Comic Review: Bob’s Burgers – Free Comic Book Day 2019

This may be worth running down to your local comic store for right now.

Overview:

“Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries & Curious Curiosities Presents: The Ride”

Gene is showing off his Professor Robot watch as the kids enjoy a day at Wonder Wharf.  As they take a ride on the Round and Round and Round, Louise notices that his watch is faster than the other clocks.  After it happens a few times, Louise realizes that the ride has the ability to stop time.  She convinces her siblings to use it to their advantage and the next time they jump off the ride to enjoy a day at the park with time frozen.  But, getting back is going to be more dangerous than they thought.

“Gene’s Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs Presents: The Gene-As Touch”

In a complete poetry written story, Gene finds a hundred dollar bill.  As he finds out that the money belongs to Mr. Fischoeder, Gene returns the money.  Mr. Fish returns the favour by granting him any special power that he desires.  Gene chooses, above any power, to have the ability to turn whatever he touches to gouda cheese.  The kid quickly learns that the power has grave consequences as he ends up turning his entire family to cheese, and he is desperate to find Mr. Fish to turn things back to normal.

“Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction Presents: Galac-Tina”

Tina is the leader of an intergalactic space fleet in war with a renegade group of robots.  As the battle reaches full conflict, Louise takes a captive, a robot in the form of Jimmy Jr.  Tina learns that the robot shares in her affliction for dance and the two do a “spicy” tango.  Their shared passion leads to the two warring groups to reach a treaty and save the galaxy.

 

Our Take:

Well, if there were any comic on Free Comic Book Day based on an adult animated program, I would not have guessed that it would be a Bob’s Burgers title.  Bob’s Burgers did have a successful run in comic books with a couple of separate runs and some collected graphic novels.  However, there has not been a new Bob’s Burgers comic book since 2016.  Reading this new material, I was half-expecting there to be an announcement at the back of the book about the title having a new run or at least some sort of new book.  Unfortunately, there was nothing of the sort, which makes this Free Comic Book Day addition even more confusing.  Why promote a title that has not been around for years with no intention of coming back?  Maybe the show is using the annual event to help promote the show, or Dynamite just had some old stories kicking around that deserved to be released one way or another.

No matter why they decided to release this comic now, it doesn’t really matter to me, I’m always happy to have a new Bob’s Burgers story.  The issue is broken up into three separate parts, each of the original stories from writers that have previously worked on the television series.  Further, each story is focused on one of the Belcher children, in a plot that is exceptionally fitting to their personalities.  Essentially, this is the comic that we didn’t know we needed.

“Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries & Curious Curiosities Presents: The Ride” was probably my favourite part of the whole book.  The Louise focused plot also capitalized on the other kid’s brilliant humour and was the most well-rounded of the three stories.  Beyond that, we are talking about a story that involves time travel, and the kids having free reign of Wonder Wharf without supervision.  If there were ever a premise in a Bob’s Burgers comic book that I’d love to see adapted to the screen, this would have to be it.

For something entirely different “Gene’s Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs Presents: The Gene-As Touch” is entirely out of the box.  The art style for one is done in a manner that makes me believe this may be Gene’s dream.  Additionally, the prose is done in a rhythmic poem and tells a dark tale about cheese.  I was surprised to discover that the writer for this short poem was done not by one of the show’s writers but someone more focused on production, Anneliese Waddington.  I’d love to see what this creative talent could do with a full episode, I’m sure it would be like nothing we have ever seen before.

The final story “Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction Presents: Galac-Tina” is very much that look into Tina’s imagination that we all love.  Her unrequited love for Jimmy Jr. holds no bounds through time and space, and we just eat it up.  It was also fun to see Gene and Louise in their unique space designs as part of Tina’s crew.  This was the shortest of the three stories, but an excellent addition.

All in all, this is a worthy grab from Free Comic Book Day.  It is precisely the type of book that you hope you can find during the annual event.  It’s simple, complete stories, and you get three of them in one.  The only thing that bothers me is that there are no Bob’s Burgers comic books to go pick up next month.  With The Simpsons books wrapping up last year, there is not enough representation of adult animation in the comic media.  Thank goodness the Rick and Morty comic books are as brilliant as they are.  But, maybe, this release is an indication that Dynamite is contemplating bringing back a series that I for one would stand behind all the way.