Muppet Comic Mondays: Fraggle Rock #3

 Fraggle Rock Comic Book #3

Comic Book Review

 

James Gannon - It really has been a treat, hasn’t it? For the past three months, we’ve had two Muppet comics earlier in the month, while a Fraggle Rock comic has rounded it out. Having a rough week, this issue really made my day, I can assure you. Especially when you see what Fraggle Rock #3 has in store.  

The lead story, through the magic of just being an illustration, as opposed to the logistics nightmare the puppet building and filming would be for the actual show, two sanctions of Fraggle Rock that have  never met, finally do. That’s right; Doozers and Gorgs. The whole issue features stories mainly focusing on them. All is wrong in Fraggle Rock when the Doozers, and more importantly, their Doozer sticks, are nowhere to be found. Even Large Marvin is stumped, and if he can’t find food, you know something’s up. Turns out, all the Doozers, led by Cotterpin, are erecting the grandest Doozer stick construction ever… right on the Gorgs’ property. There is a little scale cheating, whereas the Fraggles are rat sized to the Gorgs, the Doozers really should be the relative size of a large beetle. But that should be of no concern. After all, this scenario feels like a story that very well could have been used on the show, if only it weren’t so complicated in scale and scope for them to actually have done.

Ever wonder what it’s like for Doozers to throw a party? The second comic solves that mystery. Cotterpin introduces this foreign concept something she obviously learned from the Fraggles. Finally, Junior Gorg tries and fails at building the better Fraggle Trap. Oh, and we get not only one, but two different Katie Cook activities, one that actually uses RADISHES!

This is the last of a three-part miniseries. The plan is to release further issues and put three issues into a graphic novel collection, similar to BOOM!’s Muppet (and entire Disney) line up. It was revealed in ToughPigs' interview with editor Tim Beedle that the next miniseries would begin in October.  

I like to think that they will keep the same or a similar format, but somehow I’d like them to do things a little different (as I said in an earlier review).  Maybe having all three comics connect with a common theme like this one kinda did with the Doozer and Gorg stories. And maybe mix it up, with a short comic lead in before the main story. Whatever they do, I really hope they continue with these. They have been amazing so far.

Oh, and a quick shout out to this issues two contributors that have previously worked on BOOM! Muppet comics. Amy Mebberson’s B cover will make you wish that they could pull her away from the Muppet Classics and Muppet Show comics to do some more Fraggle comic art. Grace Randolph is just as adept at working with the Doozers and Fraggles as she is with Kermit, Piggy and company. I’d love to see other Muppet comic artists and writers contribute to this anthology series as well. If there’s one thing I can say the Fraggle Rock comic has over the Muppets is that each and every issue gives you more takes on the characters, in both and artistic and writing sense.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier