Adventure Time Comics #19

Writers: Patrick McEown, Marumiya, Nick Cron-DeVico
Artists: Patrick McEown, Marumiya, Alexandra Beguez
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Publisher: Kaboom!

I love the Adventure Time ongoing comic book series and I love comic book anthology series. But there are times when these things are not executed in a way that I feel does a franchise justice and I think that this Adventure Time Comics series has been an example of that. It has been hit and miss in my opinion up until this point and I think that this issue is a miss.

In this issue, we are given three stories, with the first being “The Imposters.” Basically, the premise is that Jake and Finn go into a town known for their sandwiches and realize there are randomly two people impersonating them. The town people run them out, but they come back to help, they save the day, and the imposters are revealed to be bad guys who were trying to escape their chores. This story is a pretty generic one in anthology comics and I have no issue with that at all. I’m a fan of tropes even if they’re overdone, as long as it was enjoyable to sit through the story they used the tropes to tell.

The art in “The Imposters” is strange in a way you’d want Adventure Time comics to be. But the story and dialogue is poorly done and the artwork cannot elevate the story to be a good one. The writer/artist seems to have tried to make Jake and Finn too Jake and Finn and the Land of Ooo too the Land of Ooo. We get it, Adventure Time is weird and funny, but trying too hard to make Adventure Time fit into the weird category feels forced and makes it unfunny.

The second story is about Banana Man, a minor character we meet in the show a few times. We follow Banana Man driving through the desert with his wife, a fish, in a tank next to him while he tries to get her to the next town safely in more water. He then thinks he’s being chased by Death which causes a funny and generic ending interaction. The story is short and amusing with a fun ending, which makes the seven pages pretty enjoyable.

The issue ends with a dialogue-less two pages of side by side accounts of a day in both Finn and Ice Finn’s shoes. The artwork is gorgeous and the side by side is an interesting way to tell the quick story. The artist of this story is someone called Marumiya, who I cannot find anything else on, which is a shame because I would like to see more of their artwork.

Overall, the majority of this issue is given to an uninteresting story which unfortunately makes most of the issue unenjoyable. The last two very short stories aren’t amazing enough to make the issue a great read. If you’re a die-hard Adventure Time fan, the issue may be worth picking up for the artwork itself, especially in the last story. But if you are a casual reader who usually enjoys Adventure Time and anthology comic books, go ahead and pass this one up.