The best part of being an adult is when you get to enjoy something like a kid again.  When you can lose yourself in something so imaginative that everything else ceases to exist, even adult nuisances like Blackberries.  I channeled the eleven year old in me when I read The Baffelgagging Blundernagging Brothers in Curse of the Bog Frog.  We’ll call it BBB.

            Part JRR Tolkien and part Kurt Vonnegut, Aaron Mason and Doug Warr have created a whole new world of thought and imagination combined with the folksy storytelling of Jean Shepherd a la A Christmas Story.

            The story centers around Exter and Grimwilch, who begin the story as spoiled rotten children that were told one simple thing by their parents; don’t open the forbidden magical chest.  One night, tempting fate, the brothers sneak in and open the chest thereby releasing the uncontrollable perplexicating quiggle jibs.  These spoonfuls of concentrated magic run amok in the world causing their parents to disappear.  No more presents, snacks, or treats for these brothers.  They embark on a lifelong redemptive trek to make the world right again.

            With no life guidance from their parents, Exter and Grimwilch live the life of a JOATS (Jack of all Trades) and, of course, master of none.  Forced to live on cold rat-cabbage stew, the BBB’s search strange lands and other fantastical dimensions for their next meal, and hopefully, a way to redemption.  The narrative leads us to the height of adventure in the little town of Knuckle Buckle.  Known for their frittered froglegs, this town is in crisis because they haven’t seen a frog in days.  They claim the nearby, expanding swamp is cursed with a giant frog.  The BBB’s scoff at the idea of a giant frog and enter a deal to save the town.  They enter the sticky, scary swamp where they come within inches of their lives.  The one thing they tap into is the power of thought and how that can change everything.  This adventure appeals to kids as well as the adults in us who know a little something about quantum physics.

            This irreverent story is made whole by the visual and cinematic style of Mason.  His cunning use of alliteration and imagination makes me wonder if he is a sixties child who listened to too much Jimi growing up.  Not that you could listen to too much.  The storytelling is deliciously ironic in that Exter, the obviously thin and handsome one, is considered inferior to his pudgier, arrogant brother who has a face only a mother could love.  This is special to me because kids are so transfixed by appearance, that turning our conditioned archetypes upside down, could lead to more enlightenment in our world.

            I would be remiss if I didn’t focus on the brilliant illustrations of Jason Walton, with supplements by Noah Stacey.  Every page of this graphic novel is adorned by the mythical magical majesty (More Mason alliteration) of beautiful art.  Mind you, there is more than 175 pages of it. 

            This opus must be the centerpiece of any child’s room.  Where parents can read a few pages a night and keep their child’s imagination for weeks.  Let this opus serve notice to all of the Tolkienites out there that there is another player in the game.

You can order this book at www.blunderbrothers.com.

Authors:  Aaron Mason and Doug Warr

 

 

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