Funny Pages - Adventure Time

Now consider the armadillo. In the great metaphorical zoo of entertainment, there’s room for a wide variety of animals. For those people who enjoy their comedy to be on the black side or at least more “adult”, look no further than the bat enclosure or the anteater pen (check out that proboscis!). And of course if you’ve brought the kids along, they’ll want to make a beeline to the petting zoo of comedy, or more appropriately for this extended metaphor, they should visit the tortoises (fairly amiable with a tough shell made of innocence and censors).

But for this article, we’ll be focusing on the middle ground, the armadillos of entertainment. Armadillos still have the safety shell, the layer of innocence, but there are chinks in the armour that give us a peek of something deeper. It’s certainly not easy, being an armadillo. They walk a thin tightrope, constantly in danger of teetering towards either immaturity or adulthood. A successful example would be the output of the Pixar studio, films with a strong-enough story to hook adults and children alike, with laughs catering to both camps.

 Let me just say right now, the Adventure Time show and now the tie-in comics are utterly glorious armadillos. Adventure Time follows the 13 year-old hero Finn, his best friend Jake the magical dog, and their many exciting, zany adventures in the fantastical Land Of Ooo. Rescuing princesses, fighting evil monsters, exploring daunting mazes and forgotten caverns, on the surface it appears to be a fun, simple concept, ideal for rowdy youngsters. But look closer, watch with adult eyes, and it becomes clear that there’s a lot of hidden depth, especially emotional depth in the character interactions.

In the comic, writer Ryan North has taken all the very best ideas from the show, mixed them with his own, managed to keep the voices of the familiar characters intact, and continually churns out page after page of pure joy. What I love about North’s writing is that it’s inherently obvious that he is having the time of his life creating these comics, with this creative team. And when he’s having fun, we the readers have fun! Not only that, North uses the comic pages, the medium itself, to its fullest potential. Little jokes and commentary in the margins, playful “extra panel” asides at the bottom of certain pages, the glorious “choose your own adventure” standalone issue and it’s playful experimentation with the fourth wall… put simply, Ryan North’s armadillo does wonderful tricks!

But we mustn’t give Mr North all the glory! The regular artists Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb consistently make every page shine, successfully inhabiting the whimsical yet deceptively detailed design of the Adventure Time world. I love their artistic versatility; able to pull off a subtle style change to reference the much-simpler animated pilot episode during a bout of time travel shenanigans, and the pixel art of a recent video-game-centric issue was a joy to behold. The eye popping colour and silly facial expressions may not be what many “serious” comic readers are used to, but to me it’s like a great big chocolate pudding of fun and I’m one of too few people with a spoon.

Generously, the shorter back-up stories in each comic are often on par with or even surpass the main story, and are provided by a host of diverse creative types who want to get in on a good thing when they see it. Comic book pros such as Paul Pope, Shannon Wheeler, and Chris Houghton have all answered the call, as have the wide network of Ryan North’s webcomic buddies (who all seem to be friends with each other) like Anthony “Nedroid” Clark, Zack “Magical Game Time” Gorman, and Becky “Tiny Kitten Teeth” Dreistadt. The results are breathtakingly different in both art and story, but they all manage to stay true to the ethos of “fun” that this comic emanates like a wonderful odour.

Let me just wrap up by advising you all to pick up this comic. It’s like a tightrope-walking circus-trick-performing armadillo that tastes of chocolate pudding and smells gorgeous. But better.

Todd Marsh has doubts about his own sanity after writing this article.

Funny Pages - Chew

I’m a fan of fun.

Unashamedly, unreservedly. I don’t shy away from humorous books or comics and dismiss it as “kid’s stuff”, I seek out a good chuckle-maker as a rare prize. Sure, darker comics often lead me joyously astray (to the streets of Gotham more often than not), but I always return to fun with a warm handshake and a novelty hand buzzer. After all, it’s relatively easy to play on the fears and personal dramas of a world full of such things (according to the press anyway), but it’s a much harder, more worthy job to seek out the good in life - the things that make you smile or laugh - and try to replicate and supplement them.

In this vein, I find myself starting a new series of articles to celebrate those happy few comics that truly are “comic”. I’ve chosen a short-list of only the best: comic books that have made me personally laugh, out loud, with my actual mouth. It’s a very exclusive club, as anyone who has typed “LOL” whilst wearing a stoic expression would attest. And to allay fears that “funny” doesn’t have to mean “kiddy”, let’s start with the Image Comics series Chew.

Written by John Layman with art by Rob Guillory, Chew appeals directly to the weirder side of my sense of humour. It’s certainly one of the most unique stories I’ve ever come across! Chew deals with a world where a mysterious plague befell the USA only a handful of years before the present day, which the American government blamed on Bird Flu and promptly banned all chickens from the country. So with that fairly believable set-up, you’re already reading a comic book filled with chicken dinner speakeasies, gangsters smuggling poultry, and big businesses experimenting on frogs to get them to taste like chicken! But then it gets weird. The main protagonist, Tony Chu, is a cop who has a very specific superpower: whatever he eats, he gets a psychic impression of the history of that piece of food. He sees the cow being slaughtered for the burger. He watches the apple being sprayed with pesticide. So when the Food and Drug Administration (the most powerful Feds in the country due to the chicken situation) get wind of his powers, he has to start chowing down on dead bodies (and worse!) to solve cases.

It turns out that several characters throughout the story have food-based powers, and it’s delightful how creative these are. John Layman has done the seemingly impossible and thinks up brand new superpowers in a comic book industry awash with superheroes. He continually impresses with the sheer scale of weirdness he lays onto his fast-paced plot, never once allowing it to collapse under the weight of absurdity. Cyborgs, alien plant life, conspiracies, terrorists who look like mime artists, it all just blends together effortlessly to yank up the corners of your mouth and not let go.

Complementing this nicely is Rob Guillory’s gritty, detailed art, which works as the perfect accompaniment to Layman’s narrative. Guillory presents the world of Chew as a grimy, dirty cesspit full of disorder and food crumbs, lifted only by the wonderfully witty sight gags and Easter Eggs that litter each page. Mirroring the story nicely, the art reminds us that this is a grim world that’s stained around the edges, but it helps to laugh at it. A bit of advice though; don’t read these comics whilst eating, or you may lose your appetite. No punches are pulled, no meal left unsavoured! Not to go into too much detail, but a stand out moment for me is when Tony falls in love, and the scene manages to be emotionally touching, hilarious, and truly disgusting at the same time.

Laugh Out Loud Moment: When Tony’s hateful boss dreams of murdering Tony or allowing him to die, then reluctantly remembers how much paperwork that would cause. A close second (not counting the aforementioned love-at-first-sight scene) would be the introduction of Poyo, the uber-deadly, constantly angry, cock fighting Mexican rooster that impressively stacks up his body count whenever the story catches up with him. The famously murderous chickens from the Zelda videogames have nothing on the force of nature that is Poyo. It's little wonder that he once got his own solo one-shot issue!

Todd Marsh is hoping to continue his Digital Canvas articles as soon as the muse allows it.