Broken Frontier

After facing the dangers of the open sea Marlin thinks things should be safe at home… he’s about to learn differently.

BOOM! Studios new BOOM! Kids’ line with its Disney-Pixar licensure has been proving quite popular and it just may be leading a new wave of all-ages comics set to create new fans.  With Finding Nemo the latest addition to the line here’s hoping this will prove more than “catch and release” for a generation of new comic book readers.

After all of their adventures, Marlin, his son Nemo, the absent-minded Dory and the rest of their friends have all settled in at home… although Marlin is still wary of the world outside.  This idyllic existence comes to a halt when Nemo’s class field trip reveals that the reef which protects this “neighborhood” is dying!  Against his better judgment, Marlin finds himself roped into a new adventure to try to find out what has gone wrong with the reef and put a stop to it.

Writer Marie Croall does a truly lovely job here of capturing all of the quirky characters of the original movie.  She also perfectly brings to life their unique, watery world and makes it alien from our own and yet similar enough to be recognizable to kids.  The story has just the right amount of tension and is easy to follow without ever “dumbing things down” for the audience.  Just as with the movie, Nemo is the very picture of childhood eagerness and daring while Marlin represents the parental caution mitigated by an inner strength and Dory adds a goofy charm and a sincere heart. 

Even more than Croall’s writing, Erica Leigh Currey’s artwork is simply stunning here.  She translates the characters from their computer generated style animation to more traditional cartoon look with ease and beauty.  More to the point, she gives each page a sense of grandeur and beauty found under the sea.  Characters swim outside the boundaries of panels as the currents take them and coral, sea anemones, and sea cucumbers fill each page and panel to bursting.  It would be horribly remiss not to also mention the colors provided by Digikore.  The tropical hues are bright and lush and could not be more perfectly matched to the art.

With a gentle but exciting story, a hidden message about the importance of undersea life and protecting the environment, and eye-popping art, parents need feel no guilt in placing this comic in the hands of their children or even for any adult to give it to any child of their acquaintance.  It even makes a great excuse for adults to sit down with the kids and read the comic together.  Finding Nemo weaves a magical story and will almost certainly capture kids of all ages in the net.