Anyone who follows “Comics Should Be Cheap!” every week already knows I’m a huge fan of Kaboom!’s “Adventure Time” comic, based on the hit Cartoon Network show created by Pendleton Ward. The comic version is written by Ryan North, with art usually done by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb (with talented up-and-comer Mike Holmes filling in on issue #5 and the FCBD issue), and skillfully lettered by Steve Wands. I frequently refer to it as “the best all-ages comic on the stands,” and I stand by that statement despite my love for books like “Mouse Guard” and “Atomic Robo.” Every time a new issue comes out, it makes my CSBC list and jumps to the top of my stack of books to read–a pretty big deal for me, since I pull a dozen or more books a week and am usually at least two weeks behind in actually reading them. Currently, my “To Read” pile is fifteen inches tall, and very few books manage to jump straight to the top as soon as they come out. In fact, it’s pretty much just “Saga” and “Adventure Time,” since “Usagi Yojimbo” is on hiatus. But at $3.99 for an all-ages licensed book, it’s a hard sell to most mainstream comics fans.
So what is it that makes “Adventure Time” so good?
First, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the show or the comic, “Adventure Time” is the story of Finn the Human and his best friend, Jake the Dog. While Finn is a normal human boy, Jake is a magical dog with the power to change himself in to any size and shape at will. Heavily influenced by Dungeons & Dragons (the logo is itself a tribute to the D&D logo), the two of them are constantly seeking out adventures and helping their friends and neighbors living in the magical, post-apocalyptic land of Ooo, where candy, breakfast foods, and other normally inanimate objects live and thrive.
Their friends include Princess Bubblegum, the humanoid-shaped bubblegum princess of the Candy Kingdom; Marceline the Vampire Queen, undead metal guitarist with a craving for the color red and only known survivor of the nuclear apocalypse; BMO, the living video game console; Lumpy Space Princess, floating diva from Lumpy Space; and their sometimes-adversary, sometimes-ally the Ice King, who wants to marry a princess (any princess!) and has a hard time learning that kidnapping them is the wrong way to go about achieving that goal.
The comic begins with an old adversary, the Lich, escaping from a bag of holding (for those of you who don’t play D&D, it’s a magical bag that’s much larger on the inside than the outside), and using that bag to try to suck up the entire planet as revenge against Finn and Jake for putting him in the bag in the first place. They must team up with all of their friends to have a chance at defeating him, even using all of the abilities at their disposal. Other adventures in the comic so far include meeting their doppleganger, Adventure Tim, learning the dangers of time travel, and learning how to do battle burns to fight their enemies with words.
The biggest reason why “Adventure Time” is worth the $3.99 is that every issue is packed with extras. Each issue includes one or more backup strips written and drawn by an excellent group of cartoonists. The list of contributors so far includes Paul Pope (“Batman: Year 100”), Lucy Knisley (“Stop Paying Attention”), Chris Eliopoulos (“Cow Boy”), Zac Gorman (“Magical Game Time”), Shannon Wheeler (“Too Much Coffee Man”), and Chris Roberson (“iZombie,” Monkeybrain Comics) and his daughter, Georgia. Each issue also has several variant covers drawn by such talents as James Kochalka, Stephanie Buscema, Chris Houghton, Jen Bennett, Kassandra Heller, Emily Carroll, and Pendleton Ward’s mother, Bettie Ward. My favorite bonus feature, however, is that at the bottom of nearly every page is a one-liner or mini-strip related to the events of the page above. The one-liners are written in light blue ink, making them hidden little prizes for the reader to discover. I think I made it six or seven pages into the first issue before I even noticed they were there! Because of all these extras, I think I enjoy the comic even more than the show it’s based on.
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Of course, part of the appeal to the comic comes from the fact that the television version is one of the most popular children’s cartoons on television. It ranks as the #1 show in its time slot for kids up to age 14, and as anyone who’s been to a Comic Con recently can attest, it’s pretty popular with geeks of all ages, too.
