Boom! Studios
Story By: Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson
Art by: Brooke A. Allen
Review by Jon Lane
If you haven’t had a chance to read anything by Noelle Stevenson, do yourself a favor and check out her webcomic “Nimona”. Nimona is about a young, spry female shape shifter who joins up with an aging supervillain. Hilarity ensues throughout the story as Nimona aids her idol, Balister Blackheart, in his quest for revenge and world domination. It’s free. It’s funny. Check it out.
If you’ve already read Nimona and you really enjoy reading it, you should definitely check out Noelle Stevenson’s latest comic Lumberjanes.
Lumberjanes is a comic centered on five girls and their summer camp shenanigans. On one night after lights out, Mal, Molly, April, Jo, and Ripley go sneaking out of their cabin in search of what they thought was a glowing “bear-woman”, only to suddenly become ambushed by strange three-eyed fox-wolf creatures. After defending themselves from attack, the creatures howl in unison projecting an illuminated message into the night sky with their third eyes. “BEWARE THE KITTEN HOLY.” As the fox-wolves vanish, Mal appropriately responds with “What the junk?” Most people who would witness this would call it a night and never speak of it again, but these girls take the omen to heart and set out to find out exactly what’s going on.
As they head back to camp, hoping not to be noticed by their cranky bunk master, Jen, the very opposite happens and they are then taken to see Rosie, the tattooed camp counselor. Rosie, instead of punishing the girls, dismisses Jen and has the girls tell her all the details of their nighttime excursion. After their story, Rosie has the girls recite the Lumberjane Scout’s pledge and promises them a badge for their efforts in the morning. And that’s just the first issue.
Now, I love it when a comic goes above and beyond just being a comic. Anything that directly involves the reader doing something to or with the comic counts for bonus points in my book. After each issue of Lumberjanes, there’s a playlist of songs in the back that directly influence the issue so you can listen to music while reading the comic. And on the back of each issue, there’s a sash where badges appear according to what the girls encounter in the comic. Clever writing and awesome art mixed with interactivity is something that’s not accomplished by most comics these days (if you don’t count Marvel’s AR app.)
I can’t say enough good things about this comic. The art by Brooke Allen and Maarta Laiho is very colorful and pleasing. It has the same style that comes from Nimona and was probably influenced directly by Stevenson herself. The writing plays on different levels allowing both a younger crowd and the mid 20-30 age group enjoy the comic without one or the other feeling awkward about reading it. All in all, almost anyone can pick it up and read it regardless of age or gender.
Lumberjanes is a part of my monthly subscription for a reason. It reminds me a lot of the Lookouts comic mixed with the animated TV show Gravity Falls, both things I’m a fan of. It’s one of the few comics I look forward to reading and I’m really glad that the response has been overwhelmingly positive to the point where they’ve turned it into an ongoing comic. It definitely deserves that recognition and I only hope that it doesn’t end anytime soon.
