In a global comic market where the old hands and industry watchmen plead for creators to make something fresh and engaging to all ages (*especially children*), it's a great experience to walk down to a comic store and pick up the first volume of a new series that's got so much to offer.
Our adventure begins as two quarreling siblings, Selena and Tommy, visit their mad old uncle Silas's house to see what he's been up to in his greenhouse full of plant experiments. When they arrive, they discover he has gone missing in his vastly overgrown greenhouse, and it's up to them to rescue him. They get geared up in some wonderfully chunky Megaman-esque hard suits, complete with radars, pod-shooting plant-tranquilisers and head into the overgrown forest to find out what's happened.
This new series by South Australian author and artist David Follett has been widely described as a title for kids, but that's selling it short. Without giving too many spoilers away, Tommy and Selena find the forest of Silas's greenhouse is a lot more complex than just being a place full of giant flytraps and mischevious sprites. Follett begins to introduce a meta narrative very early into the series with Tommy and Selena learning that they're "a part of the forest" and all elements of life are, in some way or another, connected. Follett's creative reworking of the forest internet system is a great way to get tech-savvy kids to think in original ways about the linking of all ecosystems. The best part is he manages to insert this message without diluting the fun of two kids having an action-adventure in a fantastically illustrated forest.
And my god, it is well illustrated. The colouring is amazingly lush and detailed - far *too* detailed for this print size. If Dark Horse do another print in a A4 gloss paperback, I'd recommend this even more, because the level of detail in the panels is incredible. To give you an idea, the opener stretches one panel for two full pages without any issues whatsoever, but when we reach this panel in the story it's about 4cm by 5cm. Crazy!
It's hard to pick faults, but if there is one, it is the pacing. Being an action adventure with a lot of discoveries along the way, Selena and Tommy are not given the chance to stop and take a breath. There's no 'cooldown' panels - as soon as the kids are in the greenhouse it's full steam ahead. Hopefully the second volume gives the kids a chance to slow down and learn more about their newly found links to the deep green unknown.
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