Comics Features

REVIEW: Dungeon Fun #1

Dungeon Fun is a wonderful new Adventure Time style series aimed at younger readers although bound to delight readers of any age.

The plot of the issue is more or less summed up by the opening text: “This is the story of a girl and her sword”. Indeed. A sword previously belonging to a proud knight delivering a speech about how he is a “champion of justice” to Jeff the Bridge Troll, who takes offense at being defined as a Bridge Troll. Well, wouldn’t you?

Anyway, said girl, appropriately named Fun, has few friends, with the exception of Muddy Stickarms, who is like a snowman, except, you know, made of mud. Too bad he is destroyed by the sword after the Bridge Troll (sorry, I mean Jeff) drops it down the bridge. Seeking to make a complaint about this, Fun ends up facing a fearsome three headed beast, although one of the heads turns out to be not all that bad, being haunted (or rather, annoyed) by the spirit of the recently deceased knight we were introduced to earlier, and being exiled from her home, whilst ticking off every fantasy cliché in the book before turning it on its head. Despite all this, the plot follows a simplistic and straightforward approach so its targeted readers will find it easy to follow. And when we reach the cliff-hanger conclusion, accompanied by the words “To be Funtinued”, (not since Xanth has fantasy contained so many puns) most kids are likely to never stop reminding their parents to buy them the next issue.

The bright-coloured and widely spaced out artwork will appeal to younger readers, while the comically censored profanity and mild innuendos ensuring that adults have plenty to enjoy as well. While many other series will try and fail, writer Colin Bell and artist Neil Slorance have succeeded in creating a series that really will reach the largest audience possible.

One of the fan letters at the end mistakenly referred to the series as Adventure Time, with a line through the mistake. Comparisons to the series are inevitable, but one of the most enjoyable aspects of Dungeon Fun #1 is how it echoes many series that we know and love, with other examples in the fan letters being Monty Python, Zelda and Black Adder, whilst also providing a sense of uniqueness and creativity that makes it stand its own ground. Working equally well as an adventure story within a fantasy setting as well as a parody of an adventure story within a fantasy setting, Dungeon Fun #1 is a funtastic (sorry) read.

Dungeon Fun  is available to order here and for digital download here.

About the author

Davidde Gelmini