Comics Review: "Tomorrowland"

- by Ninja Ross, 18 December 2013

Brothers Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike are two of the world’s biggest DJs. They’ve played festivals all over the world and have written the biggest selling anthem for Belgium music festival “Tomorrowland.” SPEAKING OF TOMORROWLAND! Vegas and Mike are the stars of the official Tomorrowland comic book written by Paul Jenkins with art from Stellar Labs’ Alti Frirmansyah and Beny Maulana.

Click to enlarge

After waking up from an unusual shared dream involving flashing lights, a volcano and William Shakespeare (DJs, am I right?), the brothers start their Tomorrowland set as usual. Halfway through, however, the festival is attacked by demons determined to stop the music. I’m not the biggest fan of electronic music, but that seems rather excessive.

After the demons are thwarted by the power of the music, they’re visited by several historical figures including Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Albert Einstein. Oh, there’s also an elf lady. These are just a few of the guardians of creativity who look after the world, preventing the Nameless One from destroying everything and, presumably, turning the world into a waiting room void of any creativity.

This leads to a great, big fantasy adventure filled with all kinds of creatures and lots of bright, pretty colours. 

I know the idea sounds bad, I know it does. It’s a pretty ridiculous concept, something that should be printed for free or placed in the middle of real comics (like the DC Subway ads, for example), but it’s not as bad as you’re thinking.

In fact, it’s that other thing: Good.

Walking around the festival.

While Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike don’t immediately come off as interesting characters, they do grow on you. They start of as slightly generic DJs (calling each other “bro” and such) and develop into funny, slightly more interesting characters. But in a book like this, you can’t go looking for golden character development.

The story is silly and it’s not something that’s going to win any awards but it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun, in fact. There are plenty of books out there that try to make everything painfully dark and we have things like Game of Thrones to fulfil all our dark fantasy needs. What we have here is a colourful, lively book.

Monsters that hate electronic music.

I’m not sure if Jenkins actually cared for this book or if he did it for the pay check but it still turned out remarkably well. He took a concept that could have failed miserably and turned it into something readable.

After being told what’s what by Shakespeare and an elf.

I’m not actually very familiar with Jenkins’ work, though. I’ve read some of his Darkness and Wolverine work but I haven’t read some of his most critically acclaimed stuff, like Hellblazer (it hasn’t been collected as trades before) and Inhumans. But I am familiar enough with his work to know this isn’t his best. But the obvious talent is evident here and, as I said, he’s moulded a difficult concept into something worth your money.

But the writing isn’t the highlight of this book. The art is the real strength here. Frirmansyah and Maulana have that cartoon style that you know I’m so very fond of. There’s a touch of Humberto Ramos’ influence there, but it’s plenty distinct enough from his or any other artist’s work, making it stand out. It’s vibrant imaginative, even if some of the creature designs don’t seem terribly original.

The colours deserve special mention; they stand out and really pop in a way that makes this book stand out from others on the shelves.

The hardback itself has plenty to keep you busy, besides the story itself; there’s a few extras and such that shed some light on the background of the festival itself, even to someone like me, who doesn’t care at all for any kind of festival.

This book is well worth your time and money and I suggest picking it up, even if it’s just for the art. You don’t need to have any opinion of the festival or the real life people featured. Pick it up, bro.


Have you read "Tomorrowland"? Are you a fan of Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike? A fan of Paul Jenkins? Leave us a comment!

Tagged: comics, Reviews.

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