Comics Review: "Wallace & Gromit" Strip Collection Vol. 1

- by Kazekun, 7 February 2014

"Wallace & Gromit" is one of those series that I have only ever seen the movies for. I had no idea there was a comic strip for them either, even if it's relatively new. I’m American, and this is British, but man is it SO very British, and I found this read to be tons of fun. One thing I genuinely enjoy about this duo is their odd coupling and pairing dynamics, or in other words how they play off one another.

Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Comic Strips Collection – Volume 1: 2010-2011

Collected together – for the first time ever – this book contains over 300 editions of Wallace & Gromit daily comic strips which originally appeared in The Sun newspaper, plus a foreword by Nick Park. With more inventions, gags, and jokes than you can shake a Supa-Dupa-Cuppa 6000 at – or a Shredder-o-Matic 3000 – the Wallace & Gromit Collection will have you laughing from your early morning cuppa right up to your late-night snack of cheese and crackers. [From the back cover]

Created by: Nick Park
Script: Richy Chandler, Robert Etherington, Ned Hartley, Rik Hoskin, David Leach, J.P. Rutter, Rona Simpson, Gordon Volke, Mike Garley and Luke Paton.
Art: Jimmy Hanson, Mychailo Kazybrid, Sylvia Bennion, Jay Clarke, Viv Heath and Brian Williamson.

Wallace is so punny, just constantly - he’s like me if I ever grew up to become a semi-genius inventor. He tries to crack a pun in almost every panel and it leads to both me and Gromit face palming often, but with a big grin on my face as I did so. Speaking of being an inventor, almost every, if not every, story features a ridiculous invention by Wallace to fix small conundrums of everyday life. And it isn’t like machines to fix some of these “problems” don’t actually already exist, but this is fiction and Wallace’s solutions are quite wonderful to behold.

Speaking of Gromit though, this dog is hilarious. He puts up with all of Wallace’s shenanigans and doesn’t bat an eye. He’s so used to it by now, and he’s the very definition of man’s best friend. He’s also the unsung hero of this duo, as he more often than not is the problem solver to the problems Wallace causes. I like to think he’s smarter than Wallace, but even if he could talk he’d still never question his master/best friend, which is exactly what I think is so fascinating yet wonderful.

These two really love each other that much.

Each 3-panel strips works as its own little stand-alone story with a joke at the end, but generally every six strips also work together to form a full cohesive story that can be enjoyed as well. It’s nice knowing the writers tried to make sure every story stood alone, yet still could fit into a wider whole.

The art in this wonderful, very fluid, cartoony with heavy ink lines and bold, vibrant colors; it’s very beautiful to look at even as just a form of art, not even if there was any story involved. Titan Books really know how to crank out high quality printed books. The art style is also very true to the Claymation style incorporated by the original movies, with Wallace’s iconic oblong-shaped head and Gromit’s bipedal nature. 

With so many artists working on this you would think there would be more variety in how this book looks overall in various art styles, but it’s incredibly surprising how wonderful the art styles flow together so seamlessly it’s hard to notice any difference. The machinations are very fun to look at as well, very comic-booky with really fun names.

Click on each page to enlarge!

Also, there are several two-page spreads in this collection that feature high quality screenshots from the various movies. Looking at these images gave me an entirely new appreciation for the show, as I never really fully grasped how much intricate detail went into Wallace & Gromit’s surroundings. It makes me want to go back and re-watch everything I’ve already seen, and perhaps find more stories I have yet to discover.

There’s really nothing I can complain about in this review, this book is beautiful and incredibly fun to read. It’s also a very quick read, being made up of a bunch of 3-panel comic strips. For most people out there it’s a good way to kill an afternoon, or to add to your nightly reading of comics. Go pick it up, highly recommended for any comic book fan, it’s all ages friendly so you can read it to your kids with no problems, and if you’re a Wallace & Gromit fan at all this is definitely a must have for your collection.

Final Score: 5 Wallace Puns out of 5


Get the Wallace and Gromit collection on the Titan Comics website! Are you a fan of the duo? Let us know in the comments below!

Tagged: comics, Reviews.

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