REVIEW: ‘Clarence Vol. 1: Chicken Phantom’ makes you wanna watch the cartoon

I haven’t been up to date with what cartoons are on TV these days so it’s a good thing that comics have been an alternative outlet for me to educate myself on a chosen cartoon before investing my time on watching it. With this CLARENCE VOL. 1: CHICKEN PHANTOM, I’ve gotten a great sense of what I should expect when I do get to watch the cartoon itself.

Clarence Volume 1: Chicken Phantom tells the story of Clarence and his two friends, Sumo and Jeff, in the Rough Riders Camp where they experience being Chicken Scouts and discover the camp’s two secrets: the so called Chicken Phantom and hidden treasure.

Initially, I was expecting a linear story but the way writer Derek Fridolfs executed it here was that there were some lengthy pieces before the story progressed. A good move for this cartoon’s first volume for someone who has no idea how an episode of Clarence flows. Derek Fridolfs takes his time on introducing Clarence, Sumo and Jeff and what they do in the camp first. Jeff is the friend who succeeds in whatever task he’s given, Sumo is the friend who gets jealous of how much Jeff achieves so he tries his best but fails at what he does and then Clarence is that one friend who just tries and doesn’t think about whether he succeeds or fails as he only focuses on just being happy and with his friends. Derek’s work on the humor here gave me a good impression on what to expect from the actual cartoon as well: it’s weirdly funny and occasionally makes a lot of swerves that works during moments in the story where it could pass as cliches.

JJ Harrison, Cara McGee and Matt Smigel capture the overall style of the cartoon while putting in some very minor details that separates this from the cartoon a bit. Joie Brown‘s colors compliment the illustrations well and one thing to add was that the titular Chicken Phantom was quite a sight to see.

Clarence Vol. 1: Chicken Phantom gave me a great chunk of what to expect when I get around to watching the cartoon. Characters, humor and story style are clear. The pacing between the story progressions in this comic were a bit lengthy but it was for good reason as it took time to introduce you to Clarence himself and as for the main story itself once it started moving was quite fun and humorous. If you watch the cartoon then this comic’s worth it and if you have no clue of how the cartoon goes then this comic can be considered an alternate starting place to get into the cartoon.