Comic Info
Comic Name: Lumberjanes
Publisher: Boom! Box
Writer: Noelle Stevenson/Grace Ellis
Artist: Brooke Allen
# of Issues: 4
Release Date: 2015
Lumberjanes #2 Variant
Reprints Lumberjanes #1-4 (April 2014-July 2014). The campers of Miss Quiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet Camp for Girls…or Camp for Hardcore Lady Types are out for adventure! When the Lumberjanes of Cabin Roanoke discover a mystery and a warning to Beware of the Kitten Holy, they know there are more secrets to the camp than they ever expected. Separated from the other campers after a river adventure, the call of a mysterious lighthouse and an encounter with the campers of Mr. Theodore Tarquin Reginald Lancelot Herman Crumpet’s Camp means the Lumberjacks have a summer full of adventure!
Written by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis, Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware of the Kitten Holy is a Boom! Studios comic released under their Boom! Box imprint. With illustrations by Brooke Allen, issues in the collection were also collected in Lumberjanes to the Max Edition—Volume 1.
Lumberjanes was released to a lot of fanfare. The comic was seen as a very positive message for girls and young women, and it was at a time when increasing attention was being paid to the lack of diverse and inclusive writing in comic books. With all the buzz, I needed to check Lumberjanes out.
Lumberjanes #3
The style and writing of Lumberjanes is almost that of some manga and has a lot inane humor mixed with some classic adventure aspects. With mystery books (Lumberjanes essentially has the young ladies trying to unwrap the mysteries of the camp), the format often falls into Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys territory. The arching mysteries are big, but the book features a lot of little mysteries, exploration, and fun each issue.
Brooke Allen’s art is very stylized. It takes a bit in this volume to kind of get the characters down and associate them all with their names. With a shorter and small collection, it feels like the book could benefit from a bio-page for each camper to familiarize the readers with the characters. It would be easy to include and still could hold on the look and feel of Lumberjanes (maybe having each character describe themselves in their own voice).
While Lumberjanes is fun, I do feel like it is a comic that is for younger audiences…and that is alright. It is easy to forget that comics were largely considered for young readers since now most comic book readers are adults and the companies write to them. Lumberjanes is a refreshing throwback to comics your parents could dump on you and you could read (and enjoy). It isn’t Archie, but it also isn’t a superhero comic. The Lumberjanes are their own “superheroes” and it will be interesting to see where they go. Lumberjanes 1: Beware of the Kitten Holy is followed by Lumberjanes 2: Friendship to the Max.
