The Wolf in Underpants (Family Comic Friday)

This week, Family Comic Friday goes international as we look at the English translation of The Wolf in Underpants. A beloved French series, this graphic novel is a smartly written fable that is full of silly laughs!\

The Wolf in Underpants

Written by Wilfrid Lupano
Art by Mayana Itoiz and Paul Couuet
English Translation published by Graphic Universe
Pages: 40
Retail: $8.99

The animals of the forest are terrified of the wolf! To protect themselves, they attend wolf defense lectures and learn self-defense. The exploits of the wolf are covered in the daily newspaper. There’s even an anti-wolf brigade. So what is everyone to do when the wolf finally appears and he doesn’t feel like being big or bad anymore?

Wilfrid Lupano (Valerian and Laureline) crafts a wickedly funny story about a wolf, the community he terrorizes and his underpants. This is the sort of comedy the French are known for. This book is kinda weird, a little surreal, and very funny.

At the heart of this story is a fable about the way change can impact society. All of the forest creatures live their lives in fear of a terrible beast. Their entire economy is based around protecting themselves from the wolf. The wolf, thanks to some comfy underlinens, has decided to no longer life his life in anger. Now can the animals meet the challenge to put ‘more in their lives than just fear’? It’s clearly a message in today’s highly political world that some adults need to hear.

My favorite part was the artwork by Mayana Itoiz and Paul Couuet (The Old Geezers). They create a forest world that reminded me of the very busy antics of those characters of Richard Scarry. Every corner of the page is filled with tiny animals doing very human-like things. It was such a wondrous landscape on every page of this book. So great, I didn’t want it to end.

You might think being a French graphic novel that The Wolf in Underpants would be bawdy. But the level of humor about underwear is way tamer than anything in the Captain Underpants series. There is a devilish ending to this book. But it’s nothing worse than just about anything that happens in the end of Little Red Riding Hood. (And no- that’s not a spoiler!)

The Wolf in Underpants is recommended for readers 7-11. It is a delightful little book that will make both kids and parents laugh again and again. If the young reader in your life becomes a fan of this scantily clad predator, then you’ll be delighted to know that the Wolf will return in another volume sometime in early 2020.

A fun read that is as smart and it is bizarre. One part children’s story book, one part graphic novel- The Wolf in Underpants is a French import completely worthy of high praise!

The Wolf in Underpants debuted in print and digital formats on March 5, 2019.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com.