A1 Presents—The Weirding Willows 1: What the Wild Things Are

Comic Info

A1: The Weirding Willows #2

Reprints A1:  The Weirding Willows #1-7 (June 2013-May 2014).  Welcome to Willow Weir!  The forest hides a secret that only Alice Moreau is privy to…the land of Willow Weir has access to different worlds.  While her father Dr. Moreau experiments on animals for a mysterious benefactor named Margareete Marche and her associate Dr. Jekyll, Moreau and his assistant Montgomery Doolittle find a problem with a wild boy named Mowgli who is determined to end Moreau’s inhumane experiments.  Dr. Moreau makes a breakthrough when he learns Willow Weir is filled with talking animal, and it could mean problems for Alice and the inhabitants of Willow Weir.

Written by Dave Elliot and with illustrations by Barnaby Bagenda and Sami Basri, A1 Presents—The Weirding Willows 1:  What the Wild Things Are presents the first seven issues the comic produced by Titan and Atomeka.

I’m a big literature buff, and I am a real fan of fairytales and folklore.  These tales used to encompass things like the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson along with old stories passed down through the ages.  Now, through the years (and loss of copyright protection), characters from “new” novels are working their way into these stories of old.  Books like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Fables have played around with the idea of the new age of heroes and characters from books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland…The Weirding Willows is another.

A1: The Weirding Willows #6

I was excited to read The Weirding Willows with my background and since I did enjoy Fables and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Unfortunately, the series feels a little less refined and developed than the other two series.  I had a hard time getting into the comic and felt there was too much fantasy happening outside the Weir with Alice’s father being Dr. Moreau, his assistant Doolittle, and his friend Henry Jekyll (and Mr. McGregor as a neighbor).  I could have handled one or two of these characters (preferably just Alice who is an incredibly tough character to write in general), but I wish only the Willow Weir (and its inhabitants) were magical or literary characters.

The book however did grow on me a bit since I’m a sucker for this style of mash-up genre, but I found myself wanting to mix and match what I liked about the series by eliminating some of things I didn’t like.  It would be a pretty solid book if that was possible and the book is very, very close to working.

I am also torn on the art.  I dislike the first cover which I feel was not representative of the book’s content and looked like something from the Grimm Fairy Tales comic.  I much preferred the interior art which was more unique and interesting.  I liked both Barnaby Bagenda and Sami Basri art, but felt sometimes it was too raw or disliked the coloring.

The Weirding Willows almost works, but with seven issues in, it needs to find a bit more direction.  Fortunately, the comic is independent and has the luxury of time to explore, but I feel that too much and too many characters are being brought to get a good read on any of them.  With the great reads of Fables and its spin-off series and the occasional League of Extraordinary Gentlemen being published, The Weirding Willows might have a challenge to succeed.