3 out of 5

Gotta love the lil’ guy who could.  Farlaine the Goblin, from the Forest of Fin-Din, is about as close as it gets to cloying without pushing it into your ‘shame’ pile.  And I’m sorry to creator ‘j’ (who’s website states that the focus should be on character and not creator, hence the anonymity) for saying that, because I’m digging this little guy and will continue to buy the books, assuming they remain this enjoyable.  But it’s purposefully kid friendly, and our lead shoots pink bubbles out of his hands that grow trees and things.  While things are ramping up in book 1, you keep expecting it to cross that line… but it doesn’t.  Part of this is the focus on Farlaine – there’s no subplot here, the dude’s whole purpose in life is to find a forest in which to plant his tree (which, as a tree goblin, is totes important), and so not only do we get a quest format to keep things moving, and the goblin and his tree – Ehrenwort – aren’t pausing for five part storylines.  They’re traveling through the land of Wug, and it’s clear pretty much right away in each land whether this is a stopping point or not.  So I dig that j is playing things straight and not going out of his way to aim for moral lessons or heart-string tuggin’.  The tagline of ‘A Fairy Tale About Finding Your Forest’ suggests we might end up with a ‘the forest was in you the whole time’ conclusion, but we’re avoiding any coming of age nonsense – Farlaine’s a good, smart dude with a lot of skills – bartering, fighting, quick-thinkin’ – and the only thing making this a chore (beyond the task itself) is that we’re walking everywhere, which thankfully, for us as readers, takes about 40-50 pages per ‘land.’

Book 1, the Tinklands, is the roughest, as we have a lot of questions and things to learn (and the art is matchingly rough and sketchy), but j breaks things up with some good and fun fight scenes and introduces what appears to be a big character race for the series – the Tinks, who come in different flavors of nice and crazy, but the ‘lands are stocked by the crazy, goblin-chasing type.  j’s sense of space and motion aren’t perfect, but he works with it by keeping his spaces open and well-balanced with details.

Book 2, the Saltlands, is a great step forward.  The humor (present in Tink but leaning toward too-cute) takes on a sillier, slapstick feel, which matches the cartooning style, and while the book’s pitch is already pretty unique, we get a definite curveball in the ‘lands main city which shows scope.  Farlaine’s personality comes out a bit more confidently, and he gains a companion, which is great for exposition.

…Leading to Book 3, The Racelands, which is not only brimming with little quirky concepts (a land where movement is restricted unless you’re racing in some way) but also laid out some rules for The Land of Wug which soothes some of our questions about the need for all of this.  Farlaine also runs into another goblin – a rock goblin – which upped the worldbuilding value to me by a billion points.  And during this, the goblin’s companion proves himself to be more than a simple soundin’ hole, dropping details about his own backstory and assisting Farlaine in the lands such that what’s accomplished could not have been done so had the goblin been alone.

The books are printed in an oversized, horizontal format, reminding me of Calvin and Hobbes books but reportedly, according to j, partially inspired by Asterix.  The cover and pages are thing but the color covers look good and the black inks stick out well on the white paper, plus, both are pretty durable.  The format can make this annoying for lap reading, but I do agree with the choice for studying the art, which has bettered in its expression of details, its line confidence, and its level of panel detail from book to book.  I also appreciate that j always intended this for a book – ’twasn’t a web-series or available in some other format prior to these issues.  And generous backmatter is always appreciated.

Farlaine the Goblin is, thus far, some unique twists on the ‘finding your way’ story.  The dialogue is never particularly hilarious or powerful, but the book has a great sense of organic momentum and the words absolutely serve that, as does writer/creator j’s art, which blends a bit of European quirk with Looney Tunes-like design.  It’s not quite a book you outright recommend since there hasn’t yet been a jaw-dropping moment, but it’s definitely a book you wish to discover – that little indie book that could that obviously comes from the heart, and has the writing and art chops to back that up.