Futurama Comics

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Futurama Comics

The front cover of issue #1
Pages 27
Story Multiple
Ink Multiple
First publication 2002-11-22

Futurama Comics is a comic book series published by Bongo Comics and based on the television series Futurama. It has been published bi-monthly in the United States since November 2000 (apart from a brief break for the crossover) until 2003 and is now quarterly. It has been published in the United Kingdom and Australia (with an altered order) since 2002 and three trade paperbacks have been released. During the production hiatus between 2003 and 2006 it was the only new Futurama material being made.

Contents

[edit] Premise

In the year 3000, the crew of the Planet Express delivery company make cargo shipments to unusual planets, as well as having adventures back on Earth. The characters are Philip J. Fry, a man from the 20th century who was cryonically frozen for 1,000 years, cyclops ship captain Turanga Leela, and alcoholic robot Bender. The comic will often make more use of supporting or minor characters than the series, such as Cubert Farnsworth, the Robot Devil and Inez Wong.

[edit] Format

Each issue consists of at least one story of around 27 pages (occasionally brief stories also appear), and a letters and fanart page. There are also full-page mock advertisements marketing futuristic products (such as Brain Slugs), which parody the kinds of coupon offers found in other comic books.
Special editions of some issues are published on occasion; a variant of the first issue available only at Comic Con 2000 featured a golden background, rather than red.

In a similar vein to the parent series, each issue features a humorous caption on the cover (for example, "Made In The USA! (Printed in Canada)"). These captions also vary according to where it is sold. Each issue is a self-contained story which lasts one issue (though the Time Bender Trilogy spanned four issues) and it is printed in the standard 6⅝" x 10¼" size.

[edit] Writing

The first 10 issues, plus "Big Sweep", "Sideshow Fry", "Fry Me to the Moon", "More Than A Filling!" and "Rotten to the Core" were written by Eric Rogers, a writer's assistant on the TV series. Emmy-nominated series writer Patric M. Verrone wrote "The Cure for the Common Clod", "Six Characters in Search of a Story" and "Bender Breaks Out".

[edit] Artwork

The pencils and inks remain largely consistent with the models in the series; new artists are provided with model packages to study before their first issue. Pencilling usually takes an artist about a month to do.[1]

Artists include James Lloyd, John Delaney, Tom King, Pam Cooke and Mike Kazaleh. Apart from "Freaky Fry-day", which was a joint effort between Delaney and King, and "Twice Told Tales of Interest" which was a joint effort between Lloyd and Kazaleh, each comic is drawn by one artist.

