Fraggle Rock #1 –
Archaia / Boom! Studios
Story & Art by Jared Cullum
Letters by Mike Fiorentino
When you think Jim Henson, it’s hard not to think about The Muppets first. If you grew up in the 80s, you know there was so much more to it than that. One of the things I used to love to watch when I was younger was Fraggle Rock. Naturally, when I saw that Boom! Studios was bringing us down to Fraggle Rock in comic book form, I jumped on the opportunity to check it out. Let’s see what this book has in store.
The story centers around Mokey and a problem that she is having. Naturally, her fellow Fraggle friends try to help her, with mixed results. This is a very family friendly story that you could definitely share with your kids. There is a great message during, and at the end, of the story. Unfortunately, that’s all I can say and still avoid spoilers. I will say that this book doesn’t necessarily feel like watching an episode of the tv series. That is not a bad thing, because if I wanted the tv series, I’d just grab my DVDs. This book provides a nice 26+ page story that stands on it’s own.
One of the things I loved that Jared Cullum and company did was, this book is a good starting point. You don’t have to know a whole lot, if anything, about the original series to appreciate this book. Something I REALLY loved was the watercolor art by Cullum. I also love how he used shading, or even lack of color, to depict the mood of his characters in each panel. Story wise, it would have been easy to just make this a fan service book. Instead, this story was full of both fun and emotion, which also provides a teaching moment for younger readers. While this differs from what we have seen on the screen, this is a solid opening for this iteration Fraggle Rock in the comic book world. Now, who’s up for a paint night?
RATING: PULL / BUY