"The Muppet Show" review

Title: The Muppet Show
Volume(s): 1
Creator(s): Roger Langridge
Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right
Publisher: Boom! Kids
MSRP: $2.99
Genre(s): Comedy
Rated: All Ages

Thanks to a recent deal with Boom! Studios, some of Disney’s biggest properties are finally coming to comic form to give us more stories of our favorite characters.  And when I say Disney’s “biggest properties” I mean anything made by Pixar.  We’ve got “The Incredibles,” “Cars,” “Toy Story” (of which I’m assuming won’t spoil anything in the upcoming “Toy Story 3" film), “Finding Nemo,” and The Muppets.  As usual...wait a minute!  The Muppets?!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Disney purchased the Muppets from the Jim Henson Company for a cheap $30 million several years ago.  I guess this is Disney realizing they still have the property and have to find some way to make money with it.  In fact, out of all of Boom’s new Disney series the Muppets seem to be getting the best treatment.

Not only do we have a “The Muppet Show” mini-series but the Muppets will be giving us their version of Robin Hood soon.  So how does “The Muppet Show” comic turn out?  Really great in some respects.  In fact, out of all the series Boom has produced I get this funny feeling they are most happy to working with the Muppet characters.  While the Pixar properties are silly side diversions that give us a shell of the characters movie glory “The Muppet Show” is literally the first new episode of the classic TV show we’ve gotten in a long time...except it’s not on TV.  The comic follows the same formula of the TV show where various different segments are played in front of the audience while personal turmoil goes on behind stage.  In this case Kermit gets a letter with some bad news and the gang tries to cheer him up.

But on stage it’s business as usual as Pigs In Space, Swedish Chef makes another crazy recipe, and a skit involved four exploding frogs that gave me the biggest laugh in the comic by far.  The wit and writing is so in touch with the classic show that I can see this easily being the closest thing to a revival of a proper Muppets show that we’re likely to get.  If there is a sore spot to this release it’s that the artwork is horribly off-model and many of the characters (especially Kermit) look so different and ugly that they might as well be different characters.  Only Chef and Fozzie Bear really look like the real characters and even that’s a bit of a stretch.  Thankfully the writing overcomes all this and becomes one of the best new comics to hit stands this year.  I know it’s only planned for a four issue mini-series, but I think this has the potential to be a monthly series easily.  Here’s hoping sales are good.