Club House at Lion Forge 2018
Story by Art Baltazar, Franco & Chris Giarrusso
Illustrated & Lettered by Chris Giarusso
Coloured by Stephen Mayer
Backup story by Art Baltazar & Franco
Encounter, Kayla, and Barko are enjoying a nice day of fishing down at the boardwalk, where their only care in the world is choosing between ice cream and barbecue. When suddenly—shark attack! And this is no ordinary great white, it's Cold Blaze the Thermodynamic Shark, and he's after the pods! How can our heroes fend off a flying, talking shark that's half-frozen and half on fire? They'll have to find a way to mix him up—hot side cold, cold side hot!
When I was little I had a Curious George stuffed animal, I still have it by the way, I loved reading his adventures and learning at the same time. Now you are wondering why I brought that up well the answer is quite simple really this series reminds me of the PBS cartoon of Curious George that ran for 9 seasons. Once I saw the first page and they were fishing at the pier I don’t know what clicked inside my brain but I’ll tell ya I immediately thought of the Curious George cartoon. By the way that I think this puts these gentlemen in elite company because there really isn’t anything better when dealing with an all-ages book with that comparison.
While none of the gentlemen mentioned up top are strangers to the all-ages genre means that what they bring to the table is darn well impeccable work. The humour, the fun and the lessons that are woven throughout this book are perfectly placed and the structure and pacing mean that even shorter attention spans will have no trouble reading this story. With a back included, which coincidentally ties into the main one, kids in particular will be grinning, laughing and without even realising it they’ll be learning as well.
I don’t see how Kayla isn’t aware that Mr. Cerentuno is Encounter considering he looks like an Italian chef in who happens to have the same green and orange appearance. However that she feigns ignorance or seriously just doesn’t know is cute all as get out. The dynamic that the three of them have and yes I am including Barko is splendidly portrayed. If seen from the viewpoint that Kayla is introducing Mr. Cerentuno to American culture and ways of life and being neighbourly at the same time well it’s compassionate and shows its okay to reach out to someone and help them learn about whatever it is that’s needed help in learning.
Chris’ interiors are completely in tune with everything I have said so far. He can create the cartoon look for the comic page so easily, he make a flying shark made of fire and ice and make him look both friendly and threatening. He does kind of look like some kind of mascot for a hockey team so hot they are on fire flying across the ice and yes I am that corny. The way he’s utilising page layouts and how we see the perspective and angles in the panels shows a superb eye for storytelling. Backgrounds are used judiciously and more often than I’m used to seeing in an all-ages book. The creativity and imagination that we see is so completely delightful.
So the dialogue here is so on point and I love the duality of it, the one for kids versus the same words with different impact for the adults. Then I adored seeing him change into sea life and as so there’s that opportunity once again to learn. With it’s wonderfully written stories and the interiors that go beautifully in sync with them you get a package that is so complete and should be in every home.!