3-D Pete's Big Orbit Comics! #8

Writer: Mike Fisher
Artist: Mike Fisher
Publisher: Goofa Man Productions

Let's start by first saying a simple truth. Mike Fisher hates me. No, he does and I understand it completely. Ask him questions about me and his answers will probably include a lot of "F's" and "A's". And as I said, I understand.
See, Mike sent me a copy of 3-D Pete's Big Orbit Comics! #8 a few weeks before the San Diego Comic-Con and I fully intended to get a review done of the book before the show.
It didn't work out. Time constraints, labor issues (I couldn't find anyone else to do the review and Doug was already swamped), health issues (not mine this time, Patti) simply prevented me from getting the article done.
And every time I have sat down to get it finished, something has come up. Finally, over the weekend I pulled all my notes together and sat down to complete an article I should have done months ago.
And then the earth blew up. What? You missed that? Yea, so the article still is not….
Ok, skip it. Here we go!

Usually when I get a call or letter from an independent publisher I am scared to say I will accept their work. See, I honestly Hate to give a bad review to someone who has poured their heart, soul and probably a lot of their savings into a book that I have to say stinks.
Yes, there are some times when I feel it is more important to protect the reading public from something that might sterilize them and thus end humanity in a few generations, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and tell the truth.
I talk to a lot of Comic book creators who are self-centered, egotistical, boors who have no concept of what the real world is like. Most of their stories are the stuff I call toilet paper, since it is only good for one thing. If you can finish the issue that is.
And the title 3-D Pete's Big Orbit Comics from a company called Goofa Man of all things really had me nervous.
But crap. This book is pretty good. I mean, it is no Phantom but it ain't trying to be. Fisher writes a clean, almost pure look at the current situation of many artists without trying to make the reader feel guilty for not buying every piece of crap that comes out.
3-D Pete is a funny, semi-biographical story that gives a lot of the problems and pleasures faced by an artist and creator today.
As a 'gag writer' Fisher is turning out to be one of the best. He gets Pete's adventures over quickly, without a lot of overplayed one liners that have nothing to do with what he is trying to say in that one strip.
He could be as good (well, ok.. ALMOST as good) as Calvin and Hobbs creator Bill Watterson someday, if he keeps working at his writing and his art.
But just who is Fisher, and is he 3-Pete? Goofa Man Productions is the one man production studio of the award-winning Mike Fisher. "What award?" you ask?
Thanks for asking. The awards come from Mike's years of sci-fi animations. He has also contributed cartoons and illustrations to Starlog magazine for more than 15 years and having created the mini-Comic, 3-D Pete's Big Orbit Comics, in 1988.
Pete is a digital animator and all around geek who wears 3-D glasses all the time. Is this Mike Fisher? I don't know, I have never seen a photo of him.
The artwork in Big Orbit Comics #8 is excellent, given it's restraints of page size. But it stays easy to follow and understand. Fisher is great with the expressions on the faces of his characters.
The stories are funny, expressive and once in a while touching. But they never go for the short road of self pity. Excellent work, Mike.
Also included are the adventures of Nanosapien about a nano-sized antibody that is injected into patients to help them. Also an appeal to Peter Jackson on ways to end King Kong, and a Star Trek/Batman crossover that will have you laughing out loud.
Thanks for sending it to me, and I am sorry it took so long.

Along with the new Comic, Fisher has also produced the Goofa Man Collection DVD which has collected several of the best of Fisher's animation and short subjects. Also on the DVD is one of their latest shorts, Fantastic Fortune which won best short film at the Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival.