When I was a kid, my mom would give me a buck and I would go to our neighborhood candy store to buy the latest editions of Archie, Superman, Batman, and, if memory serves me correctly, Battlefield Action.
I’d get two soda pops, a big bag of chips (I’d still have fifteen cents left over for emergencies), and I would sit on the porch and read each book cover-to-cover, three or four times.
Let me tell you, back in the mid-1950s that was living large!
It was one of those magnificent boyhood treasures that, in my mind, rivaled the Saturday Evening Post, a home run by Willie Mays, and Sunday’s chicken dinner for the highlights of the week.
Until recently, I thought comic books were a fading pastime. My perspective was entirely wrong. Some 24-million people have identified themselves on Facebook as comic book aficionados; the total could be even greater. According to Alex Alonso, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, 47 percent of comic-book enthusiasts are women, who prefer female characters.
The foregoing information serves as a tremendous introduction for this week’s topic: Ms. Molecule, an on-line and in-print comic book series written by Covington author Rene King Thompson about heroine Maxi Moilin. Thompson’s artist in the Ms. Molecule series is Sandy Carruthers, the first illustrator of the Men in Black comic book series.
Ms. Molecule’s promotional blurb states that “in order to save her life, Maxi Moilin must be reduced to microscopic size…but will that make her face even greater dangers?” Wow!!
Briefly, Ms. Molecule is an adventure series about Maxi Moilin, a former gymnast who suffered a rare and inoperable cancer that confined her to a wheelchair. In an effort to save her life, Maxi volunteered for specialized medical research conducted by Dr. Eden Spaulding. Maxi received an experimental drug, designed to shrink the cancer.
All seemed fine until she underwent an MRI which caused an abnormality in the experimental medicine which shrank Maxi. In her molecular state, Maxi Moilin enters bodies to fight disease and frequently finds the evidence of crime.
The first 20 episodes of the series explain Maxi’s circumstances and define her team: Dr. Spaulding runs the medical/microbiological operation and Oliver, a super engineer on the team, is to Maxi what Q is to James Bond: the person who creates the technology and gizmos which complement the needs of Maxi’s superheroine status.
Incidentally, Maxi has the ability to revert to human form for short periods of time. A unique twist that I am sure will find favor in future episodes.
Ms. Molecule is a truly fun read. In the 20 episodes I studied, Maxi fought heart disease, saved the life of an eventual Kentucky Derby Winner, and uncovered a molecular enemy who enters the human body to do pure evil. I suspect there will be more on this molecular bad guy and his origins in future episodes.
Ms. Molecule is Thompson’s brainchild and through her comic-book historian husband, Steven Thompson, she met media entrepreneur Mort Todd. Todd, best known as editor-in-chief of Cracked Magazine, owns Comicfix, an organization that, according to Comics Creator News, “develops licensed properties for publishing, film, TV, and animation.”
You can learn more about Ms. Molecule at www.morttodd.com, where he offers PIX-C, “a phenomenally fun weekly-comics-website started in early 2015 that presents the work of some of the world’s most incredibly talented writers and artists.” For a nominal fee, you can become a member. Each week offers a dozen or more new page postings, serializing comics with a variety of genres ranging from horror and humor to heroes and romance!
If you are interested in getting a hard copy of Ms. Molecule, which is a sub-section of the Unusual Suspense comic book series, you can do so here.
I enjoyed reading Ms. Molecule. It brought back good and wholesome memories.
Donald Then, a novelist and experienced editor and journalist, is NKyTribune’s literary editor. He will review books written by local authors or those with a Northern Kentucky setting. Reach him at author@djamesthen.com. Visit his web site at www.djamesthen.com. You can also follow Don on Twitter: Novelguy@DJamesThen.
The Pix-C webcomics are the highlight of my week. Everything that Charlton Neo has put out so far has been far more entertaining than anything the “Big Two” have been shovelling the last few years.