Fraggle Rock #1 (of 3)
Various
I was never a huge fan of Fraggle Rock growing up. I would catch it on TV here and there, but I never made a point to watch it, so I can't speak for the hardcore fans of the show here. But as a comic, this worked really well. Overall, this is a great package, in the same square format as Archaia's Mouse Guard series, another all-ages book. The stories are very lively and engaging, and quite colorful, which is very important in a book like this. I don't think it would be half as appealing without all of the different colored fraggles bouncing around. Overall, I think the creators did a great job of getting the Fraggle Rock vibe across in this debut issue. The first story, from Heather White, Jeff Stokely and Lizzy John, is "A Throne of my Own" and perfectly introduces (and reintroduces) the world to readers. Over the twenty beautiful pages, we get to know the fraggles' world, including "The Beast" in "Outer Space" (a dog outside of the rock they live in), the wise Trash Heap that gives them advice, and most importantly, the five main fraggles of the series, filling in their personalities with the adventure they go through and the dialogue between them. The characters look very faithful to the muppets from the show in all of the stories, but nonesomuch as in this first story. The second story in the book, "Time Flies" by Katie Cook, is the weakest of the bunch, five pages surrounding a watch that the hairy bear-human that lives outside drops into their well, and the activities they invent around it. The final story is "Red's Big Idea" from the talented artist of books like Sulk, Clumsy and Incredible Change-Bots, Jeffrey Brown, with colors by Michael DiMotta. This is just four pages, has a good dose of irony in it, and is just fun, with the most interesting art of the bunch. Brown also did another cover for the book featuring Travelling Matt in a comic book store, which is appropriate. Overall, a very successful launch for Jim Henson's products being adapted by Archaia (The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth comics are on the way). I love the anthology format and it's charming, good clean fun.
I was never a huge fan of Fraggle Rock growing up. I would catch it on TV here and there, but I never made a point to watch it, so I can't speak for the hardcore fans of the show here. But as a comic, this worked really well. Overall, this is a great package, in the same square format as Archaia's Mouse Guard series, another all-ages book. The stories are very lively and engaging, and quite colorful, which is very important in a book like this. I don't think it would be half as appealing without all of the different colored fraggles bouncing around. Overall, I think the creators did a great job of getting the Fraggle Rock vibe across in this debut issue. The first story, from Heather White, Jeff Stokely and Lizzy John, is "A Throne of my Own" and perfectly introduces (and reintroduces) the world to readers. Over the twenty beautiful pages, we get to know the fraggles' world, including "The Beast" in "Outer Space" (a dog outside of the rock they live in), the wise Trash Heap that gives them advice, and most importantly, the five main fraggles of the series, filling in their personalities with the adventure they go through and the dialogue between them. The characters look very faithful to the muppets from the show in all of the stories, but nonesomuch as in this first story. The second story in the book, "Time Flies" by Katie Cook, is the weakest of the bunch, five pages surrounding a watch that the hairy bear-human that lives outside drops into their well, and the activities they invent around it. The final story is "Red's Big Idea" from the talented artist of books like Sulk, Clumsy and Incredible Change-Bots, Jeffrey Brown, with colors by Michael DiMotta. This is just four pages, has a good dose of irony in it, and is just fun, with the most interesting art of the bunch. Brown also did another cover for the book featuring Travelling Matt in a comic book store, which is appropriate. Overall, a very successful launch for Jim Henson's products being adapted by Archaia (The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth comics are on the way). I love the anthology format and it's charming, good clean fun.
Comments