ComiXology Originals 2019
Created & Written by James Asmus & Jim Festante
Created & llustrated by José García
Lettered by Ryan Ferrier
What better way to learn about the seasons than travelling to a world that cycles through all of them in ONE DAY? And what better way to learn about the cycle of life than to get attacked by man-eating plants? Actually, there are MUCH better ways. But Mrs. Flubbins' class are about to learn that the HARD way.
Okay I really have been enjoying these books from ComiXology. This is a really fun story that kind of takes that Magic Bus and adds some Dr. Who to it and maybe a tad bit of Goosebumps just for good measure. Whatever the magic formulae here is it works and it works extremely well. This is imaginative, creative and so very much not whatever it is you're expecting it to be. I really wish this were a physical copy because that's just me plus it would be easier to pass around so I could get the household reading it as well.
I like the way that this book is being told. The story & plot development alongside the character development as they work in perfect harmony with each other is picked up by the pacing to create this stellar ebb & flow is fantastic. From the opening here I really hadn't known what to expect and the fact that we meet Diedre as she's got what look like colourforms on her bedroom window just makes my day. Though to be honest it is kind of hard to figure out what grade they are in here but that's okay.
There are moments though you really have to pay attention to what's being said here. Because I have should have known something was up when one student asked a question and said something about his dad. So yeah you need to really this as well if you wanna catch the clues. Now I have idea who Mrs. Flubbins is but she's an eccentric character to say the least and feels a lot more like a Hufflepuff than a Mrs. Rogers so it almost feels like what she's doing is something that she knows she shouldn't be doing but thinks that she's able to handle whatever may come. Is that the way they say it goes, but let's forget all that, no really famous last words, thoughts or actions anyone?
Ya know I found myself really enjoying the interiors here. There is some superb attention to detail that we see thanks to the varying weights of the linework and how they are being utilised. Also there are some fabulous special effects that we see here as well and it makes this much more fun. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is phenomenal and how it all comes to life with these colours with the hues and tones within each one that we see is just gorgeous. I like how the kids have different body types and ethnicity's. There are times it feels like this animated feature film with a very dark and twisted Willy Wonka feel if they were in Jumanji. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a spectacular eye for storytelling. The backgrounds are vital to the story and they enhance the moments and provide a really nice size and scope to the book.
While the road tripping part of this was a hoot I really hadn't expected this to end the way it did either. So now I have to wonder what is it that we're going to see next? Will we fill in the blanks of the past or just keep moving forward from where this issue ends? I kind of want to see it all play out but then again I can totally understand the last page here, which is a great cliffhanger by the way. Oh by the by seeing that made me start singing Bon Jovi so yeah thanks for that lol.
If you have been undecided about reading books digitally and wanted to dip your toes in, start at ComiXology and try this one or any of their other original titles. I promise it's a great introduction to the digital world.