[edit] Issues

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Issue # Title Plot summary Caption Release date
1 Monkey See, Monkey Doom! While digging a large hole to hide one of Professor Farnsworth's inventions that he's hiding from the police, Fry, Bender and Leela find a time capsule from the 20th century. This capsule has loads of old junk in it, and Fry, seeing this, begins to miss all the things he used to have. While reading an old comic, he finds an ad for some sea monkeys, and purchases some from an old store that sells 20th century stuff. Unfortunately, the sea monkeys don't impress his friends as much as he wanted them to; at least not until they come into contact with the professor's gamma radiation, and begin to grow, and grow, and grow! FEISTY FIRST ISSUE! 2000-11-22
2 ...But Deliver Us To Evil! Planet Express wins an award; Most Efficient Delivery Company on Weekends and Holidays. Soon after, some aliens named Lucy and Ricky hire the crew to take a package somewhere for them and insist on coming with them on the delivery to see what makes Planet Express so great. But soon the crew are attacked by space pirates, and then they discover that the two visitors aren't all they make themselves out to be. SLIMY SECOND ISSUE! 2001-01-24
3 The Owner of Mars Attacks! The gang head to a flea market where Leela discovers some collectible creatures called 'Needy Newbies' that she finds really cute. Inez Wong apparently also collects them, and she treats Leela to one, as well as inviting her to a weekly collectors meeting at her place. She and Zoidberg both go, but when a selfish Inez doesn't let her or anybody else talk about their collections because she only brags about hers, Leela swears that she will stop Inez from getting the whole collection. The race to get the last two Newbies begins. NEW VERSION 3.0! 2001-03-28
4 DOOP The Right Thing! Captain Zapp Brannigan of the D.O.O.P. is lost on the jungles of a planet known as Da Nang 4, whose natives are at war with the Democratic Order of Planets. A message to Kif from Zapp reveals he has been made the king of a native tribe and he requests that a one-eyed queen be sent to him, specifically Leela. Leela reluctantly goes to Da Nang 4 and while she and Kif go to find Zapp, Bender and Fry look for some booze on the planet BLOATED WITH COMEDY (in Alien Language 1) 2001-05-23
5 Who's Dying to be a Gazillonaire? Seems like the Professor owes the IRS a million dollars, and Fry sees the only way of getting the money is to go on the deadliest game show on Earth: Morbo's Who's Dying to Be a Gazillionaire. This game show has one major difference over the one that it's parodying: If you go for $1,000,000 plus, and get the answer wrong, you die! PRESENTED IN 2-D! NO GLASSES NEEDED! (UNLESS YOU NEED GLASSES) 2001-07-25
6 Xmas Time is Fear The plot premise involves an alliance between three of the galaxy's most evil villains: The Robot Devil, Santa Claus and Richard Nixon's Head. Basically, the Robot Devil tries to get Bender (amongst other robots) to gather everybody of New New York into Times Square, with the message that Robot Santa has been reprogrammed to be nice. However, the real fact is that Santa hasn't changed at all, and is preparing to slaughter everybody there. To discover the motives for Beelzebot and Nixon, you'll have to read it. PRINTED IN MINT CONDITION! 2001-10-24
7 New Year's Rockin' Evil # It's New Year's Eve 3001. After a cameo from Nick Clark (the great, great, great, etc grandson of Dick Clark's Head.) there is a power outage, thanks to the Professor's New Year's ball that takes up too much power. To pass the time, the crew decide to look at the What-If? Machine, although only one question is asked this time... with Bender posing what would happen if he travelled back to 1999. And in a parody of The Terminator, we discover that on the night Fry is to be frozen, someone from the future has gone back to stop the event from ever happening... NO ANIMATED CHARACTERS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS COMIC BOOK! 2002-01-23
8 Planet X-Press Men In this parody of The X-Men, Professor F (Farnsworth) and his school of mutant rejects are visited by a strange robot named Benderine (Bender) and decide to take him into their team, despite some objections from Uniclops (Leela) because he has been created by Momento (yeah, you guessed it... Mom.) The rest of the crew are parodies on some of the major X-Men characters, these being Wonder Boy (Fry), Rouge (Amy), The Weather Mon (Hermes), and Lobstrocity (Zoidberg). A NEW HIGH IN LOWBROW ENTERTAINMENT! 2002-03-27
