3 stars
Whenever I dive into an Over the Garden Wall, I’m prepared for the strange and unexpected (as much as one can be when venturing into the Unknown). It’s part of what I love about the show and have loved about this graphic novel series. However, this one went in an entirely different direction.
The first half, “Hunt for Hero Frog”, continues the quest from the first volume with Greg and Wirt looking for Hero Frog and ending up in mischief along the way. Danielle Burgos and Kiernan Sjursen-Lien did a good job of capturing the essence of the characters and I really enjoyed the split perspective with Greg telling his bright and colorful version then Wirt giving his much darker and spookier one. The story was entertaining and the whole thing felt on brand for the series.
The second half takes place at Miss Langtree’s school and gives more detail on some of the animal students there. This is where the volume kind of fell apart for me. The illustration style and coloring are very different from the show and it really took me out of the world. The storytelling was more simplistic and not quite up to par with the Over the Garden Wall universe in my opinion.
While I enjoyed the message presented in “Pooree the Elephant” about the environment adapting to make room for everyone’s unique needs and accepting others, I wasn’t very invested in the unknown characters and the story was just okay. “The Raft” was fine but the story didn’t really seem to go anywhere. Again, I wasn’t invested in the characters and the art style just really threw me.
So while I did enjoy the first half, the second half really pulled the book down for me. I think the series can be successful in following side characters (like the Woodcutter’s daughter in volume 1), but this one was just too different from the storytelling and art style that we all know and love. The second half may have been fine in a different context but it just wasn’t satisfying in this volume.
Still a good volume and I liked continuing Greg and Wirt’s adventures in the first half. I’ll definitely still continue the series to see what happens next with them but this one has made me a bit wary about the tales included in the second half of each volume.