IDW Endless Summer: Dungeons & Dragons Saturday Morning Adventures One-Shot

The animated version of Dungeons & Dragons that I grew up watching aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1983-1985. The satanic panic of the 1980s was just getting hot when the cartoon left the airwaves. Had the show debuted a year or two later than it did, it probably wouldn't become the pop culture icon it's become today. I know one thing is for sure; had D&D debuted in 1986-87, there's no way in the world my mother would have allowed me to watch it.

It's right around the end of the Reagan era that my mother and father were convinced that if I played RPG games or listened to heavy metal music, I would be whisked away straight to Hell. Maybe it's why I don't like horror that gets involved with demons and such. But being raised Baptist, the Devil was someone you just didn't mess with. 

So you're probably thinking why am I reading this 2023 IDW Summer special starring Hank, Bobby, his pet unicorn Uni and their friends? Well, to me, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the 80s didn't feel evil. Only one main character was a wizard (and not a very good one at that) True, the children's mentor, Dungeon Master, is a cross between Yoda and Dumbledore with his enigmatically sage advice and provisions of magical tools to free the land of whatever from the evil oppression of Venger (was he a wizard? or just a powerful baddie???) and the 5-headed dragon, Tiamat. 

In this summer break themed one-shot, young barbarian Bobby in lamenting how instead of getting to go to the beach during his summer break, he and his friends have been whisked away from modern day earth to become protectors of a magical land. Realizing that some R&R is vitally needed for his champions, Dungeon Master sends the children to a secluded lake for a much needed break. The only rule that they must follow is to not cross the other side of the lake shore, which is exactly what arrogant Eric the Cavalier does, accidentally unlocking a hidden evil from the mouth of a nearby cavern!

I thought that the artwork by Jack Lawrence was great. I may not be an expert at exactly remembering what the characters from this cartoon of my early childhood looked like. But Lawrence's renderings of the characters was good enough to make me feel like I was reliving a moment from my childhood. 

The writing of David M. Booher also seemed really good. Though I can't quite remember what everyone other than Bobby sounded like, the tones of the characters seemed right. I also don't remember Eric being that brave.

Speaking of things I don't remember... While I remember that the acrobatic warrior princess Diana wore a two piece fur bikini with boots, was she that sexualized as she appears on the main cover by Tim Levins? In fact, if you look at the black & white coloring book variant of this cover, Diana doesn't have quite so overt curves in the chest region. So I don't think you can blame Diana's assets on Levins. Instead, that blame should probably be pointed at whomever inked the main cover. 

A really fun summertime special that was centered in the world of fantasy and role play but wasn't evil or demonic. I hope IDW continues to bring back more animated franchises from our childhood back in comic book form. I just hope that they add more titles instead of sticking to the same 5 shows for their 'Saturday Morning Adventures' line of books.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Canto #1 (A Family Comic Friday Extra!)

Some weeks there’s so much great stuff that you can’t contain it in one review! I wish that was the case for this week’s Family Comic Friday Extra. Instead, life got in the way and I got behind on my comic book readings. But that’s okay. Because there’s still time to jump on the bandwagon of what is a candidate for my pick for all-ages comic book of the year: Canto!

Canto #1
Written by David M. Booher
Art by Drew Zucker
Published by IDW Publishing
Pages: 32
Retail: $3.99

Canto’s people are slaves. Their hearts have been replaced with clocks. Not allowed to have a name or fall in love nor own possessions, our hero’s people are reduced to little more than replaceable parts of a bigger machine of servitude and cruelty. See, for when the time stops on the clocks of these slaves, they are thrown into a furnace to power and warm the domiciles of the enslavers.

Canto is different from the rest. For one, he has a name. Then there’s the fact that Canto is in love with another; a little girl made of tin. He even gifts her tiny shiny pebbles as a token of his love. When the slavers do discover the secrets of Canto, they seek to make an example of someone who dares to buckle their repressive system. In another act of love, the girl throws herself at the villains and her clock is severely damaged.

In order to save the one he loves and hopefully overthrow his oppressors, Canto must embarked on a solo journey. One that promises action, thrills and possibly an unlocked secret or two!

Canto is visually stunning! Skybreaker’s Drew Zucker did a phenomenal job on these pages. I’m itching to discover what Canto and his people really look like underneath those helmets!
While Drew Zucker blew me away with his vision of this far off land, he couldn’t have done it without writer David M. Booher (Powerless). He does something that only a very few can and that is to create not just an entire world but a whole universe. Though we only witness a tiny portion of Canto’s world, through Booher’s narrative, I feel like there are distant planets teeming with life somewhere in our hero’s galaxy.

I absolutely loved this opening chapter. It was so fanciful. Canto is supposed to be inspired by the Wizard of Oz and the fantasy works of Jim Henson. Yet this book really was unlike anything I have ever read before. I only hated that it ended too soon! Thankfully, I won’t have to wait long as issue #2 is set to debut later this month!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Canto #1 currently available in print at a comic book store near you as well as certain digital formats.