9 Freaky Fry-Day Great Nephew Day has arrived, and Fry gets the Professor a present in the form of a glowing green rock that is legally distinct from Kryptonite on by the fact that it's not called by the same name. Also, its effects on Superman are unknown. Its effects on Fry and the Professor, if they both wear it simultaneously around their necks, is that once they both sleep, they will awaken with the other's body. The only thing is, the Professor wants to keep it a secret for a while so that he can use Fry's body to be young again, while Fry is just presumed to be the Professor acting insane and he's taken away. MADE IN THE U.S.A.! (PRINTED IN CANADA) 2002-05-22
10 The Big Sweep After an ash-fall on NNYC, which is rather like a snowfall but with meteor ash instead of being fallen precipitation from clouds as frozen ice crystals, Scruffy discovers some smooth white rocks and decides to teach Fry, Bender and Leela the sport of "swurling" where upon you move a rock into a bullseye on ice. Yes, somehow falling ash automatically freezes the water too, but anyway... Scruffy discovers the three are all naturals. But he's not the only one, and a washed-up swurling coach named Vic Lebruteski decides to take the whole crew under his wing for the next Olympics. Leela doesn't quite trust him though. HOW'S MY DRIVING? CALL 1-800-555-MATT! 2002-11-27
11 The Cure For the Common Clod Fry gets the old 20th Century disease of influenza, otherwise known as the common cold. Unfortunately, it isn't quite as common as it once was. After being put into Bubble Boy style containment, it turns out Leela, Hermes and Amy have picked it up too. But it effects the populace of the 31st Century a lot differently, making them all revert to primal tendencies. The Professor, Bender and Zoidberg, whom are all immune to the effects of it, race around trying to get the others contained before more get infected. THE MOST INFLUENAL COMIC OF ALL TIME! 2003-01-23
12 Sideshow Fry The crew go to see a circus, and while waiting for the show to start come across a freak show. Fry here reveals that he's got an "outie" as they call it, which is basically that his belly button sticks out. Apparently this trait was considered to be, as Leela puts it, "The O.J. Simpson of body parts" in their time. Fry is spotted by the circus' freak-show runner and he and the ring master capture fry as one of their own freaks, where upon he finds life isn't so bad and falls in love with a bearded woman. Meanwhile, Bender plots revenge on cannon-shooter extraordinaire The Unhuman Cannonball, aka a robot named Dewey whom Bender knew during his brief stint as a military cook. Jealous that Dewey took over his job unfairly, Bender seeks his justice by replacing him for the circus' main event. LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FRY 2003-03-26
13 The Bender You Say Bender's luck at cooking isn't going too well, especially after the health inspector drops by. Bender looks for another job, an it just so happens that The Robot Devil is willing to make Bender his cook. Unfortunately, it seems that Bender's cooking kills ol' Beelzebot, so Bender steps into his place. And, uh... yeah. Hilarity ensues. STICK A FORK IN IT...IT'S FUN! 2003-03-28
14 Six Characters In Search Of A Story Bongo Comics proudly presents the first comic in history that can be read seven different ways. Six characters unleash a handful of Professor Farnsworth's better to be forgotten inventions on the third planet from the Sun for a sequential tour de force that you'll never forget. MEAT-BAG TESTED, BENDER APPROVED! 2003-07-23
15 Fry Me to the Moon ry's dreams come true when he is offered the chance of a lifetime -- to play the part of his childhood comic book hero Space Boy in a big budget, special effects filled, motion picture extravaganza! But the life of a Hollywood star and superhero is not all its cracked up to be, and nothing can prepare him for the movie's surprise twist ending! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT ANIMATED! 2003-10-08
16 Kickin' It Old School When Professor Farnsworth's clone Cubert shows a slight dip in his studies and a decrease in his IQ, he is sent across the galaxy in search of a school that will save his brain from atrophying. But Cubert's not the only one sent off to boarding school. Fry, Leela, and Bender find themselves trapped in the Blackboard Jungle as well. Join us for the prologue to "The Time Bender Trilogy" - a special Futurama story arc - in four parts! NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S FUTURAMA! 2004-02-04
17 The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 1 Fry, Leela, Bender, and Cubert return to Earth from last issue's outer space adventure at boarding school only to find the planet Earth complete uninhabited. But before they can figure out where everyone has gone, they are forced to defend the planet from alien invaders who try to claim it under Intergalactic Planetary Salvage Laws. 4 OUT OF 5 ALIENS RECOMMEND... 2004-05-26
18 The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 2 After defending their recently uninhabited world from alien invaders, Fry, Leela, and Bender set out to discover the whereabouts of their missing colleagues as well as billions of citizens from Planet Earth. But "where are they?" soon turns into "when are they?" and "how" and "why" also make a little appearance in Part 2 of "Time Bender Trilogy." NOMINATED FOR 12 GLORVNAXX AWARDS! 2004-07-28
