Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Boom Studios: Garfield #1 Review


Garfield was created in 1978 by Jim Davis as a very popular comic strip. I grew up to watching the Garfield cartoon and remembering how lazy, sarcastic, and how much he loved food. I remember loving to draw him at school during art time. Garfield was one of those characters that people could enjoy at all ages. Boom! Studios is a company that has helped to keep our childhood memories alive by creating new stories of some of our favorites, including the Peanuts, and now Garfield! 


Garfield #1 will be in stores tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9th. We have had the opportunity to read it and we loved it! I love the covers who happened to be drawn by Gary Barker, who also provides the art and it is written by Mark Evanier. The cover above is an amazing cover and Garfield expresses himself very well to some very familiar characters in the comic universe. 


A very special variant cover was drawn by Garfield's creator, Jim Davis. 

The comic has two stories, Collectors Classic and Big Mouse Meal. Garfield fans should be very pleased in the first issue of how well it was written and drawn. It took me way back in remembering how fun Garfield was growing up and still is today. 


The first page of Collectors Classic was terrific in setting the tone for Garfield's big introduction back into comics. What more can comic fans ask for than to have a super-hero, Ultra-Powerful Guy (Garfield) vs. the villain, Lasagnanator. We get that great familiar humor from the one line from Garfield, "I know! I read the captions!". 
 As most villains want to do, the Lasagnanator has a plan to destroy the planet, but what better way than to have taken all of the Lasagna and filled it with radioactive Ricotta?


 Of course, our hero has a plan and only Garfield knows what to do, but to eat his favorite dish Lasagna and he is willing to eat it all to save the planet! Unfortunately, Garfield will soon realize he is only dreaming of being the ever popular comic book character, Ultra-Powerful Guy.
Garfield will soon be upset at Nermal for waking him from his near adventure of saving the planet and kick him out of the house, literally. Nermal happens to be kicked so far and lands in a trash can, but to find something very valuable and very rare, Ultra-Powerful Guy #1 and it happens to be a very good, original copy from 1939. Jon, Garfield, Nermal, and Odie will soon find out how valuable the comic is worth and take it to the local comic shop. The comic is so valuable and rare that it would need to be graded and looked at by the gallery. 

The story provides some very true to life humor in the comic world where the book must be graded and Slabbed, where no hands and eyes would never be able to read it again to preserve its value. This makes me think of what goes on today in the comic world, where people can not appreciate their comics because they want to keep them protected and never get to read them. We even get to see Garfield's comic slabbed and protected! 

The story ends with Garfield wanting the comic to go to its rightful owner and older woman that accidentally throws the comic in the garbage. The older woman is very grateful, but ends up having a bigger plan with the comic to show up at a future Comic Con! 

Big Mouse Meal is he second story in Garfield #1 and it was another great story. We learn how much Garfield loves his food and would never dare to eat a mouse. 

Overall, I loved the first issue of Garfield and Boom! Studios has done it again in bringing back a classic to old and new readers alike. The stories were terrific and I loved the art work that brings Garfield back! It is a comic that is definitely for all ages.


 

 

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