Shelli Paroline

The third collected volume of Adventure Time comics. This one features a short adventure in which the Ice King sticks Finn and Jake into a choose-your-own-adventure story, which was kind of cute and entertainingly meta, and a longer story in which BMO gets a computer virus. That one seemed OK but forgettable for a while, but turned delightful once it started getting the chance to make lots of computer jokes, that being Ryan North completely in his element.

When I finished binge-watching Adventure Time and realized there were a series of comics based on the show, I thought, oh, that might be worth taking a look at at some point. Then I realized they were by Ryan North, and my response immediately transmuted into "shut up and take my money!"

In this first collection, Finn and Jake and friends have to save the world from the Lich, who is sucking everything into a magic bag of holding. I have to say, there are some elements of the plot that... show more Well, I was going to say "that are a bit silly," but silliness is perfectly reasonable for Adventure Time. Silly in ways that didn't quite 100% work for me, maybe. But fortunately that didn't at all stop me from enjoying it! It's funny and fun and it feels right, in ways that had me feeling genuinely nostalgic for the show. Which is kind of weird, maybe, given that I only finished watching it a few weeks ago. You wouldn't think that's enough time to get nostalgic about anything, but here we are. I also like the way it takes advantage of the comics format to add some amusing meta touches that are definitely silly in the right way.

I've already picked up several more of these, and I'm very much looking forward to continuing on with them. Apparently I'm not remotely ready to leave Ooo behind yet, no matter how satisfying a conclusion the final episode was. show less

I enjoyed the quirky tone and wild concept in the first volume, but all the fun disappears once the terrorism and genocide kicks in as the flesh of King Midas is weaponized. It's all dark, bleak, nasty, and yet the characters are still quipping. Things get so far out of control, the ending has to be straight-up deus ex machina and a reboot of the entire universe. Ugh.

Volume 8 of the collected Adventure Time comics. This one starts with a single-issue story in which Lumpy Space Princess is interviewing suspects in an attempt to solve a mystery. This is Ryan North's last installment of the comic, which makes me kind of sad, but it's an absolutely delightful note to go out on.

The main, multi-part story is by Christopher Hastings, and features trips the moon and to the inside of Jake's stomach, a possessed sandwich, a food crisis caused by everyone suddenly show more forgetting how to cook, and a giant eldritch chef monster. Honestly, it's a big, weird, sometimes confusing mess of a story... but I quite enjoyed it, anyway.

Because this is the "mathematical edition," in addition to being a very nice hardback, it contains some brief behind-the-scenes commentary from both writers, providing a glimpse at where their ideas came from. show less