19 The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 3 Fry is caught in the midst of an interplanetary war, Leela has angered the gods in Ancient Greece, Bender is on trial in Salem, Mass., and the Planet Express crew along with Earth’s entire population have been transported back to the Age of Dinosaurs. Will the world ever get back to normal, or is everyone totally boned? Find out in the exciting, time-bending conclusion of Bongo’s biggest and best ever "thrill"-ogy! MORE FUN THAN A BARREL OF BRAIN SLUGS! 2004-09-29
20 Bender Breaks Out Never before in the history of comics has there been an issue quite like this one! Bender, feeling under-appreciated, goes off on a mind-bending, time-twisting, space continuum-shattering odyssey that will take him across the galaxy and through the offices of Bongo Comics in a mad, mad, mad, mad chase. Only you, dear reader, will be able to bring him back when "Bender Breaks Out!" BIG ZOIDBERG BENDER ISSUE 2005-06-08
21 More Than a Filling Fry goes to the dentist for the first time in years and there are strange signals coming from his mouth. Nobody knows where they are from until Planet Express learned they were from an alien race, and everything goes okay until Fry grinds his teeth in his sleep. Presented in BENDER-VISION 2005-10-12
22 A Fit Worse Than Death Bender becomes the 31st century’s newest diet guru, and before long President Nixon appoints him czar of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. But too much power in the wrong robots hands is a dangerous thing, and the physically tired and huddled masses of New New York City are soon yearning to be free of Bender’s tyrannical exercise regiment. No caption 2005-11-23
23 The A-Team A space anomaly and some reckless piloting by Bender bring about the reappearance of one of Planet Express’ earliest crew - once presumed dead. But when the old crew turns out to be far superior to the current crew, one of them has to go! However, the now stellar and once interstellarly lost crew may not be all they seem to be... HEY MEATBAG! BUY THIS COMIC OR BACK OFF! 2006-02-02
24 Twice Told Tales of Interest As in the tradition of Futurama’s annual "Anthology of Interest" episodes, Bongo Comics presents an issue of inquisitive inquiries and questionable queries that will boggle the mind when Professor Farnsworth’s What If Machine reveals the alternate pasts, presents, and futures of the Planet Express crew. Witness the Santa Robot’s reign of terror when we dare answer the question "What if it was X-mas every day?" Then Fry poses the question, "What if my life was more like a sit-com?" No caption 2006-03-22
25 Robot Robin Hood Gather ‘round and hear tell of the three "deliverers" who fell from the sky, and liberated the good and filthy people of Bottingham... and of the metal rebel who threw off the chains of oppression and over taxation and without faint heart challenged the dastardly sheriff the one who robbed from the rich, gave some to the poor, and kept most of it for himself Robot Hood! Hear ye! Hear ye! NOW WITH MORE FUTURE, LESS RAMA! 2006-05-24
26 A Whole Lotta Leela After a freak accident with Bender's Time Rifle, Leela is blown to past, present, and future bits, dividing her into her toddler, teen, and elderly selves. Anyway you look at it, there's a whole lotta Leela going on. THE #1 SELLING COMIC OF 3006 2006-07-26
27 Rotten to the Core When the Earth is wrecked by weather anomalies that threaten to destroy the entire planet, the Planet Express crew must travel to the inner core to find out what or who has caused the world to fall off of its orbit... KEEP ON TREKKIN'! 2006-10-05
28 Let's Twist Again After making a delivery to the offices of one of Fry and Bender's favorite TV shows, The Scary Door, the Planet Express crew find themselves transported to a parallel dimension of sight and sound, talking dolls, and roadside diners and dates with Death and a lot of ironic plot twists! Will they ever escape? Ironically, not until they make plans to stay! PLEASE READ RESPONSIBLY! 2006-11-23
29 Downsized! Fry, Leela, and Bender are downsized in order to make an annual delivery of glass cleaner to a bottle city, but they soon find themselves trapped in a world on the brink of devastation, proving the old adage, 'Those who live in glass houses, shouldn't launch nuclear attacks'. APPLY DIRECTLY WHERE IT HURTS! 2007-01-27
30 Fry and the Double-Bag Must-Have Item One of the benefits of living 1,000 years into the future is that all your worthless junk can suddenly become very valuable. Fry starts his own Internet auction business, but is some evil bidder doing the evil bidding of an evil biddy? GET YOUR 30TH CENTURY FIX! 2007-03-28

