Proudly touting it’s title of 61st Best Comic of 2013 from Comic Book Resources (because “Best Non-US Comic” was too dull of a fake category), “Dungeon Fun” is back just in time for this week’s Glasgow Comic Con — and for those of you able to go, I am jealous.
Written by Scotland’s own Colin Bell and illustrated by Neil Slorance, the book picks up immediately where the first issue left off, with Fun dealing with the floor being lava while other forces move around behind her and the bureaucracy lives on. Filled with the same penchant for humor and clever witticisms that ran rampant in the charming first issue, “Dungeon Fun Book Two” is a step above its first issue (which, by the way, is now nominated for every major category in the Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards); turns out that Bell and Slorance are just naturally funny and that “Book One” wasn’t some kind of fluke.
Having had an advance look at the issue in its entirety along with the preview we’ll be sharing with you today, though, I do want to at least note that I’m not speaking in hyperbole: “Dungeon Fun Book Two” is really quite great. I know comics in general see a lot of complaints towards the notion that there are no great all-ages comics, and while I’d disagree with that statement I’d at least point to “Dungeon Fun” as proof positive of the fact that there are. Structured in such a fashion to both be infinitely accessible to a younger audience without speaking down to them while also filling the book with jokes that the older generation will get, “Dungeon Fun” actively blends the best of both worlds.
What’s more, though, is that “Dungeon Fun Book Two” does allow the series to somewhat get beyond the trappings that came along with first issues. Sure, you can still see the influences of certain comedy troupes or legendary video games at play, but with new characters and even more ridiculous situations, “Dungeon Fun” excels at really playing with its characters and making that the impetus. Gone is the need to introduce anything because now we pretty much “get it” (Fun is in a dungeon, and oh noes, how will she get out?), so the book can relax and the strengths of the creative team can come out: Slorance’s wonderful cartooning and comedic timing, and Bell’s penchant for whip smart dialogue and “humour” (or, as we call it in America, soccer).
Either way, “Dungeon Fun Book Two” is already one of the funniest books I’ve read this year. I’m sure when we get to Year In Review time come December, my opinion on that will be unchanged.
Take a look at a preview of the issue below:
If you’ve never read “Dungeon Fun” before, take a look at a preview for Book One, a spoiler-free review of the first issue and our interview with Colin Bell about the book in which he definitively answers the question of “why comics?”
And if you’re at Glasgow Comic Con, be sure to stop be DoGooder’s table for this book, the first one, Owen Johnson’s “Reel Love” and more. If you’re in the wrong continent like I am, just wait a bit and I’m sure it’ll pop online so you can pay a million billion quadrillion dollars in import fees (I don’t know how money conversion works!).
Here’s the official description:
Book Two sees our heroes venture deep into the bowels of the dungeon Fun Mudlifter has spent her life on the outskirts of, and what they find there will challenge them to their very limits, or at least for the duration of this issue! Meanwhile, Madame Hel wages a campaign of intimidation against those that dared to complain to the Queen, and will Games ever get to sing his introductory song again? Ogres! Skellingtons! Door-to-door salesmen! Dungeon Fun: Book Two has it all!
