By Matt Vroom (@vroomatt)

IT CAME OUT ON A WEDNESDAY #5, is the fifth installment of a bi-monthly anthology series published by Alterna Comics. This issue features such creators as Ski Suharshi and Bob Berry from the “Legends of Log” series, Troy Vevasis and Aleksandar Jovic from “Mr. Crypt,” and Jeremy Ferretti and SickJoe from “Hellgorythm,” and also features work from the head of Alterna Comics, Peter Simeti.

ICOOAW is a pretty novel concept as it introduces us to up-and-coming creators that are either comic book veterans or new comers. The book itself includes interviews with the various people responsible for the content contained in the issue as well as a look into what comes next.

Alterna Comics present an unique opportunity for independent comic book artists and writers to test the waters with risky ideas that might not see their story in a full feature run with the company. However, it is not unheard of to have a story “graduate” from their limited short story into a miniseries.

The comic has black and white pulp action adventure, as well as colorful stories meant for younger audiences. Although the quality of one story to the next varies, I never felt like a story was just thrown in their to maintain a consistent paper count.

My favorite story in the anthology was “Log and the Savage Girl” by Ski Suharski and Bob Perry. Man a sentient tree trunk and talking bird never looked so good. This inked up gem was really good to look at, though while reading it I felt like I was thrown into the middle of a plot. (I might need to go back to previous issues to see what I might have missed.) The line art was what impressed me the most about this short story. Though it is in black and white, I never needed color to experience the atmosphere and setting of the wilderness full of dinosaurs and awe wielding trees.

Alterna Comics present an unique opportunity for independent comic book artists and writers to test the waters with risky ideas that might not see their story in a full feature run with the company.

My second favorite story was “Hellgorythm” by Jeremy Ferretti and SickJoe. It was very shocking. This was apparently the fourth episode and I must have missed some back story. Yet I felt fully satisfied with the twist within these four issues. Makes me wonder if there is a cap on the price tag of love.

My least favorite stories were the one pagers that seemed to only tease Alterna’s on going series. Not that they were dumb, but only because they were not as fleshed out as I’d like. It is good business sense on Alterna’s part to include the teases to their new and more popular series. Though they were marketed toward a younger audience than I felt the other stories were targeting.

Overall, I’d say that “It Came Out on a Wednesday #5” is more than worth the $1.99 price tag. For the price and quality of these stories, I’d give it 4.5 out of 5 capes.

This issue hits comic book shelves on Wednesday, March 6, 2019.