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Review: Adventure Time Annual #1

By | May 31st, 2013
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Comics can be fun! Kaboom’s brilliant “Adventure Time” ongoing series gets its first annual issue, featuring anthology style short stories from some of comics’ great talents. Come on, grab your friends!

Written by Roger Langridge, Alex Cox, Bryce Carlson, Josh Williamson, Derek Fridolfs, Kory Bing, and Sfé Monster.
Illustrated by Roger Langridge, Alex Cox Dustin Nguyen, Jason Ho, Derek Fridolfs, Kory Bing and Sfé Monster

THE FUN WILL NEVER END IN THIS SPECIAL EXPANDED ADVENTURE TIME ANNUAL! Featuring some of the hottest talent in comics today putting their creative spin on the land of Ooo! A great tool for bringing readers into the series and an awesome book for die-hard ADVENTURE TIME FANS! Featuring stories from Roger Langridge, Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen and others!

Like most good anthologies, “Adventure Time Annual” #1 brings together a diverse group of creators, with various levels of name recognition, to wreak creative havok on a specific concept. Seeing the land of Ooo and its inhabitants through so many lenses calls attention to the various themes and concepts that has made the show such a trans-demographic success.

The party kicks off with ‘A, You’re Adventurous,’ a spectacular short written and drawn by all-ages extraordinaire Roger Langridge. Langridge takes a typical adventure through Ooo and turns it on its head, using a poetic, alphabetic acrostic that begs to be sung in Finn’s trademark auto-tuned croon. Langridge’s pencils are simple and clean, almost comic-strip like, and his bright and vibrant colors perfectly capture the look of the television show. It’s a simple tale with a simple hook, combining to equal something greater than the sum of it’s parts, equalling what is arguably the best short in the annual (Mathematical!)

Next up is ‘A Sword Most Awesome,’a story written and illustrated by Alex Cox, in which Finn delves into a board game-like cave to claim the titular weapon. Cox depicts Finn’s quest through the snaking path in beautiful, moody water colors. In just a handful of pages, Finn is faced with the choice of infinite power or true friendship, a predicament he overcomes in a typical Adventure Time fashion.

‘No Dogs Allowed,’ a story written by Bryce Carlson with art by Dustin Nguyen, captures the distilled insanity of Adventure Time in just two pages. Jiggety Jake and Funk Master Finn are ready to rock this psychadelic party like egyptian royalty, and aren’t about to let archaic notions of species segregation bring them down. With lyrical jams like “No sniffin’ hams, better wash your hands,” even the man gets in on the fun. Nguyen applies the water color style used in his “Lil’ Gotham” series to eye-popping effect, bringing the party to life on the page.

‘Dungeons and Deserts,’ written by Josh Williamson and illustrated by Jason Ho, sees a major role reversal, as the villainous Ice King appears as an awesomely muscled hero. Together with his penguin pals, Ice King attempts to wrest the Ice Sword from the clutches of the sinister “Finn the Fearful and Jake the Dragon.” Williamson’s plays it safe with a well worn comic trope, and the result doesn’t quite match up with the creativity of the issues other shorts. Ho’s art closely mimics the show’s style, perhaps adding to the general feeling of familiarity.

Similarity to the book’s source material isn’t a detriment, however, for Derek Fridolfs’ ‘The Summiteers.’ Clocking it at eight pages, this is the longest story featured, as comes the closest to matching the amount of content in a typical episode of Adventure Time. In fact, Fridolfs’ tale, including anthropomorphic backpacks, ski ninjas, surf samurais, and yeti congressmen, and the Stick-of-Forgetfullness (Forget-Me-Now anyone?!) fits in perfectly with the surreal and outlandish tone of the show. This story features the strongest characterization of Finn and Jake, as well as the best interactions between the duo, making this story a close second to Langridge’s opener.

Wrapping everything up is an almost entirely Finn and Jake-less tale from Kory Bing and Sfé Monster. This bizarre, and oddly morbid, short follows a day at the Lemonsea, where two denizens of Lemongrab have a citrus fueled picnic on the beach. The duo makes use of the indigenous wildlife in a frighteningly escalating manner, culminating in the dismemberment of an adorable little lemon fish. The horror of it all would almost be too much, but, you know, lemonade. “The Lemonsea” captures the show’s ability toe the line of absurdity and land on the side of genius, and stands out as perhaps the issue’s most memorable story.

With six strong stories, none of which are lacking in creativity, “Adventure Time Annual” #1 is a rousing success. Along with the 30 pages of story, the issue offers a small pinup gallery, with art by some of the featured artist. The issue may feel a little light for the $4.99 price tag, but ask yourself this; what is the worth of a rare, ear to ear smile?

Final Verdict: 8.6 – Buy


Zach Wilkerson

Zach Wilkerson, part of the DC3 trinity, still writes about comics sometimes. He would probably rather be reading manga or thinking about Kingdom Hearts. For more on those things, follow him on Twitter @TheWilkofZ

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