“Field Tripping” #1 asks what we all want to know: what if the Magic School Bus never came back from an adventure? Warning: spoilers ahead.
Written by James Asmus & Jim FestanteCover by José García
Illustrated by José García
Lettered by Ryan Ferrier What better way to learn about the seasons than travelling to a world that cycles through all of them in ONE DAY? And what better way to learn about the cycle of life than to get attacked by man-eating plants? Actually, there are MUCH better ways. But Mrs. Flubbins’ class are about to learn that the HARD way.
“Field Tripping” #1 is a largely humorous take on transdimensional classroom travel. The book’s concept isn’t necessarily unique, but it’s engaging and amps up the silliness to a fever pitch to sell its dislocation and comedy. Asmus & Festante spend a lot of time crafting a cast with unique personalities and utilize recognizable school kid tropes to set the stage for grimmer action down the line, but “Field Tripping” almost sinks its own ship in the excessive amount of detail crammed into each page.
There’s nothing wrong with creating a frenzied or youthful atmosphere, but hitting that note at the beginning of a book and then trying to take it down at the end into something more serious is a challenge that “Field Tripping” #1 isn’t quite up to. It’s unfortunate, because García is clearly a skilled artist. The character designs and cartooning are excellent, with expressive faces and over-the-top reactions that are designed for, and often elicit, laughter. Each kid has one or two physical details that express their personalities, as is common in animation and comics. When done well, this creates a visual shorthand that’s both charming and relatable, and García’s clearly put in the work to make this happen. However, when it comes to sequential action and building tension, this consistent level of detail becomes a problem when dealing with a large cast and high humor spots.
Asmus and Festante don’t leave much time to take in anything in this book, and García’s pages reflect that: wide POV panels filled to bursting with characters, plants, creatures, action and everything under the sun are overwhelming, and not necessarily in an effective way. García’s backgrounds are incredibly detailed as well, and with very little visual simplicity it’s difficult to know where to focus our attention or get into the flow of the action. Asmus and Festante have too many characters to handle at once for any artist, and a better choice might’ve been to go for a club field trip or a small group instead of a full classroom. Add to that a dialogue-heavy script (a challenge that Ferrier meets pretty well) and you’ve got a recipe for instant overwhelm. Unfortunately, much of the story’s resonance and charm get lost in the shuffle.
The biggest challenge in “Field Tripping,” and perhaps the visual lynchpin, is the color palette. Many of the issues stated above, like the crowding and detail level, could be solved with a brighter or more cheerful color palette. The ashy tones, subtle gradients and diffuse light sources García uses offer very little depth of field on the page. Everything appears as if it’s on the same plane, and the book feels stifled, flat and a little cold. The muted colors don’t make sense in the beginning of the book, either. They’re puzzlingly somber when the plot is fantastical and strange, and this choice drains the wonder out of the visual experience as we have to work to pick out characters among the landscape and follow the story. They do make sense later, when the story becomes dire and the color’s metaphorically gone from the adventure, and thus it’s a dual point of frustration to be met with almost funereal dissonance at the outset and have it match up too late in our struggle to make sense of the book’s plot.
Ferrier chooses borderless balloons and a poppy font that matches the tone of the book, and does well to contain and place what becomes an excessive amount of dialogue given García’s incredibly intricate pages. It’s always easier to critique after the fact, but simplifying the script to rely more heavily on García’s art to deliver the gags would’ve gone a long way to make this book more accessible. Comics are a visual medium primarily, and when you have access to an artist whose expertise lies in animation, cluttering that work with text feels superfluous. Splitting our attention between digging into each panel for perspective and depth and absorbing text is just too much of a lift for a casual reader. Dialing back the dialogue once art was finalized was a significant missed opportunity in this comic.
Melodrama isn’t a no-sell, by any means. “Field Tripping” is aimed at a wide audience and has some interesting action to come, especially now that the kids are older, trapped, battle-weary and have to decide whether or not they’re going to save their dubious mentor. But melodrama also needs a foundation and a rhythm. Emotional and comedic heights are often more effective when tempered with a baseline, and while Asmus and Festante go for a tonal shift later in the book, we’re already overloaded with visual information that feels like it hasn’t been properly sorted or tiered in its scripting and execution. Add in the too-somber colors and “Field Tripping” is a visual experience that’s too much, too fast, despite its intriguing concept.
Final Verdict: 5.5 – “Field Tripping” #1 offers a compelling concept that’s executed with far too much dialogue and intricacy in its art, as well as a bewilderingly muted color palette.
