Futurama Comics - Futuramics - Fan Site Dedicated to Futurama Comics By Bongo Comic Group

So I'm pretty sure you all know this already but I thought I would post it anyhow to make sure it looks like I'm not slacking to much around here.

The cover art for the next Futurama Movie has come out. Entitled Bender's Game it is planned to be released November 4, 2008 along with the Blu-Ray disc for all the fancy Blu-ray owners out there. It's been made apparent the movie will be a Dungeons & Dragons-like setting where Bender is a knight, Leela is a centaur and Professor is a wizard. Fry is either a Gollum-like creature or a dragon and Amy is the queen of 'Water Nymphos'. David X. Cohen says this movie will be Futurama's "first real foray into the fantasy world as opposed to straight sci-fi". And interestingly enough, the title appears to be a reference to the novel Ender's Game.

So on that note I'll leave you with this video I'm sure you've probably seen a few times. With the Christmas season coming up my job has me working endlessly and with a one year old who no longer likes to take naps things have been blocking me from getting on here when I want to. I plan on getting one more review of a past comic in before #39 is out. And if there are any good eBay deals out there, you can expect to find them on here soon.

And finally if anyone has any suggestions or would like to contribute to the site please let me know. I'm looking for anyone who wants to write reviews, create wallpaper, become an editor or can program in PHP and help me get this damn review system working. Ugh...anyhow...till next time.

In honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics, I wanted to do a review on Futurama Comics # 10 entitled the ‘Big Sweep’ which was released November 27, 2002. Written by Eric Rogers and penciled by John Delaney.

We begin with Fry freaking out that the world is coming to an end because of a meteor storm. But the crew around him found the spectacle to be a delightful affair. We come to find that meteor storms are like our present day snow storms due to the hope there will be a snow day tomorrow but in this case, a meteor day.

The next morning, Scruffy comes into the room that has the TV and couch and opens the blinds. Everyone wakes up suddenly because of the bright light coming from outside. Fry asks what the bright light is and Scruffy informs him it’s the sunlight reflectin’ off the new fallen Meteor Ash. Amy and Leela come into the picture and want the guys to come outside and play around in the fresh ash-powder. But Hermes chimes in and says that the Professor has not given anyone the day off yet. The Professor informs Hermes Galactic Law prohibits spaceship flight within 24 hours of any meteor storm. So everyone except Hermes gets the day off (because Hermes wore some pretty ridiculous skivvies.)

A few minutes later we find the Planet Express crew have a great time outside in the ash. Bender remarks, “This is awesome! It’s like a nuclear winter wonderland!” The only person not enjoying themselves is Fry who hates the taste of ash and is just plain sick of all of this ash. So as he heads back inside he trips face down in the ground next to Zoidberg who thinks he’s a trend setter now. Fry picks himself back up and curses the rock he tripped over and attempts to throw it back to Krpyton (this is actually how it is spelled in the comic, a misspelling maybe?) but Scruffy runs in and tells him to stop. Scruffy informs Fry they are the perfect size for Swurlin’ Matches. The rocks have a strange and ominous feeling about them, but they are the perfect shape and would like to collect as many as possible.
Leela informs us Swurling is the game where you use a broom to move rocks across ice and whoever gets their rock closest to the bull’s-eye in the middle of the ice wins. Scruffy wants to have a go at Central Park but they need one more person to play. They invite Bender who is leasing a igloo to Zoidberg. Scruffy informs everyone that swirling is a sport that requires strength, brains, and Teflon-soled shoes. Fry isn’t convinced though that this is a real sport. It’s comparable to golf or stock car racing or Canadian football. So Scruffy shows them by giving the perfectly round rock down the ice and makes it perfectly into the bull’s-eye which is called a draw. Fry and Bender are defiantly not impressed but Leela says they should at least give it a try before they ridicule it. So Leela takes a whack at it and she also gets it into the circle. But still Fry is not impressed because it’s not an Olympic sport or something!

“You want to go to the Olympics, don’cha?” says a voice from the side panel. Scruffy informs everyone that the voice is coming from Vic Lebruteski. We find that Vic is the greatest swurlin’ coach that ever lived having won ten gold medals at the Olympics and Vic wants Fry to show his current team that even an idiot can sweep a stone into the circle. So Fry gives it his best shot and gets the stone perfectly in the center as the other three. They are naturals and Vic wants to coach them in this year’s winter Olympic swirling competition and bring them Olympic glory if they let him hone their skills. So Scruffy’s dreams are coming true, Fry will get to see his face on something other than the back of a milk carton and Bender just is just seeing the profits in it. And Tiny Tim becomes the teams official Towel Rack. But that’s the last you of him in this issue.

Later that day, the Professor approves for his crew to go to the Olympics because of the free publicity of his company’s logo on the uniforms. After that is settled, Vic asks the new team to sign this contract that allows him by law to berate, humiliate and abuse them to ensure he gets the most out of their abilities. According to Bender this is known as the Bobby Knight Addendum.

