Adventure Time Volumes 1 and 2

Adventure Time Vol. 1

4 out of 5 Covers

Adventure Time Vol. 2

4 out of 5 Covers

Written by Ryan North

Illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Brandon Lamb

For those who don’t know, Adventure Time is an awesome cartoon that follows the adventures of Finn the Human and Jake the shape-shifting dog in the land of Ooo.  It often follows a absurdist fantasy format where the duo help rescue princesses from villains such as the Ice King, but Ooo is a world where literally anything can happen.  This has made for many exciting episodes with a wide range of humor.

The collection of the Adventure Time  comic starts things off with an explanation of how the footage for the opening credits were shot and what exactly everyone is doing in it.  This is a perfect introduction as it establishes the comic book’s connection to the tv show while establishing its own visual vocabulary.

The first volume sees Finn and Jake working to stop the archvillain the Lich from destroying Ooo by sucking it all into a magic bag.  Everybody has to do their part to help out, though the other characters don’t get much time to shine; this is definitely a Finn and Jake story.

The second volume begins with a one off tale of Finn and Jake seeing who can walk in the straight line the longest, leading them to meet Adventure Tim.  It’s a pretty surreal story, and one I really hope the adapt into the cartoon.

The rest of the volume involves time travel shenanigans resulting in a battle with killer robots from the future.  The initial seed of the story appears to be resolving an error from the pilot episode where a sleeping bag disappeared from the background.  But that is exactly what the show would do: tell an epic yarn to resolve one small error, with clearly established rules about time travel.

The creators of the comic clearly love the cartoon show.  Every word and image attests to their care and attention.  The art is clear and the colors are vibrant.  But the storytelling is also somewhat manic.  Finn and Jake in particular seem to be hyperactive, with none of the quieter, reflective moments that provide the tv show with its emotional power.  This is always the challenge of adapting an existing property: without the license to progress the characters, how does one provide empathy?

Adventure Time adapts extremely well to the comic book format.  But without those reflective pauses to contrast the adventure, the result feels like nonstop action with less meaning than should be there.