Written by: Brian Hall, Mike Olsen, Justin Hook, and Loren Bouchard
Art by: Frank Forte, Ryan Mattos, Derek Schroeder, Hector Reynoso, and Anthony Aguinaldo
Publisher: Dynamite
I was pretty excited to see that Bob’s Burgers was continuing as a comic considering the fact I thought that other issues were really good. Sadly, this first issue in the new ongoing has almost none of the humor or fun that made the other iterations so good even though it pretty much follows the same formula of giving each of the kids their own story while Bob and Linda have their own pages in between their kids’ stories to help break things up.
Part of the problem is that the stories themselves seem so ordinary. Tina usually has some outrageous stories, my personal favorite being a fun one in which she was a horse, and here her friend fiction is reduced to cloning herself. Fans of the show know that Tina’s friend fiction is usually completely over the top and previous comic issues had no problem with being inventive. To say that Brian Hall dropped the ball with “Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction Presents: Take a Chance on Me(s)” is a huge understatement because he never really had the ball to begin with. It’s a fairly bland and boring short that is instantly forgettable.
Justin Hook gives us the next story which features Louise and this story manages to somehow be even worse than Hall’s. Louise is a character who likes trouble and likes mischief. Previous comic stories had her doing stuff like saving her school from being brainwashed which ended up being her over-thinking common things as a way to make them more interesting (which is also a great way to highlight her younger age and her imagination). Here we get yet another bland story that’s wrapped up so quickly there isn’t even any time to manufacture suspense.
Rounding out this issue is Gene’s story which I personally thought was the best. Mike Olsen gives us a fun little rhyme/song the details Gene’s werewolf like ability to transform into a crooner during a full moon. It’s fairly short but it completely nails Gene’s character and the weird humor that surrounds him. And the decision to turn the story into a rhyme made it even more fun as you could imagine this transformed Gene singing the story as part of his stage act.
The Bob and Linda pages were also a complete bust. With Bob’s we got a little doodle of his dream food truck (and that’s it. it’s just a picture) and with Linda we got a family photo gone wrong (which looks just like the opening of an episode). Both of these fail to really be humorous or even interesting which is a shame. Previous issues have used these to have fun little jokes for fans, such as Burger of the Day ideas or Linda letting us know how many glasses of wine can solve our problems. I can understand the idea of wanting to try something new but neither managed to be good.
The art is the only thing that is still 100% stellar. The colors are still crisp and bright, it still looks remarkably like the show, and everything is still drawn with a load of character. Despite the fact that 3 different artists worked on each of the kids’ stories, the art manages to look cohesive and almost like the same artist is responsible the whole issue. It’s interesting because when you look closely you can see some minor style choices but most people will probably skim through the whole book without even realizing multiple people are responsible.
And oddly, Gene’s story outshines the others even in the art department. Derek Schroeder still gives us a colorful and cartoony world but he also gives us some flatter colors and backgrounds that are reminiscent of older art and advertisements that would’ve been common around the same time that crooning was big and men like Frank Sinatra were all the rage. Schroeder also adds in some rather hilarious details for this werewolf Gene (werecrooner???) like an untied bowtie hanging limply from his color complete with fuzzy chest hair peeking out of his disheveled shirt.
Despite some of these great things though, the issue is ultimately a complete dud. It’s heavily disappointing, especially because most of these same writers were involved with previous issue that were actually really funny. This issue almost feels like it was rushed or that they barely thought about their ideas because everyone’s stories (except for Gene’s) lack any of the character of the characters they involve.
It was also disappointing to see that most cameos by other characters were just there to help roll the stories along and could’ve been replaced by some cardboard cutouts. Combine that with uninteresting stories (Louise’s is so dull that even Louise would be disappointed at her “adventure”) and you have this complete bore of a first issue that’s nothing but a disappointment.
Skip this issue by all means. I consider myself a huge fan of the show and loved previous Bob’s Burgers comics but even I can’t recommend this issue to people. It’s boring, bland, and contains nothing that made me fall in love with the series in the first place.
