The Night Phantom
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2240/npbn8.gif "[avatar]")
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male 
Posts: 1,642
Location: The shadows
Karma: 47 |  | Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Thread Started on Apr 25, 2007, 7:52pm » | |
Tonight I managed to obtain a copy of Owly: Helping Hands, one of the Free Comic Book Day offerings slated for Saturday, May 5. I was also briefly shown the free Amazing Spider-Man: Swing Shift (written by Dan Slott), Astounding Wolf-Man #1 (new Image series from Robert Kirkman—which you can read the first seven pages of right now), and Little Archie: The Legend of the Lost Lagoon, but it looks like I’ll have to wait for Free Comic Book Day to obtain copies of those and any of the other free offerings for this year.
![[image]](http://www.freecomicbookday.com/images/2007-images/fcbd_covers/jpgs/FCBD_07_Top_Shelf.jpg "[image]")
Owly presents the adventures of a cute, almost perfectly round, giant-eyed anthropomorphic owl (never would have guessed the species, eh?) with three graphic novels already under his belt and a fourth, A Time to Be Brave, scheduled for June. In what is becoming an annual tradition, creator Andy Runton has presented an original Owly tale free of charge.
This year’s FCBD outing is a 26-pager in which Owly uses his gardening skills to help his friend Bunny in time of trouble. Grown-ups interested in Owly are likely not to be much concerned with the plot—at least, not at first. For them, Owly’s appeal is in style. The attractive artwork makes it clear: yes, this is a children’s book—indeed, a book for very young children. But like all great children’s literature, Owly’s appeal is much broader than that. Storylines are sometimes surprisingly complex; adults may not come to the comic for the plot, but they may come to appreciate the twists and reversals. Owly’s is au fond an optimistic world, but it’s not a perfect one; rather, it’s one where problems crop up and creative solutions are found. It’s inspirational.
One form of creative problem-solving that is a hallmark of Owly comics is its approach to dialogue. Owly stories are nearly wordless; you will encounter some words (examples in this issue are the “pottin’ soil” label on a sack of dirt, the “rustle rustle rustle” sound effect as someone approaches, and the classic closing “The end!”), but the actual speech and thought balloons depend on no words at all, instead using pictures and some common symbols (“?”, “!”, “=”, etc.) to convey a wide range of information and emotion, aided of course by body language and other elements of the scenes. In a sense, this is comics at their purest. The conventions help make the comics accessible even to readers who don’t quite yet know how to read; for those of us who do, they enhance the wonder that is Runton’s inventiveness.
As you may have guessed, folks, I quite like Owly. Superheroes are my comics bread and butter, but Owly is a wonderful diversion outside the genre and outside the emotional baggage that often accompanies it. It’s quality reading for the young children in your life—with important life lessons for the tots—but you may find it choice reading for your inner child, too.
To learn more about Owly and even read some Owly mini-comics, visit Andy Runton’s official Web site.
| |
|
The Night Phantom
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,642
Location: The shadows
Karma: 47 |  | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #1 on Apr 25, 2007, 7:59pm » | |
P.S. I don’t have quite so much to say about the six-page backup, “Sprout’s Lost Cookie”, which promotes a new graphic novel called Korgi: Book 1, a “woodland fantasy about a young girl Ivy, her korgi Sprout, and their amazing adventures in Korgi Hollow”. Creator Christian Slade’s illustration style is very different from Runton’s—it strikes me as a sort of mix of low-rez photorealism and woodcutting—but it is quite pleasing, too. The story features both Ivy and Sprout, as well as something I am wont to term a “cookie monster” ( ). I enjoyed the story until the last page, which greatly confused me. Having re-viewed several times, I’m thinking it’s not that I missed something. Perhaps my confusion would be dispelled if I read the graphic novel, but I think the story ended on a note that doesn’t bode well. I’ll look for the graphic novel, but I’m a lot less enthused for it now than I was while reading page 5.
| |
|
Bored Yesterday
Avengers Founding Member
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s12/boredyesterday/hulk_avatar.jpg "[avatar]")
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 560
Location: Missouri
Karma: 26 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #2 on Apr 25, 2007, 9:55pm » | |
Wow. I think I like Owly too. I'm gonna have to make it out of the house this next coming up Free Comic Book Day.
| |
|
The Night Phantom
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,642
Location: The shadows
Karma: 47 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #3 on Apr 29, 2007, 9:48am » | |
Bored, if my review ends up introducing even just one person to the joy of Owly—and consequently helps support Owly even just by that much—I consider it time well spent.
| |
|
Nutcase65
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://superherouniverse.com/art/data/545/surf.gif "[avatar]")
YEEEEEEHAAAAAAH!!!!!.
Joined: Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,041
Location: South Cakalaki
Karma: -12 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #4 on Apr 29, 2007, 2:34pm » | |
Wasn't it also you who suggested the mouse book as well?
|
Surf's up, dude |
|
The Night Phantom
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,642
Location: The shadows
Karma: 47 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #5 on Apr 29, 2007, 4:35pm » | |
Quote:| Wasn't it also you who suggested the mouse book as well? |
|
If you mean Mouse Guard, then yes.
| |
|
Nutcase65
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
YEEEEEEHAAAAAAH!!!!!.
Joined: Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,041
Location: South Cakalaki
Karma: -12 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #6 on Apr 30, 2007, 2:24pm » | |
That's the one. Next time I get into town I'm gonna hunt that one up. Might as well see if I can grab Owly as well.
|
Surf's up, dude |
|
The Night Phantom
Honorary Jarvis-Head
member is offline
Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,642
Location: The shadows
Karma: 47 | | Re: Advance review: FREE “Owly” edition!
« Reply #7 on May 1, 2007, 4:42pm » | |
Newsarama has posted a two-part interview with Owly creator Andrew Runton and Korgi creator Christian Slade (both creators are in both parts). There’s some artwork, and the creators discuss their working methods, their influences, the histories of their creations, the wordlessness of their stories, etc.:
| |
|
![[Home]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif "[Home]")
![[Help]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif "[Help]")
![[Search]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif "[Search]")
![[Login]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif "[Login]")
![[Register]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif "[Register]")
![[Search This Thread]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/search2.gif "[Search This Thread]")
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif "[Send Topic To Friend]")
![[Print]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif "[Print]")
Author
Logged