As most of you have heard by now, Adventure Time will be coming to an end in 2018. While that’s not until the far off future where flying cars and steam-powered monsters have taken over our everyday lives, it’s still going to leave a gap in our hearts that no amount of candy can fill. Well, thanks to the creators over at BOOM! Studio, not only are there no plans to end the comic run, but they have added a second Adventure Time series to the growing franchise. Titled Adventure Time Comics (not to be confused with the initial series Adventure Time that is currently on its 60th issue), the work features disconnected short stories focused on various characters in the series. Basically, it’s like those Short Grayble episodes of the show but in comic form. With its mini story accessibility, it’s the perfect comic for those who aren’t caught up on the longer Adventure Time run.
ATC #6 contains four new stories for eager readers starting off with Finn and Jake rescuing a wish-granting beanie from the villainous Ice King. The beanie promises them the most delicious tacos in all of existence, but is there more to his intentions than it appears? Following that is the Princess Megathalon, a story about Ice King putting on a Bachelor-style competition with all the princesses he kidnapped with a twist even he didn’t see coming! In the third tale, titled The Sublet, Finn and Jake attempt to find a new room-mate after Shelby gets accepted to an artist’s residency with mixed results. The finale features the Ice King as he stirs up trouble to get the boys to come over and hang out, but even they aren’t down to chill.
ATC takes a lot of the fun and silly parts of the show and mushes them down into bite-size stories. Contrasting the main Adventure Time comic, this one is a light read that will appeal to fans with short attention spans. That’s not to say that main Adventure Time’s seriousness isn’t something that is unwarranted, the show itself frequently takes some deep turns, but it’s fun to see the lighthearted adventures that the made the show so successful get a turn as well. The characters are captured perfectly, right down to their idiosyncrasies and quirks, making you feel like they stepped out the show itself. Even the side characters, such as the collection of Ice King’s princesses and the odd little candy known as Gerald, have their own personalities which only add to the already lush lore of the world.
The issue is handled by a variety of authors and illustrators, some that happen to be the same person, and some that are team of two that split the duties. Each team/person tackles different stories but still sticks within the perimeters of Adventures Time’s established illustration style: rounded, noodly-armed weirdos. While it’s fun to see the show get turned into a comic, this reviewer feels that by sticking to the tried-and-true art style, ATC visually limits itself to what the Adventure Time main comic is already doing. This series would be even MORE fun (if that’s possible) if the artists got to draw in their individual styles instead. It would be a blast to see Ryan Browne, who wrote and illustrated the first story, draw Finn and Jake in his eye-popping detailed work that made his God Hates Astronauts comic work so well. Or Robert Langridge, who has a more classic, 1920’s newspaper style, give Ice King a jug-blowing donkey look a la early Disney style. ATC has the freedom to explore other illustrated avenues but instead chooses to look like the show, which is cool, I guess, but it has so much more potential.
Either way, Adventure Time Comics is an enjoyable and quick read when you a need a break from the latest doom and gloom of the world or if you got a kid who loves comics. Both are acceptable. On stands now!