Written by: Katie Cook
Art by: Andy Price
Publisher: IDW
After finishing the latest My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode (“Newbie Dash”), I was in some serious need for a good MLP:FiM anything. Ugh this series should be barred from using cringe humor of any kind! It just doesn’t work.
Thank Celestia for Katie Cook and Andy Price, who I think have put out their strongest comic to date. Hasbro, all of your Season 6 sins have been forgiven and then some. Hire these two to work on the show please.
Much like issue 41, 42 is a sort of story about a story. Pinkie Pie is in dire need of a gift, and she knows an old filly’s book that would be the perfect present. The problem is, she can’t find a copy and doesn’t remember how the story goes. Thankfully, Rarity does, and so the two set off to recreate the book together.
What ensues is basically Pinkie Pie dialed up to 100% and then given markers, construction paper, clay, yarn, and everything else you’d find in a Hobby Lobby.
Markers, construction paper, clay, yarn, and everything else is no joke either. Andy Price does something incredible here by incorporating almost every art style under the sun in these few 24 pages, going so far as to introduce real yarn dolls to represent the characters in the story for a few pages. It’s jaw-dropping when you think about how much work that must have been, yet the result is one of pure delight. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much at a MLP comic.
His facial expressions—especially Rarity’s—are also as on-point as ever. God did this comic make me laugh so much.
Katie Cook, meanwhile, nails Pinkie Pie and Rarity. The two feel so alive in this issue, and even with Pinkie Pie at her most Pinkie, Rarity keeps her in check just enough to never get annoying. Each new little explosion of crazy was always met with a smile or a laugh and not a groan, which can be a hard thing to pull off if you’ve followed this series at all. Pinkie Pie is a loose cannon, and not just in the party variety.
As someone who has been reading these MLP:FiM comics for a strangely long time now, this is the best they have to offer. Easily in my top three, if not my all out favorite of them.
Oh, and for the curious, my other two favorite comics are this one (which I regret not giving a perfect score) and this one
