REVIEW: Over The Garden Wall #1

Over the Garden Wall #1
Created and Written by Pat McHale
Illustrated by Jim Campbell
Colours by Danielle Burgos
Letters by Warren Montgomery

Let’s judge this book by its cover… There are A LOT of covers for this issue. 6 variants to go with the regular cover. All very similar. The style is simple and clean if a little childlike.

If you’re sitting comfortably we can begin… Wirt and his half-brother along with their bluebird friend and detective frog are trying to hitch a ride in the woods. Unfortunately Wirts polite approach isn’t working so they decide to walk. Wirt trips and ruins a flower bed belonging to two young girls and their papa. The girls threaten to tell papa if wirt doesn’t do their cores for them, first asking that he folds the Linen and burns them. So he folds the linens and sets fire to them all. Crying the girls ask why he’s burning the linen and not them, pointing at the pile of leaves. To make it up to them they ark him to break all the eggs in the hen-house to stop the snake from getting them. Not sure he asks if they really want him to break them all. They tell him it’s what they want so he smashes all the eggs and the girls cry again, we meant into a bowl. Getting angry that the girls are not very clear with their requests he asked a final one what he can do to make it up to them. This time the girls ask him to throw their dog In the well and drawn it. This time he insists he heard them wrong, but no the girls are very clear. Refusing to harm the dog the girls call to their papa who begins to cry uncontrollably and floods the whole garden. Wirt leaves and confused to how he could have made so many mistakes, the bluebird tells him the girls were using him to get out of chores and it wasn’t his fault. They see a carriage full of hay and jump in the back as the driver hears a noise and thinks it the beast and speeds up. To be continued.

Such a cute little book. The art is actually quite magical, brings back memories of childhood. The misunderstanding of chores is very funny, you feel for Wirt who is such a nice kid and just wanted to help. The mean girls with their faces hidden made them a little more sinister.

The Good, the Bad and the Star rating…
The good – Simple, sweet and funny.
The bad – Though it looks like a child’s book I think the harshness of the bluebird is a little too grown up.
The stars – It made me feel happy as I was reading. The art was colourful and playful. I’d have to give this 4 stars.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Do you agree with my review? Comment below or find me on Twitter @DawnOfComics and let me know what you thought of this book.

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Dawn of Comics

Hey, I'm Shane.
Been into comics since I was about 5. Loved watching Wonder Woman and superboy in the 80's.
I Started reading seriously about 10 years ago. Began to collect a few comic series, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Teen Titans, Justice League of America and Superman Batman all pre flashpoint. Being honest that was my favourite run.