As revealed in the latest batch of BOOM! solicits, Chris Hastings (Doctor McNinja) and Zachary Sterling (the “Adventure Time” graphic novels) will be taking over for the celebrated team of Ryan North, Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb in what is easily the most difficult creative team’s run to follow on perhaps any book ever.
Had we paid more close attention to solicits we probably would’ve seen this coming. In fact, a month ago this post probably just would’ve been various gifs of people crying, like this perennial Community favorite, or this one from the cancelled-far-too-quickly Happy Endings. But we missed it, and so we’ll spare you too many more gifs. (OK, have one more from an appropriate source material). But as long as we’re here and talking about it, it should be said that the North/Paroline/Lamb run made for a wonderful and celebrated time in comics, one that frequently earned perfect ratings on this site or other accolades that we distributed merrily and frequently. In a world that longs for great all ages books, they knocked it out of the park.
Hastings and Sterling have massive boots to fill on this one, and we wish them the best of luck when the new team kicks off their run in January. It’ll be an uphill battle for sure, but with past related work under each of their belts it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. The entire Adventure Time property has allowed for wonderful little minis, one-shots and more divergent and tangential spins on the basic formula of a boy and his dog in a post-apocalyptic world (not of the Harlan Ellison variety), so with so much of Ooo left to be explored and so many possibilities available, Hastings and Sterling are sure to have fun on the series.
I for one will miss North, Paroline and Lamb as I quietly re-read their entire run front to back during my vigil for it come December, but in the meantime we’ll look forward to what Hastings and Sterling bring to the table as well.
Here’s the solicit:
ADVENTURE TIME #36
Retail Price: $3.99
Author: Chris Hastings
Artist: Zachary Sterling
Cover Artists: A: Justin Hillgrove B: Ale Giorini (Subscription Cover) C: Rebekka Dunlap INCENTIVE
It’s the first Adventure Time starring its new creative team! With indie all-star Chris Hastings writing and the amazingly talented Zachary Sterling on art, these mathematical adventures are only going to get more algebraic!
And here’s the solicit for issue #35, the last of the North/Paroline/Lamb team on the book:
ADVENTURE TIME #35
Retail Price: $3.99
Author: Ryan North
Artists: Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb
Cover Artists: A: Shanti Rittgers B: Mychal Amann (Subscription Cover) C: Jimmy Giegerich – INCENTIVE
It’s the end of an era…the last ADVENTURE TIME issue featuring the Eisner Award-winning team of Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb. It’s your chance to say goodbye, and experience an adventure you’ll never forget.
(In hindsight, yes it does seem very silly that we missed the solicit.)
