The Professional Gamer - August 29, 2016

Hello readers! I have a very short article for you this week. I am out of town for the weekend at the Fort Collins Comic Con, helping Crystal with her vendor table. If I have learned nothing else this weekend, it is that Fort Collins has even more beer than I imagined.  The convention went really well. Maybe not as many sales as we might have hoped, but a lot of very friendly fans. I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time outside of the vendors hall, but everything at the convention seemed to be well organized and efficient. I hope that we can come back again next year.

In other geeky happenings, I’ve spent some of my time this weekend reading some of the comics that I’ve purchased at past conventions. I have a bad habit of late with regards to buying comics, but not getting around to reading them. Therefore, I’m glad that sitting at a table for most of the weekend afforded me some dedicated time for reading.  This weekend I read Second Quest, Friends with Boys, In Real Life, and the first to issues of Flat Track Furies.  Since the first three are full length novels, I’ll hold off discussing them for separate posts. Let’s talk about Flat Track Furies. 

The comic is written and drawn by Moriah Hummer, and centers on Molly, derby player by day, monster hunter by night. Molly and her team, the Nuclear City Furies, play a rough game at the rink, then, take out some of the monsters that have begun appearing on the city streets.  Issues 1 and 2 are available for purchase at Shopify and Issue 1 is available digitally on Comixology. I have also seen Hummer at several Colorado area conventions.

These first two issues provide a quick introduction to the characters and world that they inhabit. The Furies seem well characterized and remind me of some of the Derby Girls that I’ve met in the past. With only two relatively short issues available at this point, the characters seem a bit lacking in depth. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone fleshed out a little bit more in the future. The art in the first issue is a little shaky, as though Hummer is still finding her characters, but gets a lot more solid in Issue 2. I enjoy the higher contrast art with some spots of pink to highlight some items.   Overall, it is a fun read.