Friday, July 24, 2015

CBR Adventure Time: Candy Capers


It's time to go back to Ooo and get serious.

FINN and JAKE are MISSING!!!

You know what time is it? It's ADVENTURE TIME!!

Comic title: A New Adventure Time Mystery: Peppermint Butler & Cinnamon Bun in Candy Capers or simply Adventure Time: Candy Capers
Art by Ian McGinty  
Written by Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya
"Game of Death" illustrated by Evan Dahm
"Lair of the vault king" illustrated by Tessa Stone.

Published by Boom! Studios imprint KaBOOM!
From 2014
Lineup Adventure Time series
Format: Trade Paperback collecting the Adventure Time: Candy Capers mini-series issues #1-6.

Not only is Adventure Time a great successful modern Cartoon Network animated series, but the comic book line published by KaBOOM! has been getting some big praises as well.

Thanks to the huge success of the main on-going series from the winning team of Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb & Mike Holmes and its sister-series of Original Graphic Novels from Danielle Corsetto, Zack Sterling & Meredith McClaren, BOOM! has been publishing all sorts of tie-in mini-series to provide even more Adventure Time material for the fans.

After a fantastic book dedicated to fan-favorite Marceline and a Fionna & Cake spinoff from its original creator Natasha Allegri, it was time to explore some minor background characters and have a look at the underbelly of Ooo, where it would be no place for pure clean good-hearted heroes like Finn and Jake to look into. So why did they send Cinnamon Bun again??

Adventure Time: Candy Capers is a "crime noir caper" starring Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun in their very first and only first roles in an Adventure Time story! 


Finn and Jake are missing! They're nowhere to be found, just when Princess Bubblegum needed the hammer she lend to our heroes...

PB decides to deputize Peppermint Butler to help tend to the kingdom while she goes looking for another hammer. Now in charge of the Banana Guards, Peppermint Butler decides to solve all the problems of the Candy Kingdom and protect the land of his Princess. To help him out he enlists the help of the only available candy person dumb enough to obey to his every word - Cinnamon Bun!

First they try looking into the disappearance of Finn and Jake. Have they been kidnapped? They find no clues nor traces at the Tree Fort. It's fine. They'll have to do without them. It's totally fine.

After trying to help Starchie, Peppermint realizes this is too big a task if he's to protect the kingdom in the meantime. They need to "hire" new heroes! Time to bring in heroes back! He opens the Royal Hero Draft. But he's only able to get Marceline and Tree Trunks, who quickly call it quit. Peppermint also tries to pair the Ice King to work with Susan, with disastrous yucky results...

The pair locate Finn’s Demon Blood Sword being used as an utensil at the local diner… but that leads to nowhere. They infiltrate a casino only to be foiled by the newly introduced and comic exclusive Agent Princess! (Such a badass!)

They soon give up finding for new or old heroes. Well, if you can't count on anyone, only one solution - Heroes need to be made!

Things go increasingly worse every minute...


This was such a fun book!

It's a really great occasion to give the spotlight to some popular side characters. The previous books had all been given to big starts of the show, even the spinoffs were given to the likes of Marceline or Fionna & Cake. And boy, do these two make a great duo!

Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya write here a really fun fast-paced comedy adventure.

At first Peppermint Butler try to do what would Jake and Finn do... but he's never been cut to be "the" hero. So he quickly starts resorting to (dark) magic... with unexpected effects.

The rest of the comic is mostly used to explore this developing friendship between Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun. They make a great funny uneven duo. They're great foils to each other. Peppermint plays of course the grumpy straight man to CB's dumb but lovable character (in a way, this pairing sort of reminded me of the ol' Pinky and the Brain cartoon).

In the end, it is Cinnamon Bun that ends up having to save his friend... even though they end up both having to be saved by the Princess!


The art was lovely all around through the series.

Unlike the main Adventure Time series, this comic here collected all the guest backup features.. since they're actually more or less integrated into the main storyline. In most issues they revolved around secondary tales of Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun on the job, so they kept Ian McGinty on the art.

But we do get two side stories with "Game of Death", illustrated by Evan Dahm, and "Lair of the vault king", this one illustrated by Tessa Stone. The first one is quick step sideways through the Nightosphere, while the later sees PB taking Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun aside on a quick mission full of cameos of familiar faces from the show.

We do find out where Finn and Jake were all this time... and it's no great revelation to be honest. But it works for the joke ending.

Finally this trade collects here as per tradition the various covers BOOM printed for this mini, including the work of the following artists: Josceline Fenton, Magnolia Porter, Rebecca Mock, Tessa Stone, Yuko Ota, Tyler Parker, Bryan Turner, Maris Wicks, Nomi Kane, Brinson Thieme, Jemma Salume, Scott Maynard, T. Fabert, Melanie Gillman Brooke Allen, Andrea Tamme, Jay Fosgitt, Fellipe Martins, Yasmin Liang, Eva Eskelinen, Michael Dialynas, Mia Schwartz, Laura Birdsall, Andy Price, Mychal Amann, Mad Rupert, Renato Faccini, Wook Jin Clark, Emily Watson, Andy Hirsch and Hannah Nance Partlow - a lot of familiar names for Adventure Time comics as well as some pretty popular indie artists and many more!


Overall, Candy Capers was such a fun book!

All in all, it's another great Adventure Time spinoff. miniseries that uses a different sort of heroes. A nice change of pace from Finn and Jake. It's great to use the break off these miniseries provides to play with some supporting cast characters.

It was a bit silly. And part of me wish they'd went through a slightly darker book since this was a spinoff featuring Peppermint Butler. But otherwise it was great. This unlikely duo are particularly fun to follow. They're no Finn and Jake, but that was part of the fun. They worked great and played off each other nicely.

Recommended Read for any fans of the cartoon or people just looking for a nice fun All-Age title. I don't really think you need to be that much familiar with the show to enjoy it, but it helps establish the relationship between all these characters. I can imagine this comic surprisingly effective as a starting point for newcomers (introducing the real heroes, the princess and her kingdom, everyone's roles, etc.)

I give it:
    2 / 3 Snoopies!

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