Both versions stand out far and above other children’s shows and all-ages comics, not just in the quality of the cartooning and entertaining storylines, but also in the way they tell those stories and how they treat the readers/viewers enjoying them. While “Adventure Time” is clearly geared toward children, it never treats them like they are unintelligent or immature. In fact, the creators treat the reader/viewer with respect, or more accurately, like equals and friends. Those one-liners at the bottom of each page are like secret little asides you’d whisper to a friend in a crowded room–it’s something special just for them.
One of the themes of the franchise is that of acceptance. Finn and Jake come across many different types of creatures and personalities in their travels, and are willing to befriend and help any of them as long as they aren’t malevolent. Even then, as in the case of the Ice King and his tendency to kidnap princesses, they try to show the bad guys the errors of their ways and teach them to be good guys (after some butt-kicking, of course).
The subject matter is generally lighthearted and fun, but they aren’t afraid to tackle adult topics in a way that is both straightforward enough for a child to understand and doesn’t insult their intelligence. As an example, I once found a wonderful post on Tumblr (sadly I couldn’t find it again) deconstructing a scene from an episode of the show and how it teaches young girls how to react appropriately to abusive, controlling relationships–by not accepting or internalizing the abuse and standing up for yourself. This is a franchise that shows us that all of us can be heroes. The way the show treats characters like Princess Bubblegum and Marceline is female empowerment done right–by treating it as normal and appropriate, not a *special thing* or making light of it. They are both fully developed, strong characters, and quite powerful in their own right. Bubblegum is a genius inventor capable of inventing a time machine, and Marceline is a bad-ass vampire queen with powers comparable to Jake’s. They don’t need Finn and Jake’s help because they’re girls, but because everyone needs a hand from someone else from time to time. Indeed, it is quite often the boys who come to them for help.
Those aren’t the only gender stereotypes “Adventure Time” smashes. On the male end of the spectrum, it addresses directly the platonic love between best friends. It emphasizes that it’s okay for two guys to express affection for each other openly, and that doesn’t make them weird or “gay” (not that there’d by anything wrong with that, either). In fact, Finn and Jake’s friendship may just be the best bromance since Rick and Captain Renault in “Casablanca.”
The comic is full of little things like this, but they are never done in a preachy, lecturing manner. In the first issue of the comic, there’s a scene where Jake and Finn pull out anti-mind-control jewelry to protect themselves from the Lich, and casually mention how it’s cool for dudes to wear jewelry, too. And that’s it, just a minor little detail that’s treated like it really is–no big deal. “Adventure Time” teaches by example–Finn and Jake are awesome, and try to be the best people they can be. Sometimes they fail, but they are always willing to admit their mistakes and put in the necessary work to make up for them.
There are a lot more reasons why “Adventure Time” is great. There’s the farcical yet sly humor, the bizarre and inventive ideas involved in the plot, the dozens of Easter eggs littering almost every page, the inventive panel arrangements, Steve Wands’ absolutely fantastic lettering work, the bright yet never garish coloring, the superb design work by Stephanie Gonzaga, and the way every issue showcases a backup artist and their work. Related to that last note, I think it’s absolutely brilliant that the folks at Kaboom! work so hard to include webcomic creators in their lineup of contributors–after all, many webcomics are more popular than even the best-selling monthlies from the Big Two. I could probably write an entire dissertation on “Adventure Time,” but I’m already a few days late with this column and well past the longest word count of any of my other installments of Off the Cape.
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By now, I’m sure I’ve given you enough reasons to want to find out about this comic (and show!) yourself. I highly recommend adding it to your pull list. The comic is totally worth picking up all of the back issues, although several of them have sold out of multiple print runs and might be a bit more difficult to track down. If you want to join in at the beginning of the last story arc, you only have to go back to #6 (#8 came out this week). The December solicitations also include an “Adventure Time Cover Showcase,” so you won’t have to track down all of the variants. As yet, there is no mention of a trade collection, but the series has been such a smash hit that I’m sure one will be on the way soon.
So, I made it to the end of my “Adventure Time” column without a single exclamation of “Mathematical!” or “Algebraic!” It took a lot of willpower to hold back, but the time for the column is over. Wait, what’s that you say? What time is it? It’s… ADVENTURE TIME!
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
