I love a good action movie, but roll my eyes when the bad guys can never seem to hit the side of a bus. I love a good superhero comic but groan when the plots get so twisted and convoluted that they’d make Soap Opera writers blush. I’m constantly on the prowl for exciting stories that can keep my interest while not straining the logic center of my brain. That’s why I loved The Activity.

Reading The Activity #1 is what I imagine an enema feels like. Refreshing. Cleansing. It scrubbed my brain of a legion of lingering memories of over-the-top motives and marble-men protagonists and has me excited to fill that newly freed space with some more Activity action next month.

Edmondson seems to get that the essence of a good story isn’t gratuitous action, but developing a solid plot, populating it with three dimensional characters and then letting them behave as naturally as you can reasonably expect without taking away from the story. Part of his research for this series involved visiting the Pentagon to talk with military officers, and – not being a military guy myself but knowing a lot of them – his visits seem to have been worth the time.

In the first issue of The Activity, we’re introduced to team members of a covert government organization called the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), which does as its name implies: gathers intelligence.  Within the ISA is an unnamed division made up of “problem solvers.” The “first responders among first responders.” The issue does a fine job of building back story, introducing characters, and “even throwing in a mission why not,” as Dr Zoidberg would say. Edmondson manages to do all of this without the issue feeling overwhelming, for which at least some credit has to go to artist Mitch Gerads.

I’m more of a story guy than an art guy, but I of course prefer good art to bad, and I only had to reach the second panel of the first page to realize that Gerads has a hell of a career ahead of him. In a necessarily dialogue heavy issue (as most first issues tend to be), Gerads’ sharp artwork ensured my eyeballs remained solidly on the page, drinking in the art as well as the snappy dialogue.

Give issue #1 of The Activity a try and it’s a very good bet you’ll find yourself hungry for issue #2.

1. Prizes! We’ll have prizes for: a) Best costume; b) Best couples costume; c) Geekiest costume. We will also be choosing 1 random person from the attendees list on Facebook for an additional prize, so be sure to confirm your attendence on the party's Facebook Event Page (To be eligible for a costume prize, you have to participate in the parade itself. To win the Facebook prize you just need to say you're attending on FB and be there to accept)
2. Fun! Have a blast with fellow nerds!
3. Perfect timing! By starting at 5pm we ensure that you can move on to whatever other big parties you’ve got going on later that night.
4. Last chance to say good-bye to the old store. Saturday night is our last night at our current location. When we open up on Sunday it’ll be at our new spot 1 floor up.
5. Last chance to participate in our Moving Day Sale (see below)!