West, Max – Sunnyville Stories #3

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Sunnyville Stories #3

I was optimistic about the last issue, and there still isn’t much technically wrong with this issue, but I’m starting to get the idea that it just isn’t for me. First of all, the words are all spelled correctly and the perspective looks fine, which automatically puts it above roughly half of the comics I see. Max even has a few interesting shots, like the two visible upraised arms of a man who’s coming up over a hill. My trouble is that I’m too jaded for something this relentlessly all-ages. If you’re looking for a comic that’s safe for your kids, yeah, this one is pretty good. And possibly even parents too, I don’t know. This will probably make more sense if I summarize the plot. There are a few kids who are playing too loudly for their mother, so she sends them away to play. They run into more kids, who hatch their own plans. Meanwhile there’s an outlaw group on the loose who steal the detergent that the original mother was waiting for. The law gets involved, the kids dispatch the villains in some Home Alone-esque shenanigans, and all ends up being right with the world. Sorry if that comes across as revealing too much, but once you see “all-ages” you can pretty much count on “everything works out in the end.” Eh, maybe I’m just too damned cynical to be reviewing these things. The trouble is that there are still all-ages book like Nick Abadzis’ Amazing Mr. Pleebus series that I can see clearly as a good kid/parent reading experience, so my heart hasn’t become completely jaded yet. So that’s one more or less negative vote for this issue and one more or less positive note for the last one. Still one issue to go, which becomes the tiebreaker. The art has improved in this issue and Max clearly has big plans, which is what’s important in all of this, not one some guy with a website thinks. If even one creative person lets my reviews derail their planned comic career, I will find them and smack them on the back of the head. Just sayin’. $4