A very pleasant convention bonus

Wonder Squad No. 1
Machine Head Studio
Creator: Bradley R. Hyman

I recently attended the third annual Mulberry Comic Con in Mulberry, AR, as a dealer. This event benefits the Mulberry Public Library and is only about 45 minutes from my home, so I’ve been a dealer there for the past three years, selling some of my overflowing collection. Each year I’ve attended the event, I’ve met several other interesting dealers and many other colorful fans. This year was no exception.

Right next to my Steve’s Comics for Sale booth this year was the booth of a writer/artist from nearby Mountainburg, AR. His name is Bradley R. Hyman, and we visited throughout the day. He and I are about the same age, so we had some similar ideas about collecting and comics, although the samples and sketches he brought for his table proved Bradley has a lot more talent than I possess. Thankfully, I wasn’t there as an artist.

A lot of Bradley’s comic stories appear in YEET Presents, an anthology comic published by Cost of Paper Productions. Bradley also had photocopied mini comics versions of two of his creations — Amie Armageddon and Wonder Squad — both of which are normally serialized in YEET Presents and under Bradley’s own imprint, Machine Head Studio.

The Amie Armageddon issue introduces the post-apocalyptic world of Amie “Armageddon” Geddon, a bounty hunter in what used to be southern Missouri. She tracks down outlaws in the Upper Ozark Cold Zone for a government agency called the Home Guard, which often is just as untrustworthy as the outlaws themselves. The opening installment of this title left me wondering what was going to happen to Amie next, but the other title grabbed my imagination even more.

Wonder Squad was a group of second- and even third-string superheroes several years in the past. One of those former heroes, Fletcher “Dr. Spectral” Pollard, is now retired and runs a talent and training agency for new super-powered folks after being disgraced and falling out with most of his former teammates. The mini comic of the first chapter of Wonder Squad gives readers a little of the backstory along with enough to explain that Fletcher’s business is not doing well and neither is he.

Bradley has crafted a great story that immediately made me like Fletcher and care about his circumstances, and he did it without falling on the popular trope of making his independent characters all be analogs of the most popular Marvel and DC characters. Fletcher’s powers are telekinetic in nature, so he’s not really a Superman or Batman or Spider-man stand-in.

I’m very interested to see where the Wonder Squad story goes in future installments, and I wish Bradley continued success with his efforts. For more from Hyman, visit his Facebook page or check out this recent newspaper column written about Hyman by another friend of mine.