Antarctic Press 2019
By Alex Kosakowski
In a hidden faerie kingdom, Cookie, a young misfit elf, is facing big worries for a wee folk: He just wants to eat his favourite food—cookies from the human world—in peace, but other critters are stealing them, after HE stole them fair and square! And now this lost human child and her dog have stumbled into his life, sparking an unexpected journey for them both!
I loved this book! There is something about it that just captures your imagination and makes you smile and giggle while reading it. This feels familiar and yet there's nothing here that you can compare it to and that's such an amazing thing to see, read and feel. Right now I would place this at an all-ages book because it this wondrous innocent feel to it and what we see in the faerie world isn't scary or creepy it just paints them in a different light. So you could completely share this with whomever is in your household regardless of age or gender.
The way that this is being told is sensational. The opening is great in that it piques your curiosity and makes you want to continue to see what's going to happen. The story & plot development along with the character development are intricately tied together and the way that the pacing of the story moves everything forward is a joy to see. We don't learn her name, this human girl, as there is no one present to actually speak it. In this odd way that is kind of charming as we can get caught up in what is happening to her so that we don't know what to call her isn't an issue.
I love the characterisation here. Cookie, the elf not the dog, is funny and his personality is that of a classic slacker. No ambition aside from travelling to the human world to steal cookies. He has no desire to work and let alone with the elf that he was assigned to help. His ramblings and his demeanour are just so amazing to see as they really flesh out his character and personality. Even the inadvertent characterisation that is done on the surrounding critters who also desperately want to steal cookies from Cookie are done in this utterly charming way. The way that we are introduced to the characters is incredibly nice to see.
The interior artwork here is stupendous. The linework is utterly gorgeous and how he is able to manipulate and utilise the varying weights to bring us this quality and level of attention to detail. This really should be in black and white and shades of grey as it really makes everything stand out beautifully. The creativity and imagination that is on display here rocks my world as does the way we see the composition in the panels in how foregrounds and backgrounds are utilised. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling. Just the look of the elves here makes me laugh and smile.
This is how you start off a new series. Even if this is nothing more than a few issue arc at a time it something that screams out for your attention. The story is too cute for words and the characters are well thought out and fleshed out and the interiors are absolutely stunning. This is some of the most charming storytelling through and through that I have seen in comics.