How much you want to bet Jokey learned to make shadow puppets?
The Smurfs & Disney Fairies FCBD Flipbook
TRANSLATION: Joe Johnson
LETTERER: Janice Chiang (with one exception)
Smurfs side
“The Smurfs And The Booglooboo”
WRITER/ARTIST: Peyo
CONSULTANT: Matt Murry
Ernest & Rebecca: sequence from “My Best Friend Is A Germ”
WRITER: Guillaume Bianco
ARTIST: Antonello Dalena
COLORIST: Cecilia Giumento
Why does Tinkerbell need glow bugs when she glows most of the time anyway?
Disney Fairies side
“Express Yourself…Pixie Style”
WRITER: Tea Orsi
REVISED DIALOG: Jim Salicrup
PENCILERS: Manuela Razzi & Monica Catalano
INKER: Marina Baggio
COLORING: Kawaii Creative Studio
(no translation required)
Dance Class: sequence from “So You Think You Can Hip-Hop”
WRITER: Béka
ARTIST: Crip
COLORIST: Benoit Bekaert
DANCE CONSULTANT: Sylvia Nantier
LETTERER: Tom Orzechowski
Disney’s Fairies: “Tinker Bell And The Forces Of Nature
WRITER: Paola Mulazzi
REVISED DIALOG: Courtney Fay Powell
PENCILERS: Manuela Razzyi & Aotonello Dalena
INKER: Roberta Zanotta
COLORING: Kawaii Creative Studios
In the Smurfs story a vulture-like bird called the Booglooboo (because that’s the sound it makes…like Pokémon in the anime) buzzes the Smurf village before making a nest in Gargamel’s chimney. When he tries to get rid of the bird and her chick Smurfette and Brainy try to help the birds. If it wasn’t for his methods (he is still the villain) I’d probably be on his side, given that I wouldn’t want a giant bird making a nest in my chimney either. A good story.
In the second story we meet Rebecca, a tomboy who loves catching frogs. With her parents arguing and her sister being a teenager in a work of fiction she’s not having a good day until she meets a rather large microbe named Ernest. They’re friends now. I don’t think microbes grow to little girl size (the whole “micro” part of the word suggests that) but it looks like a fun little concept just the same. Not really something I’d be interested in though, but I did enjoy Herobear And The Kid by Mike Kunkel so who knows?
Flip the book and we get to our next story, which is a prequel to Peter Pan and shows Tinkerbell as a new arrival to Neverland in a location called Pixie Hollow. She meets the cast as they each collect their pixie dust in different ways. It also shows that the creators of this series leans a bit too far into her name by making her a tinkerer (her name’s even spelled in two words, Tinker Bell, which I always thought it was one word), so she’s not quite the same character from the Disney version of the book but it’s still a good introduction to this incarnation.
Next we have the story of a ballet class. These are just snippets from the graphic novel that come off as a set of short tales introducing the cast, and it works pretty well. The skits are funny, we get a good sense of the cast, and I dig the art style used.
The final story returns to Tinker Bell as we see more of her tinkering, which again doesn’t feel like her actual character from the movie or any appearance prior to this spinoff franchise. Vidia, a fairy who controls nature, takes great pain in ruining her day to show off how much better her powers are, but Tink comes up with a plan to get back at her. Is Vidia supposed to be a bully in the movies? There’s really nothing that sets her off. She just starts making fun of Tink for making stuff while she shows off her nature powers. As a bully victim myself she’s a rather weak antagonist.
Overall there are some good stories and it all works for Free Comic Book Day, stories that stand on their own but may make you interested in checking further into the comics being previewed.
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