Broken Frontier

Calvin and Ho-- er, uh, Franklin Richards and H.E.R.B.I.E are up to their shenanigans again in this fun all-ages outing.

Happy Franksgiving! is an amusing romp through the wild life of a boy with an overactive imagination and access to some of the most powerful inventions in the world. Franklin Richards and his robotic nanny, H.E.R.B.I.E, run through all sorts of troubles from radioactive rodents to female induced telepathic terrors, and man-eating turkeys. Perhaps the humor isn’t exactly highbrow or philosophical like the Calvin and Hobbes strips it so blatantly rips-off or pays homage to (depending on how you look at it), but the situations are funny. The straight guy/wild man dichotomy represented in H.E.R.B.I.E and Franklin is worth more than one chuckle, and the cover alone is enough to make you want to pick it up off the rack!

Chris Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak are no strangers to the Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius comics. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, they are this series’ parents. And good parents they are. The cliché situations the protagonists find themselves in are somehow funny even when they shouldn’t be. I mean, it isn’t like we all haven’t seen a kid’s hamster become radioactive and destroy the city because of some foolish mistake. This also isn’t the first time a Sea Monkey-like creature has grown into . . . something more on the page or screen of a children’s book or show. Surely, someone out there has read a story about the irony of Thanksgiving if you’re a turkey. All of these, and more, are here. Though I have read or seen them before in one form or another, they are still funny in a totally childlike, innocent sort of way, which is exactly what this book strives to be.

Perhaps it is so successful though, because of the art. Eliopoulos is doing double time on this book, helping to write as well as drawing the entire thing. In Franklin’s expressions, movements, appearance, and actions, Eliopoulos seems to invoke the spirit of Calvin from the retired comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. If you’re going to copy something, it might as well be something as good, as poignant, as powerful as that strip still is, despite its years of absence from the shelves and newspapers worldwide. It is simple, cartoonish, bright (thanks to Brad Anderson’s awesome colors) and fun.

Though, as I said above, Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius lacks some of the intelligence of its comic strip predecessor, it is nevertheless entertaining and truly "fun for all ages."