Written By: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Artist: M.J. Erickson
Lettering By: Mike Florentino
Cover by: Jonathan Case
Published By: BOOM! Studios
This is my first foray into The Thrilling Adventure Hour; I never listened to the podcast or read the Image comics prior to this. That said, I was encouraged to check it out since the art appealed to me and the genre has always been attractive to me. While a bunch of blurbs promise that no previous knowledge has to be possessed in order to enjoy the comic…I still feel as if I was missing a lot.
Frank and Sadie Doyle were well-characterized in this issue; I understood who they were from jump. Their storyline with their friends, The Hendersons, was simple and straightforward, although it ended very abruptly. However, the storyline of the journalist seemed to lead nowhere and the prologue…didn’t relate to anything that I could tell. In this way, I just felt that I was supposed to have had some background in order to put all of the pieces together.
There were many amusing quips throughout the issue, though at times the dialogue was a little much and not very natural. However, I know that this is a parody of the old radio shows, and the dialogue in those was often dramatic and over the top, so this can be overlooked.
The art style was very cool. I liked how the characters were drawn and I appreciate the variety of layouts of the panels. I do have to mention that there seems to be something wrong with Frank’s hand on the front cover: it looks like his thumb is actually another pointer finger! The colors are soft and although they are well done, they aren’t really effective at creating a mood of suspense, which is promised on the first page. However, I like the visuals very much and it seems like the story was supposed to be more comedic than suspenseful anyway.
An enjoyable read, this probably was much more significant to those readers that are already fans of The Thrilling Adventure Hour. However, it’s still a decent first issue and deserve a look through.
Overall: 7/10
Tee LaFrance Todd writes, edits, reads, explores, and creates whenever she can find the time. When she’s not engaged in some form of storytelling, you can find Tee traversing the world with her husband and her dog, making things, reading tarot cards, and generally striving to live a life beyond anything she can imagine.
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