[edit] Upcoming issues

Issue # Title Plot summary Caption Release date
31 Unknown Leela takes Nibbler to the veterinarian and gets some shocking news. Her cute little Nibblonian has worms! Worms that cause wormholes. Nibbler's disgusting ability to open portals to new worlds at the drop of a, well, you know, is at first considered a blessing, until the two-way wormholes put the DOOP in deep doo-doo! Unknown 2007-05-30
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Specials

Main articles: Futurama/Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis and Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Crisis II

In 2002 it was announced that a special two-part crossover with the characters of Simpsons Comics would be printed. The mini-series was written by Ian Boothby and pencilled by James Lloyd. It was followed by another special in 2005.

[edit] Futurama/Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis

Issue # Title Plot summary Release date Cover arts
1 Somewhere Over The Brain-Bow! They said it couldn’t be done! But Bongo didn’t listen to the nay-sayers, refuse-niks, and non-believers. So here it is, folks! The story that you’ve been waiting for... a story so big it can only be told in a special two-part mini-series! What would happen if the Planet Express crew met the Simpsons… and how is it even possible? Take one millennial edition of a Bongo comic, add in two Brain Spawns, mix in one 20th century man plucked out of time who’s destined to save the universe, and stir it up with an interstellar three-eyed creature with a huge appetite... and anything is possible! 2002-08-21
2 Liquid Diamond Is Forever When we last saw our fearless Planet Express crew, they were trapped in a Simpsons comic book for all eternity by the evil Brain Spawn! Professor Farnworth had been committed! Fry was trapped at Springfield Elementary School! And Nibbler, the only one holding together the delicate fabric of reality together, was having his brain lactified! Is all lost? Is there any future drama for the Futurama crew? Are they finally, truly and totally boned? Find out for yourself in the senses shattering finale of the epic we could only call... Chapter Two! 2003-01-28

[edit] Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Crisis II

Issue # Title Plot summary Release date
1 Slaves of New New York! The long-awaited sequel to the Futurama/Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis is here at last! With the brittle fabric between reality and fiction stretched beyond its limits, the entire citizenry of Springfield finds itself trapped in New New York a thousand years in the future. Once there, the advanced 31st century populace, which has overcome war, famine, and cured the common cold, does what any technologically and morally evolved culture would do - make the citizens of Springfield into slaves! 2005-01-26
2 The Read Menace! After all of the residents of Springfield are enslaved in 31st century New New York City, the Simpsons and the Planet Express crew must work together to restore order, find a peaceful resolution, and repair the huge gaping vortex in the side of the New New York Public Library that has unleashed every character from the world of literature on an unsuspecting populace. Prepare yourself for..."The Read Menace"! Read it and weep with laughter. 2005-03-23

[edit] Variations

Titan Magazines began printing Futurama Comics in the United Kingdom in 2002, with the first issue going on sale on October 3rd.[2] The UK version is a larger A4 size and there is a sidebar on the front cover previewing what is inside. The same content is featured in these issues as in the United States, but there are also competitions and more "fan art". The order of release is altered from the original line-up; the crossovers were published as part of the main series, pushing some issues back. Issue 9 was published as issue 6 to coincide with the release of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Captions are also changed as well, with the aforementioned issue changed to "Rise of the Machines!" and issue 3 reading "New Version 5.0!" on account of it being printed two issues later.

Until issue 14, the comics were published bi-monthly. From issue 14 onwards they were published monthly and, to avoid catching up with the US issues (which were by now quarterly), the issues were then split in two, though "Bender Breaks Out" was published as a full issue.
Special promotional editions are also published; a miniature edition of "DOOP the Right Thing" was included with an issue of the UK Simpsons Comics.

The comic began publishing in Australia in 2002 and follows the same release pattern as the US. However, until issue 16, they were published quarterly, going bi-monthly in late 2005. There are variations in the captions used; "A Fit Worse Than Death" was originally printed without one, with the Australian publishers adding "Medicine In The 31st Century".

[edit] Trade paperbacks

  • Futurama-O-Rama Collects issues #1-4
  • Futurama Adventures Collects issues #5-9
  • Futurama: The Time Bender Trilogy Collects issues #16-19
  • Simpsons/Futurama Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis Collects both crossovers as well as Simpsons Comics #87 (seen in the first crossover) and a special 10-page "Chilli Chilli Bang Bang" (seen in the second crossover)

[edit] References

  1. ^ John Delaney interview at A Big Piece of Garbage. Retrieved on 2007-03-04
  2. ^ Press release (2002-09-25) Do you want Fry with that? Titan Publishing. Retrieved from gotfuturama on 2007-03-04

[edit] External links

 v • d • e Futurama
Media
Episodes • Comic books • Video game • Bender's Big Score
Characters
Fry • Leela • Bender • Professor Farnsworth • Doctor Zoidberg • Hermes • Amy
Zapp Brannigan • Kif Kroker • Nibbler • Cubert • Calculon • Mom
Recurring human characters • Recurring robot characters • Recurring alien characters • Secondary characters
Universe
Planets: Amphibios 9 • Eternium • Omicron Persei VIII
Alien races: Cygnoid • Decapodian • Neptunian • Omicronian
Politics and religion: Earth Government • Robotology • D.O.O.P.
Technology: Gadgets • Suicide booth • Planet Express Ship • Nimbus
Other: Timeline • Blernsball • All My Circuits • The Scary Door • Slurm • Products • Locations • Animals
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