Random Comics Theatre
This is the second of two issues of this Matt Feazell series published by Steeldragon Press in 1988. The feature had run in the back of most issues of Steeldragon's CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY series from 1986 to 1988, and this series reprints the stories from the early issues and other sources, plus some original material by Feazell, some of it Ant Boy and some not. There are still a few backups from later issues of CC that have never been reprinted, as far as I know.
Feazell is a prominent mini-comics artist, as prominent as you can be in that field, mostly published by his own Not Available Comics, often featuring his signature character Cynicalman and drawn in stick figures. These stories are more elaborately drawn than most of his work.
As you'd guess from the title, Ant Boy is the star of the show and is a human boy raised by ants who learns English from comic books and becomes the defender of his colony*.
(*see "The Origin Of Ant Boy", ANT BOY #1)
Two of the Ant Boy stories in here are reprints. One features Ant Boy accidentally digging into a teenager's basement and discovering rock music, and the other has Ant Boy in pitched battle with the fabled enemy of all ants, the Lawnmower (see cover).
There are also two new Ant Boy adventures, the epic romance "Ant Boy In Love" (pencilled by Dave Patterson) and "Ant Boy Meets Plainman", where he fights against a tractor. Which is kind of anti-climactic after the big Lawnmower battle. There are also a number of unrelated short comics, the most entertaining of which is "At The Mall", a one-page autobiographical story about Feazell giving his mini-comics marketing spiel at a mall signing.
An entertaining comic overall. Feazell is still at the mini-comics game, you can see his most recent work at http://www.mattfeazell.net/CYNICALMAN/.
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