Love that shakes the earth.
Creative Staff:
Story: Art Baltazar & Franco
Art: Art Baltazar
What They Say:
The Volcano Goddess threatens the Mama Woogees’ tiny island! What can their creation Grimmiss do to stop this terror? Between an eye exam, a tough lesson in love, and stopping the Tiki Monoliths, there are lots of things for a little guy with a skull head to do! Tropical drinks not included.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After enjoying The Mask miniseries that this team worked on that had a lot of fun with the characters and premise, a new series from Art Baltazar and Franco with an original take was definitely up my alley. Though there’s a light touch to their approach overall as there’s not a lot of depth to character or story, there’s a great sense of fun in both the writing and dialogue as well as the artwork that just makes it feel like a treat to read. So many books are simply so serious these days that getting into things that have a sense of fun about it definitely works well and leaves me in a pretty good mood after reading them, which is a big plus. And Grimmiss Island from the Itty Bitty Comics! line definitely is going to be another of those series.
The premise is simple enough as we get an old school island here with some very interesting natives, both human and otherwise, that spend their days there. The initial kick to things is that we get a pair of characters that have put together a concoction to try and please the Volcano Goddess so that she doesn’t destroy the island. For better or worse, the ingredients they put together has created a boney little guy named Grimmis who speaks in Spanish and gets involved in all sorts of things. Grimmiss’ popping out of the cauldron sets the tone well when he thanks the Mama Woogee guys for creating him as he heads off to get what he needs to win over the Volcano Goddess, a being that is displeased with the frozen treat offerings that the natives are giving her these days.
Grimmiss’ time in moving about the island introduces us to several characters, including some talking cactus’ that definitely provide for the grumpy man routine, but also other natives and spiritualists that have a pretty quirky feeling about them. But the real fun comes when Grimmiss and the Goddess end up getting together and his offering of flowers has them spending some really fun off-panel lovey dovey time within the volcano. The visuals we get are great and the overall feeling a lot of fun, especially as Grimmiss warms her heart so much that the island as a whole is heating up and we get to see how the natives react to that while also trying to calm things down a bit so the whole play doesn’t melt. The book hits so many gags and movements across its run in such a short amount of space overall that it’s really impressive because we get so many introductions and settings that it feels far more fleshed out than I would have expected.
In Summary:
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but with the team involved I definitely wanted to check it out because there’s a lot of fun to be had in all ages books if done well. With this series, we get introduced to a pretty expansive area with the island and the people within it and why someone like Grimmiss was created in order to help deal with the problem that the Volcano Goddess can be. There’s a lot of silly humor, great looking designs and a sense of joy about a lot of it that definitely left me grinning throughout. Particularly when Grimmiss and the Goddess are together. The book covers a whole lot of ground here in its opening installment and the combination of the really fun dialogue, the out of place aspects that adds to its overall sense humor and the general premise makes it a really fun piece. Grimmiss is naturally going to steal the show every time he’s on, and rightly so. This should be a pretty fun right.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 11th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
