Created by Rob MacKinnon
“It’s a good thing Danger is my middle name.”
Well, they tried. Coming off a successful crowd-sourcing campaign, hopes were high for this rollicking comic book aimed at adventure-loving kids eleven and up.
CARMEN COURAGEOUS was a plucky young (twenty-something?) Seattle-based private eye looking for adventure, and whatever comes her way. Although a paying customer now and then would be good, too, she admits to her cop buddy, J.T., who’s been known to help her out occasionally on her cases.
Unfortunately, the first issue of Carmen Courageous by Scout Comics (under their Scoot! imprint) was also apparently its last. I’m not even sure if it made it into print, or if it was just released digitally.
Regardless, it definitely showed promise, with Carmen landing a gig tracking down a missing business man, only to stumble across a nasty conspiracy that may involve—wait for it!—national security!
But now the world will never know if she escapes the nefarious clutches of possible Russian agent Mr. Risk, his creepy henchmen, and his locked and loaded flying attack drones!
Okay, so Nancy Drew never squared off against drones, but that sorta wish-fulfillment is definitely going on here.  Carmen has her own place, a cute kitty (Pebbles), plenty of cool clothes and computer equipment, and she loves tooling around town on her motorcycle while sporting some seriously fashionable biker gear (and popping the occasional wheelie). It should have appealed to kids (especially girls) of a certain age and temperament, and I can’t see many parents objecting to anything in here.
In fact, the whole thing harkens back to an earlier, more innocent and far less jaded era of comics, when comics weren’t an excuse for whiny cynicism, ponderous angsty pretensions and fan boy wet dreams. Cute-as-a-button Carmen is exactly what she appears to be—a fun-loving kid, more sweet than sour, having the time of her life fighting the good fight—reminiscent, perhaps, of the gleeful, gee whiz! early adventures of Robin, the Boy Wonder,
Whatever happened to him, anyway?
COMICS
- CARMEN COURAGEOUSÂ |Â Kindle/ComiXology it!
(2023, Scout Comics)
1 issue (so far?)
32 pages
Created by Rob MacKinnon
Written by Rob MacKinnon
Art by  Ken Davis and Jao Canola
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
