3 out of 5

While I’m apparently one of the few fans of the 2007 CGI TMNT movie, one criticism I’ll absolutely offer up is that it packed in way too much.  Despite skirting the Nth origin retelling, the movie had this long-winded mythology setup that prevented a worthwhile villain from really emerging.

Aaron Renier’s first Walker Bean tale has a very similar problem, one that ends up being rather furthered with his general story-telling approach.  Because of this, the tale takes quite a while to warm up – past the halfway point – but once it does, it’s quite a satisfying adventure.

We open with the mentioned mythology: a fortress of spooky bones and skulls protected by two demonic, er, lobster women.  (They’re much scarier illustrated than they might be based on that description alone.)  It’s a very cold open – told in a rather stiff voice, with no real grounding to set up what era or type of world we’re in – and then we pull back one layer to see kid Walker Bean, in bed, being recited this bit by his grandfather.

Next page, without any segue (another hiccup throughout): Bean running to the tavern, to discourage his father from selling one of these spooky bones – going against the encouragement of an odd doctor who’s latched on to his father’s group of sailors – and trying to explain that only by returning the bones to the lobster women can they cure the illness affecting grandpa.  Dismissed, Bean nabs the thing, and our adventure begins, with constant about-faces with who’s in possession of the mystical item, which ship – pirate ship, steam ship – Walker is stowing away on, and who believes Walker’s tale over the promise of whatever else (generally riches) the Doctor hints can be had by way of bone-selling.

Renier writes kids well, giving Walker, and his eventual compatriots, realistic voices, emotions, and appreciable intelligence.  There are no forced contrivances thanks to things unsaid or poor ideas – Walker Bean and his unsinkableness continue to move in a general forward direction, keeping the overall story fairly sprightly, despite some speedbumps.

Such as: after our learning the general outline of the myth, a big chunk of proceedings requires Renier to navigate Bean into a position to re-explain and convince people of the legitimacy of that myth.  We’re smartly spared the actual exposition, but it makes approximately the first half of the book feel like it hits rewind every now and then.  There’s also a lack of transition during time jumps that undercuts any sense of urgency, which somewhat combines with Renier’s busy panels and pages which occasionally offset dialogue / joke timing.

Thankfully, the custom-crafted color work (with Alec Longstreth) and the hand lettering go a long way toward ingratiating us to the book’s general look and sensibility – it’s very organic and homely looking – and Renier has a great sense of characterization, making the rather packed cast very distinct without having to be too stylized.  And past that halfway point, it becomes streamlined and exciting, leaving us with some good questions to ponder for the next volume (…which wouldn’t come until like eight years later, but s’alright).

In a world where Renier has given us multiple Walker Bean adventures, I can imagine going back to reading this first one and appreciating how things have changed.  As a solo read, it’s a bit uneven, but certainly promising.