3 out of 5 

So colorful! 

Welcome to Palm Cove, which spins out of a previous graphic novel by writer / artist Rohan Frader – Blokkan – and finds one of the robot heroes from that tale having curiously retired to be a… cigarette salesman, is the kind of book you keep wanting to read and read, even if you can’t exactly call it perfect. 

Fraser’s humor – often taking the form of a fairly surface level poke at consumerism – has a naivety to it that’s charming; his character designs sit in a comfortable but unique cross section between clare ligne, manga, and indie, even if he can’t quite nail the splash page beats; and his story of a ‘bot gone rogue (he betrays his cigarette-salesbot programming and punches a bully!) has familiar “be yourself” underpinnings, but again… it’s just kinda charmingly open about it. And the book is so colorful! 

You feel good reading it. You can feel that Fraser will get more comfortable – the book will flow more smoothly – the longer you read it. You might not laugh out loud or be wowed, but you’re smiling the whole time, and sitting on pages, absorbing the energy. 

Welcome to Palm Cove is tons of fun, even if it isn’t necessarily anything new. It’s just too bad we never saw an issue 2…