Given how busy @blewitt is playing with all of his new dolls, and how long it's been since I last did a comic post, I figured this was the ideal time to confess my sin and admit that yes, I do in fact own a copy of the Gen13 Bikini Pin-Up Special.
This comic is exactly what it purports to be: a small sixteen-page gallery of artwork dedicated to the Gen13 gang in various beachwear. Joe Chiodo provides the cover artwork of Fairchild oozing charm and duck-lipped innocence while casually losing one of her straps. I've no idea who all the spike-haired gremlins in the background are supposed to be -- probably thinly-veiled references to all the leering horndogs who bought this one "just to complete my collection, you understand". They could have just printed the background area with a mirror-like chromium finish and obtained results more personalized to the buyer, but this was 1997 and the entire industry was in full belly-flop mode.
Hence why you see books like this, since you can always count on teenage males to cough up the cash for dat booty.
Exhibit A, Your Honor:
Believe it or not, that's entirely in keeping with the character, as she frequently goes skinny-dipping in the pool.
Because of course she does.
With a name like "Bikini Pin-Up Special" you're probably thinking, "Well, there are two guys on the team, but I'm sure they get ignored in favor of the ladies."
Let me assure you: you are entirely correct. While Grunge and Burnout occasionally appear as secondary characters, the focus here is clearly the ladies. This right here is about as risque as it gets on the guy side of things:
In fact, poor Burnout only shows up on two pages, and one of those features only the back of his head. Why all the hate for Bobby, guys? I mean, aside from the fact that his Gen-Factor power involves encasing himself in burning plasma which would not react well with water?
Never mind, just answered my own question.
But hey, here's Fairchild giving him a cheeky little pinch, because that's absolutely in character for-- no, I'm kidding, it isn't at all. Sorry.
Usually in my comic posts I like to give a little history or backstory on what the comic is, where it came from, and how it related to what was going on in the world at the time.
This is not one of those times. Obviously this (like every "Swimsuit Edition" of anything ever) was a cash grab for Wildstorm, but for the life of me I cannot dig up anything on this book's history. It has no cover price, which makes me think it was either a promotional book you had to special-order from Wildstorm, or else it was a pack-in included with some other book or magazine. The latter is more likely, since Wildstorm did this with other promotional items too, including the Gen13 Preview which came packed in the polybag with your purchase of the October 1997 issue of Stormwatch #1.
So honestly that's about all there is to say about this. Obviously Gen13 completionist nerds like me will want this for their library, but if that's not you, then you probably already hit first the downvote and then the back buttons.
Unless you're a fan of the artists who contributed to this book (especially Adam Hughes and Jeff Campbell, who each did multiple pages), there's no real reason to seek it out. There's no storyline or anything, just sixteen pages of teenagers in beachwear.
That won't stop @blewitt from stocking it in his store like some kind of pervert, so if that's your thing, hit him up. It'll give him something to do besides mess with his Barbie collection.