitch by Aspen directly to the youngsters or to parents who, like me, have children who will go along for the ride to the comic shop but might not want to stay on the ride as long as Dad without something to entertain them, I'm not sure.

I don't know a lot about Aspen except it shares its name with the character in founder Michael Turner's “Fathom,” which I've never read but have seen and remember because, as much as I consider myself an enlightened, sensitive father of two daughters who respects women, I have noticed how the late Michael Turner drew women. And if memory serves, he did “Fathom” after “Witchblade,” which meant he could render a female protagonist constantly in and out of the water, and therefore not needing a lot of fabric, who would still look modest compared to Sara Pezzini's “armor.”

But this comic is clearly aimed at kids younger than the teenage boys whose eyes would immediately be drawn to Turner's work. The story opens at a party with characters I presume are from Aspen titles. One name I sort of recognized, at least after checking out the Aspen offerings on Hoopla, was Kiani. So I presume Hank, Lola and Grace are also from Aspen titles, as are their menagerie of pals on the cover.

When Hank attempts a magic trick at a Halloween party, the animals/sidekicks disappear. After a double page maze – for which my daughter completed both paths – we get to the so-called “Choose Your Own Adventure” portion of the proceedings. Readers can opt to follow the “Adventure of the Blue” or “Adventure of the Goo,” or you can just plow through the whole thing in order like I did.

There's more puzzles, comedy and all-ages adventuring before the wacky characters turn to the reader and ask them for help. The reader then conjures a bit of magic of their own by connecting the dots around the cast and returning them to the party.

If I have a critique of this issue, it's that you're not really choosing your own adventure but rather which adventure to follow. And that initial choice is the only one. Heck, only one track even directs you to which pages to turn.

But there's an entire comic's worth of pages and panels to color, and plenty of puzzles that kept my daughter engaged enough seven years ago to go through a whole palette of pen colors on the activities. I still know nothing about Aspen comics, and won't just regurgitate some quick wiki highlights here, but it did get me to see what's out there on Hoopla and download “Fathom” #1.

It entertained my child and got me to at least take a look at the source material.* What more can you ask from a free comic?

* - Albeit seven years late.