Cheshire Crossing

When you get famous enough as a writer, the joke goes, you can even get your grocery list published. Or, in this case, a graphic novel of your online fan fiction. And the publisher will even offer to have a high profile artist like Sarah Andersen of Sarah's Scribbles redraw it for you. Fortunately, this book is quite clever and pleasing in its crossover of Dorothy of Oz, Alice of Wonderland, and Wendy of Neverland.

Weir bumps them in age up into their teens, explains their previous adventures as being due to their inherent super powers, and unites them as a sort of Edwardian Age X-Men pitched in battle against Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch. The story is fun and packed with Easter eggs and cameos galore.

Curiously and coincidentally, I show more also have the newest edition of Alan Moore's Lost Girls on my shelf of library books to reread. That should make for an interesting contrast this weekend. show less

I'll be frank -- I found this very disappointing. Andersen's art is nice, but her ability to convey the story with timing, facial expressions and background details is abysmal. So many lines of dialogues and moments that were gloriously funny, cool or emotional in Weir's original, cruder digital drawings back when this was a webcomic, are here forgettable, undersold and/or buried among the panels. Add to that weird choices like never drawing a single pirate except Hook and Smee (though the unedited dialogue from the original webcomic is still here, meaning they're constantly _talking_ as if there is an entire crew of pirates), and the experience is not half what it should have been. Which is a huge shame, because in its original form, show more Weir's "Cheshire Crossing" was a great reading experience. I'd have paid twice what this book cost to have his original with its inferior art yet vastly superior storytelling printed instead. But oh well. The story's still pretty good, and hopefully, this will sell enough that he maybe writes a follow-up some day. Which will be worth reading, even if Andersen continues illustrating. Hopefully she'll have improved the timing choices in the meanwhile. show less

The cursing in this story just made me laugh. Somehow, I felt like it didn’t fit the characters. Normally, Alice would have been annoying, but I liked her as the contrarian. You can tell she was real fed up with her situation. Anyway, this was an interesting idea with a cute art style. Ehh, Peter Pan suddenly growing up with hormonal urges was a little weird/slightly funny, but the conclusion of that with Tinkerbell was sloppy. I guess he’s going to stay a man now.

3.5 stars

This is a graphic novel that crosses the characters from Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz) and Wendy (Peter Pan). It’s 1904. They are now teenagers and have mostly been living in asylums, having dealt with all the things they’ve had to deal with. Now, they are brought together at a boarding school. Alice immediately wants to escape, and she manages to pull Wendy with her into Oz! And they can’t figure out how to get back.

This was enjoyable. I have to admit I don’t know any of these three stories very well, but I don’t think you need to. The girls were tough! I liked that. There were times that there was a quick switch between Oz, Wonderland, and Neverland, so it took a minute to figure out where we show more were, though. show less

What a disappointment. I loved the premise but the execution...I am not sure how to even express how I feel. Disappointed, disgusted, baffled?

So this started as fan-fiction, written before Weir had his major success with [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564._SY75_.jpg|21825181]. After his major success, someone decided this needed to be published.

This is only my second graphic novel. The other being [b:Diary of a Wimpy Kid|389627|Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #1)|Jeff Kinney|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388183826l/389627._SX50_.jpg|2617009] series. Not a good entry point into show more graphic novels.

Wendy Darling from [b:Peter Pan|34268|Peter Pan|J.M. Barrie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337714526l/34268._SX50_.jpg|1358908] Alice from [b:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|6324090|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1)|Lewis Carroll|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391204048l/6324090._SX50_.jpg|55548884] and Dorthy from [b:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|236093|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)|L. Frank Baum|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398003737l/236093._SY75_.jpg|1993810] are teenagers in a boarding school for girls with abilities to travel to other worlds. Their "nanny/tutor" is Mary Poppins. (the published version has changed the name but its clearly Mary Poppins.

The antagonists Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch of the West (who both died in their respective stories) team up against the three girls.

The Bad and The Ugly
The girls are jumping worlds like crazy as well as the villains and it can be difficult to remember who is where.

The story is neither a story for children nor for adults. At times its very elementary, good for children. At other times its has adult language, the worst shown with grawlixes. Peter Pan becomes a man and is extremely horny, strongly flirting with Alice.

None of the characters seem true to themselves, in the story or drawings. The wicked witch is very beautiful. Alice is mean and selfish.

The villains are DEAD! The Wicked Witch of the West reappearance is explained, but not Hooks.

Integrating parts of the original stories seem very contrived.

Black Magic, even on the part of Mary Poppins, is strongly focused on. Very different than the movies or books.

The Good:

The illustrations are very good despite not being true to the characters.

The Premise.

A few parts made me chuckle. show less

Andy Weir, autor de El huevo (léanla, son 5 minutos y es maravillosa), The Martian y Artemis, era un apasionado escritor de fanfic antes de pegar el pelotazo con su primera novela. Pero como dibujante es meh. Así que ha decidido rescatar una de sus historias y contratar a Sarah Andersen (en esta cuenta somos muy fans de Sarah Andersen) para que se la redibuje con el guión original. Si hay una segunda parte (y el libro termina dando pie a una segunda parte), el autor promete que Sarah tendrá también protagonismo en el guión.

Viniendo de estas dos personas, yo ya estaba a favor.
¿Dónde metes a tres niñas que aseguran y mantienen que viajan a otros países y mundos fantásticos tras haber estado desaparecidas durante días? En un show more psiquiátrico. Y allí se encuentran Wendy (la de Peter Pan), Alicia (la del país de las Maravillas) y Dorothy (la de Oz). Por suerte, esta clínica psiquiátrica no es como las demás. La lleva Sir Ernest Rutherford, premio Nobel de Química y científico que cree en lo que las chicas han contado. Y tiene una ayudante muy particular con él para servir de apoyo a las chicas.

Me ha gustado. Es divertida, con sus más y sus menos, es sencilla (tal vez demasiado, ocupa 100 páginas y con 200 habría sido épica), es emocionante por momentos y sobre todo es entretenida. Y de vez en cuando sueltas una risotada. Y creo que si hicieran una peli sería un pelotazo. One more time.

https://amzn.to/31yAbv9 show less

Another riff on Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy. A lot of them have been done. This one is not the best, but far from the worst. I liked The Martian. Andy Weir is a good writer. I don't understand why so many writers want to rework these characters. Are publishers pushing them to do it?

I liked that the girls returned from their adventures in Oz, Neverland, ect. and have apparently told their stories and promptly been institutionalized. That is what we do to people claim to see visions (unless they are preachers). That makes the girls a little edgy and untrusting.

Most of the action is the girls crossing and re-crossing between worlds chasing or being pursued by the denizens of the three fictional universes. I thought that got a little flat show more around the half-way mark and never really improved.

The art is ok, but a little too cartoonish. I didn't like the style.

Overall, three stars (-) and if there were a second volume I probably wouldn't read it. show less