So on the day of the big game, the referees (who are zebras) come up and tell the team the other give competing teams have forfeited making their team the champions of today’s event. The only person who finds this odd is Leela while the others celebrate the fact they are going to the Olympics after all the practicing, persevering and wanting it more than the other guys (which Leela informs all they did was show up.)

A few days later the team is in their new uniforms and looking great. Vic informs the Professor the support of Planet Express is great, but they really want to compete they will need a lot more corporate funding from such companies like Mom’s Old-Fashioned Robot Oil, Slurm, Olde Fortran and Bachelor Chow.

Across Town Leela is in the library looking for more information about Coach Lebruteski. The book she finds tells us “Coach Victor Lebruteski has lead 14 teams in the universal Olympic games, 10 of those teams having won gold medals. But controversy soiled the coach’s recent Olympic appearances…” It continues “All of the player’s from his last three competitions have died or disappeared mysteriously before returning to earth.” So Leela’s suspicions were right, but what to do now?

On the big day of the Olympics the team arrives to the Olympics where they are about to light the torch that has been carried by torch for over three years and over four hundred jillion miles throughout the galaxy without being extinguished, until bender pours out his ‘skunky’ beer and extinguishes the flame.

The team is in the locker room and Leela goes to wish the other team luck. She is informed that the completion is the least you have to worry about, it’s the actual arena that’ll kill you. At the Olympics everything is jacked up ten notches. There’s the fog and the creatures lurking under the ice and the part about the flaming arrows and the carnivorous goalie that eats the losing team. Leela asks why would anyone play this stupid game and the other team says “Well, we’re convicted murderers. It was either this or a life sentence writing comic books with not possibility for parole. Leela confronts Vic about this and he merely just shrugs it off as minor details. Besides, if they don’t go out there and win the contract they signs says they have to become his slaves so he can sell them to sports teams throughout the universe where they’ll work as costumed mascots for the lowest wage possible… minimum wage! (This in Zoidberg’s opinion is a raise.) So the reason teams never make it back to earth alive is that they either die competing or the survivors are enslaved for winnings.

So with no choice but to face there impending doom the head out to the swurling rink. At first all seems calm and fine until the fog starts rolling in. The crowd cheers in anticipation for someone’s blood (or oil.) The huge carnivorous creature stands at the center of the rink and arrows are notched and ready to be launched. Fry wonders why everything in the futures has to be so over-the-top? Scruffy takes the lead and pushes his rock with his broom down the center of the ice heading for the bulls eye with the creature standing on top of it until a huge bird scoops him off his feet and pulls him up to the air. Scruffy pokes the creature with his broom and is dropped back down to the ice. Fry takes the lead and grabs the rock and starts pushing down the ice when an arrow goes whizzing past his head and cuts off the top two spikes. He then changes his mind and high tails it out of there. Meanwhile bender is dropping bricks and making a wall… no really. Of course who to the rescue but Leela, she grabs the rock and pushes it down the ice and slides it under the creature into the center to get a draw. They scored! But wait, stop the match! In walks in the chicken lawyer saying “I say, I say now this here is a mess o’ beans y’all got yourself into. Do you know what those ‘rocks’ are that y’all usin’?“ Scruffy says they are meteors but to our surprise they happen to be…

And that’s where I will leave you. You got to go get the comic if you want to know what happens in the end. I’ll tell you this though, the crew gets there Olympic medals.

This comic has always had a special place in my heart because it was the first comic I got off of EBay. Also Scruffy plays a major part in this issue. The story I felt was enjoyable in the sense for being the tenth comic released. The story feels like it could have been a Futurama episode but was still lacking some key details. The story felt a little rushed in the middle but was enjoyable because it had an obvious beginning, a conflict and a resolution, everything you would expect a good story to have. I do have to admit that this story had a lot of dialog, something you don’t really quite see in the newer issues. Some of the little humor moments you come to expect in the comic was the referees being zebras because of their black and white stripes and the sign at the entrance of the Olympics saying: “Former winners show your medal for 10% off your next meal at Elzar’s Olympic Onion Ring Haus!” But that was it. Like I said before there was more dialog in this comic than the newer ones which I believe kind of took away from the art aspect of the comic. I found it to still be an enjoyable read and entertaining. It had the main characters involvement (Bender, Leela, Fry) and a bunch of supporting characters (Professor, Hermes, Amy) and special appearances by Scruffy.

Best Moments: Scruffy, Professor telling Hermes he can't remove the smoke detectors from the office (get it?), Zoidberg getting the shaft Worst Moments: None really. Vic Lebruteski was kind of annoying. Scruffy could have had more lines. Overall Rating:

Just thought I would share this with everyone. Futurama Comics #1-6 are up for grabs on eBay and have a couple of days to go. They are still at $.99 still and $3.00 shipping also with combined shipping. Can also be upgraded to USPS Priority Shipping for that extra security.

Other than that, I have revised the subscription service and found a source that can give a lower shipping charge and comic charge. Not by much but its down to $7.49 every other month. The question I seem to get is 'why is it bi-monthly' and that's because I'm not going to charge you for a month that there is no comic. Futurama Comics is published six times a year so when you break this down that's $3.75 a month. So not a bad deal if you ask me. Keep sending in the emails about your suggestions.