Adventure Time #25, cover art by Matt Cummings
What a cool way to celebrate Big Issue 25, with this extra-special (well, they’re all special, but still) story by Ryan North, illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, Jess Fink, Jeffrey Brown, Jim Rugg, Shelli Pavoline, and Braden Lamb. If this can count as extra-special maybe it’s because of all those dinosaurs. North gets to play with one of his favorite things and just runs with it. He made his name in comics with his webcomic about dinosaurs, “Dinosaur Party,” or something like that, maybe, “Dinosaur Newshour,”, no…”Dinosaur Comics.” That’s it! Cool and simple. You can read it here. Anyhow, what better way to mark that special twenty-fifth issue landmark than with dinosaurs, time-honored, and easily ridiculed creatures that they are.
Now, Ryan North realizes that he’s writing for a varied audience: everything from actual children to kids-at-heart, all mostly hip to the latest in technology and snark. He can pretty much write whatever he feels like, within reason, of course. He doesn’t want to offend or hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s where the built-in expectations of Adventure Time rule the day. As a reader, you go in ready to experience the same sort of quirky humor and exuberance of the animated series. Since he has an audience of fairly sophisticated readers, he could add subtext, metatext, hypertext, the potential is endless! Or he could just stick with dinosaurs. In this case, he goes for a stream-of-consciousness series of stories that build on the dinosaur opener and follow a couple of little gems that result from a volcanic eruption.
Adventure Time #25, illustration by Jess Fink
All the artists illustrating each story are up to the task. Dustin Nguyen appears to have fun with the dinos. Jess Fink provides lovable characterization of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen that is spot on. Jeffrey Brown gets an appropriately neurotic passage. Jim Rugg does a great job with all the action and conflict. And Shelli Pavoline and Braden Lamb provide a sweet epilogue. And, as usual, you have all those amazing Adventure Time covers. The above cover art is by Matt Cummings. All in all, a perfect roll through what Adventure Time is all about.
“Adventure Time #25” is published by Boom Studios! and available as of February 19. Visit our friends at Boom! Studios here.
