Kiernan Sjursen-Lien

The first half of the book does a good job of capturing the tone and spirit of the original cartoon with half-brothers Greg and Wirt each offering their differing versions of events from the same odd evening.

But then the second half of the book goes off the rails as we are subjected to a story set in the schoolhouse from the "Schooltown Follies" episode. No Greg, no Wirt, no frog or Beatrice even. Instead, we are introduced to Pooree the Elephant, the clumsy new transfer student. Horribly show more drawn, horribly written, and, worst of all, horribly colored in a manner that completely clashes with the palette of the series. What were the editors thinking? show less

I love the Over the Garden Wall universe and its characters so much. It's like coming home, and it's like sipping hot tea on a chilly autumn night. These characters and this humor has become so familiar, despite this series and the show not being like seven seasons long. It's just that good.

The search for the Hero Frog ends in this volume. As in the last volume, this story makes up the bulk of the graphic novel (I'm silently cheering), and at the end there's another story from Miss show more Langtree's schoolhouse.

Unlike the earlier volumes, though, the schoolhouse story isn't illustrated by the same artist (thank god!). I don't mean to be unnecessarily cruel, but I think that art style is why I couldn't enjoy the schoolhouse stories as much as I might have, because this story? Adorable! I loved it!

The Hero Frog's story resolves in a satisfying way--and with some precious moments between Sara and Wirt I've been waiting for this entire series! There were only a few jumps between parts that made me confused--as if maybe there were a couple panels skipped or something, but I was able to put things together simply enough.

My only concern is now that the Hero Frog is over, what will volume 5 consist of? show less

Well, the overlong epic concludes and almost makes sense of its many threads. Alas, it was all a dream, but that's at least true to the cartoon source.

As with previous volumes, the art starts fine with Jim Campbell and gets progressively worse as it is handed over to lesser talents. At least they have given the art chores on the useless Miss Langtree school story at the end to someone other than George Mager, so it almost looks like it belongs to the same universe now.

(4.5)

Okay, I know more about what these graphic novels are, so I can enjoy the side stories a lot better now. The main story with Wirt, Greg, and Sara (and of course, Jason Funderburker the Frog) searching for the Hero Frog is just one of the stories meant to be a part of the graphic novel collection. The series is meant to delve deeper into the Unknown, exploring other stories in addition, including the schoolhouse and other stories.

So, okay. I need to swallow my disappointment whenever show more things depart from the Hero Frog story. It's not departing from a main story; it's just exploring another aspect. At least, that's just how I need to think about it, haha.

In this volume, most of the story is filled with the search for the Hero Frog, and I was so delighted with the story! The humor and charm is so similar to the show, and the art styles are adorable. Not to mention we have more SARA. I'm probably going to reread these--especially the parts with Sara. I just love her.

The last story is another schoolhouse story: the smallest cat daughter, Kitty, doesn't fit in with her family. She doesn't like to hunt prey or cook mice. She'd rather read books. So she makes the decision to go to Miss Langtree's boarding school. Only her parents don't expect to miss her so much!

It's a cute story, but that art style still hurts my eyes ... those colors are nearly all bright primaries, and I think the art style is just not for me. I feel bad, but I'm just not a fan.

The bulk of the novel, though? I adore it. show less