Illustrated by Roger Langridge
Boom! Studios
While Princess Scarlet and her band prepare to make the dangerous trek to Snark Island, they are intercepted by pirates--pirates from Alice in Wonderland, to be exact! What are the Mad Hatter, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Doormouse, and others doing on the seven seas? Causing mayhem, of course! If that's not bad enough, the Gryphon has scientific help in his quest to stop Scarlett and her friends once and for all. It's all here in another action-packed issue of Snarked!
I can't believe I didn't spot that the ship on the cover is a tea kettle until I was sitting down to do this review. That's perfect, given the captain of the ship, and is just one of the tons of visual gags that Langridge packs into every issue of this comic. While the priority is on the jokes, as per usual, this issue adds some adversity to the party, who find that their crew aren't quite as loyal to their cause as they'd hoped (though in fairness, Walrus doesn't exactly make it easy for them to stay). I love that no matter how focused Langridge is on the jokes, there's always a solid plot in every issue, which resolves itself by the end of the comic and leaves the reader ready for the next part of the adventure.
Some of my favorite bits are the throwaway line about "the Jets" winning the ship fight (nice West Side Story reference for the parents/adults in the audience), the running gag about the cannon, and the fact that the Mad Hatter's weapon of choice is a hot tea kettle. As with prior issues, you have to linger on the splash pages in order to find every little visual gag and joke, but it's well worth it.
Given freedom to do as he likes, Langridge uses any Lewis Carroll character he feels like in this series. It's a great romp every month, and one of the comics I most look forward to reading each month. I know I say this every time, but if you aren't reading Snarked!, you are really missing out on a new classic.
You can pick up Snarked! #6 digitally or in comic shops on March 28th. Thanks to Boom! Studios as per usual for the review copy.
