You like fun, right? You like dungeons, right? Well, have I got a book for you.
Written by Colin Bell
Illustrated by Neil SloranceRaised by trolls in the moat of a castle, Fun Mudlifter lives a life of boredom, until one day when adventure finds her and a sword plummets into her village. Setting off to confront the trolls responsible for the falling items that plague her and her neighbours, Fun begins an off-beat odyssey that encompasses jobsworth trolls, three-headed beasts, soothsaying shamans and headless barbarians, as she valiantly battles her way up through the dungeons to her final goal. With hilarious results!
There’s a trend that’s been blowing up the shopping malls lately. (Do the kids still go to shopping malls these days?) It’s called Adventure Time, and it’s awesome. The cartoon features the fantastical and sometimes psychadelic adventures of a boy and his, sort of, dog, I guess. Adventure Time is ostensibly “for” children, but whether it’s due to the sneaky complexity of the visual design and animation or the slew of offbeat alt-celebrity voices that lend their talents to the show, there’s tons of stuff in there for adults too. I bring this cartoon up, because it’s the closest thing I can point to if I’m going to get you to check out “Dungeon Fun” from Dogooder Comics. It’s not an Adventure Time swipe, but it shares a lot of the same sense of spirit.
The heroine at the center can easily be seen as a proxy for any youngster that happens to read this book. Like most heroes in all-ages affairs, she’s easy to identify with and very likable. She’s also pretty grounded in reality, while the world around her is some crazy mashup of Dungeon & Dragons and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Throughout the adventure, she comes across goblins (who work at hilariously dead-end, bureaucratic jobs), a one-eyed shaman that ejects some real heart into the book, and a three-headed beast (seen on the cover), who again reminds one of a Monty Python segment.
So while the pure adventuring spirit of Adventure Time is present, the humor of “Dungeon Fun” really sets it apart and denies comparison. Colin Bell gives every character a “thing” from which to derive a joke. The jokes come so fast that if one doesn’t land, it won’t be long until the next one does. When a bridge troll emphatically states that he has a name and that being a bridge troll is “what I do, not who I am.” you can’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all.
While you might expect the sense of absurd humor and playfulness based on the cover alone, what I did not expect was how much heart this darn thing has in it. Bell and Slorance hit you with comedy, comedy, comedy, and then pause to drop in one of life’s little truisms or affirmation for their characters when you least expect it. These can be sad, or uplifting, but they’re always well done. There are a handful of them over the course of this issue and the effect is never lost.
Neil Slorance’s art style is exactly what you see on the cover. It’s a great style for the tone and scope of this book. I hope it doesn’t come across as a knock on it to say that it’s very simple. It’s simple in the way that Adventure Time is simple. Clean, uncomplicated art, but certainly not lacking. There’s a lot going on on every page, as Slorance dials up all sorts of takes on classic fantasy creatures. The simplicity, in fact, is key to the charm of the book’s humor. A knight in shining armor rattling off a declarative poem that he apparently recites in every confrontation just wouldn’t be as funny without the cartoony earnestness of it all.
The art also sells those little emotional moments. “Dungeon Fun” wouldn’t work if the visual style didn’t inform the tone at every turn. The overall jokiness of the proceedings is kept aloft by the silly visuals, which makes the little emotive beats a little more surprising and a little more bittersweet.
A book like this could very easily go undiscovered, even though it truly shares a lot of the things that people look for in good solid storytelling. There’s something in here for everyone to like and it’s something you can share with the people in your life who don’t mind being silly once in a while. “Dungeon Fun” really is laugh-out loud and relentless about it. As an aside, don’t overlook its surprising moments of pathos and positivity – they make the total package that much stronger.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy, if you like giggling and/or chuckling.
