<![CDATA[io9: love and rockets]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: love and rockets]]> http://io9.com/tag/loveandrockets http://io9.com/tag/loveandrockets <![CDATA[The Best Free Comics To Bring You Up To Super-Speed [New Comics We Crave Extra]]]> Tomorrow is 2009's Free Comic Book Day, when all manner of publishers release free books to celebrate the medium and try and get some new readers into characters they hadn't previously considered. Here're our favorites.

If you've been craving some superhero action but don't know what's going on with your old favorites, DC's Blackest Night #0 and Marvel's Free Comic Book Day Avengers both offer all-new stories that'll bring you up to speed in a fast and stylish manner; both books are written and drawn by the company's top talent (Night boasts story by Geoff Johns and art by Ivan Reis, while Avengers is a Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung co-creation), and hint at what's to come fairly effectively. Other superhero thrills can be found in Wolverine: Origin of an X-Man (Just in time for this weekend's X-Men Origins: Wolverine release), Image's Savage Dragon #148 and Cyberforce/Hunter Killer Preview, and new indie comic Fist of Justice.

If you'd rather look for some more familar characters, Dark Horse and IDW have you covered; the former are putting out two books, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Aliens/Predator, while IDW have a Transformers/GI Joe flipbook ready and waiting for you. If that's not enough, the Dabel Bros. Showcase offers a new Dresden Filesstory as well as - weirdly enough - a preview of an upcoming Star Wars novel from publishing partners Del Rey, while Boom! have a new Warhammer preview (as well as a reprint of the first issue of their Cars series) and Mirage reprint the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to celebrate the characters' 25th anniversary.

Of course, there's also all manner of new work out there for you to discover tomorrow as well. Our pick would be Oni Press' Resurrection #0 (tying in with this week's Resurrection collection, offering up a view of life post-alien invasion), the Comics Festival collection of Canadian cartoonists and, of course, Fantagraphics' Love and Rockets Sampler... which may be neither new nor sci-fi, but is still some of the best comics out there.

A full list of the books available for Free Comic Book Day is available here, and as ever, your local comic book store can be found by clicking here. Visit, find some new favorite things to read, and take advantage of the freebies.

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<![CDATA[Martin & Lewis Impersonators Slaughter Alien Hordes in New Comic Book [Bizarro Deano And Jerry Take On The Aliens]]]> Everyone remembers the heyday of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, but how many of us remember the cheap imitation duo of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo? While Dino and Jerry got the radio shows, the magazine covers, and the hit movies, Mitchell and Petrillo got a co-starring role with Bela Lugosi...and a brutal battle with attacking alien forces. In the premiere issue of Love & Rockets: New Stories #1 (out this week and next in your more discerning bookstores and comic books shops), Gilbert Hernandez gives us "New Adventures of Duke and Sammy," and we've got a preview for you. Because who doesn't love comedy team knock-offs trapped on strange planets?

Snagged mid-concert and rocketed through space, Duke and Sammy end up on a strange alien planet (which compares not entirely unfavorably to Las Vegas), engage in some "eat or be eaten" slapstick, may or may not die once or twice, and (of course) gain superpowers.
Sadly, the superpowers don't hang around long enough to help our boys when they end up cheesing off the populace:
And the singing/comedy team has no choice but to resort to the sort of pluck that carried them all the way from The Colgate Comedy Hour to Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla:
If that's not enough for you, this book-sized wonder also has fifty pages of superheroines banding together in "The Search For Penny Century," courtesy of Jaime Hernandez.
In sum, the first issue of Love & Rockets: New Stories ensures you'll be able to meet the USDA's required amounts of CRAZY and AWESOME for the rest of the year. And if you catch yourself humming "That's Amore" as well (because, let's face it, Duke's song "'Deed I Do," is no "That's Amore"), so much the better.

Related: Trailer for Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla [YouTube]

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