Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett shares some new favorite things from July.
 
I admittedly have had a busy last couple of weeks, what with the big move followed by my car getting towed (with the keys to my new apartment locked in it) followed by oral surgery.  As previously established, I am not what you'd call "lucky" in the conventional sense of the word.  So I believe it is understandable if I have recently developed a case of tunnel vision, focusing like a laser on only what’s immediately in front of me, which is why 4th of July came as something of a surprise this year.  And when someone online kindly offered me good wishes on my birthday this month I was honestly surprised I was having one.  No, scratch that, my actual, immediate reaction was, "Geez, that's all I need."
 
So I've kind of completely blanked on Comic-Con this year, which isn't easy, what with Variety and The Hollywood Reporter in apparent competition to become Tiger Beat for nerds.  Just Google either publication + Comic-Con and you’ll find breathless reporting on the latest scheduling developments for Hall H ("San Diego Comic-Con TV Schedule: Will Your Favorite Shows Be There?") or a thoughtful assessment of the downside of announcement fatigue ("Why Comic-Con Needs To Embrace The Unexpected").
 
And I honestly couldn't understand why I was seeing Christmas movies on both the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel while scrolling through the cable schedule.  I thought I must be hallucinating until I stopped by Kroger's the next day and saw Salvation Army kettles and bell ringers.  And I finally made the connection: Christmas In July, they're still desperately trying to make that a "thing."  I think one Christmas is plenty, but that's just me.
 
But I'll take presents where I can get them, and this July we’re being given quite a number of them, like:
 
Evidence that it really is finally a small world.*  After all, Hulu is streaming episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal immediately after they premiere on Japanese television (see "'Sailor Moon Crystal' Anime on Hulu").  This is a show clearly not intended for my demographic so my opinions about it shouldn’t carry that much weight, but I will say that it looks and moves just fine.  It's subtitled in English but for those who like their anime dubbed, like me, an English version is in the works and will be included in the DVD/Blu-ray release of the first half of season one set for November 11th.
 
And Netflix has launched its first original anime series, Knights of Sidonia, streaming all 12 episodes of season one all at once, you know, the way they do.  It's based on the best-selling manga series by Tsutomu Nihei and while admittedly a pretty standard mobile battle suit space/soap opera it's definitely very stylish.  Along with rocking top-notch character and mecha designs, it also has a fairly original backstory and some unconventional characters.
 
Having never gone to Epcot, or any of the Disney parks for that matter, I honestly had zero idea just how big a deal the characters Figment and The Dreamfinder, stars of the 11-minute Journey into Imagination ride and The Imagination! Pavilion, were.  But a friend who has gone there repeatedly assures me this is in fact the case and the reaction of the Internet to the first two issues of Figment, Marvel's second Disney Kingdoms comic, seems to back him up.  Disney has definitely been featuring the comic on their various Facebook feeds as well as the Disney Parks Blog and they even inserted an ad into the latest issue of the D23 official fan club magazine.  But even I, someone with zero knowledge of the characters, really enjoyed Jim Zub and Filipe Andrade's comic book version; it's lively fun, a perfect example of a comic that can be read and enjoyed by literally anyone.
 
I have repeatedly written about my affection for both British comics and British artist Jamie Smart (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Taking the Comics to Them").  I first discovered his work on the deeply twisted Slave Labor Graphics title Bear, which at Dark Star Books was second only to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac amongst the Emo/Goth kids who frequented the store.  Now he's doing all-ages strips for the UK weekly The Phoenix and has just launched a comic of his own, Moose Kid Comics.  It's a free 36-page digital kid-friendly comic featuring the work of more than 40 creators including Roger Langridge, Neill Cameron, and Alan Martin and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, who are contributing a fully sanctioned "Young Tank Girl" strip.  Smart wants to help launch new comic characters whose copyrights are held by their artists that can help bring kids to comics but can still be enjoyed by adults.  I believe he's done just that.  This is definitely the one comic this week that you can't buy that you should definitely read--and share with the kids in your life.
 
And, finally, speaking of digital comics, the one digital comic I'm really looking forward to this week is Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga.  Each week there will be a new chapter, 15 to 32 pages long, each for only .99 cents, in a story that runs a 1000+ pages which pits Batman and Robin against Lord Death Man.  Yes, please.
 
* It's not anime so is unlikely to be of much interest to this body but in the spirit of "you never know" I have further evidence of this strange, new immediate world we live in.  Starting July 14th Hulu will air episodes of the Australian soap opera Neighbours Monday through Friday only four weeks after they first air in Australia.  I'm already watching the long running UK soap Coronation St. via Hulu instant streaming and have every expectation of giving this series a try.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.