When the Tale of Sand script surfaced in the Henson Company archives, I’m sure the Henson folks were tempted to try producing it as an actual film.  With today’s movie technology, you can create all that stuff semi-convincingly with a greenscreen and some CGI.

But they didn’t make a movie, they teamed with Archaia Comics to make a graphic novel, which was (FINALLY!)  released last month. Archaia has done great work with translating existing Henson properties to comics, and the comics medium proves to be the right choice for this project.  With Jim and Jerry gone, any producers or directors would have had an enormous responsibility to do justice to their great “lost” work, and besides that, any kind of mainstream production would probably have required some cuts to the original screenplay, but this format allows us to experience Jim and Jerry’s entire story without constantly asking, “Is that really how they would have done it?”

The first thing you notice when you hold this book in your hands is how pretty it is.  The price tag reads $29.95, but I would have easily expected to pay ten dollars more than that.  It’s a lovely hardcover with a simple but appealing design, and it even has a little ribbony thing that I think is meant to be used as a bookmark.  As if any Henson fan could restrain themselves from devouring the whole book in one sitting!

I’m a pretty big comic book geek, but I had never heard of Ramón K. Pérez before this book was announced, so I wondered why Archaia and Henson didn’t choose a more high-profile artist, but now I can’t imagine another artist doing any better with the material.  I’d be interested to know how much instruction he got from the Henson Company and how much creative freedom he had in interpreting what was obviously a crazy script, but the result is fantastically readable.

The layouts vary — sometimes the pages are crowded with panels, sometimes there are full-age drawings with no panel borders at all.  Sometimes pages and pages go by without dialogue, so the art has to carry all of the action.  But it’s never confusing, which is pretty impressive for a story that features stuff like a guy getting chased through the desert by an Arabian army and a football team.

I also want to mention the colors, an aspect of comics that I don’t even notice most of the time.  Ian Herring is credited as colorist alongside Pérez, and the colors are just as beautiful as the art itself. The script is called Tale of Sand, and it takes place in the desert, so as you might guess, there’s an abundance of sand in it. But the clever, not-always-naturalistic coloring prevents the whole book from being page after page of orange or brown.

Oh hey, what about the story?  It’s good too!  Although Henson and Juhl were geniuses, not every single thing they ever worked on was pure gold, so it would have been unfortunate but not impossible for Tale of Sand to be lousy.  And it’s altogether likely that some of those Hollywood producers who rejected the project just didn’t like it.  But it’s a rollicking good time, with tons of weird, funny moments, and you really never can guess what’s going to happen next.  If you like Timepiece and The Cube, you’re going to like Tale of Sand.  It feels exactly like the next project Jim and Jerry would start on after The Cube, with similar themes and an all-around similar vibe.

In The Cube, you have a guy stuck in an inescapable prison which may or may not represent life itself, as a series of unusual characters enter, torment him, and exit.  Tale of Sand gives its lead character a bigger space to inhabit and the ability to explore it, but as in The Cube he’s hampered by bizarre happenings that are beyond his control or understanding.

The protagonist is Mac, a “muscular, stocky man in his late thirties,” according to the screenplay (excerpts of which are cleverly integrated into the art at various intervals).  As the story begins, he finds himself in an old Western town, where all the citizens have gathered for a celebration, which turns out to be in honor of Mac.  Apparently, he’s supposed to go on some kind of journey, and everyone is really excited about it.  The town sheriff gives Mac a debriefing that doesn’t explain anything at all, hands him a map, and sends him off into the desert.

And that’s pretty much the premise of the thing.  There’s no formal beginning/middle/end structure, and if Mac learns anything over the course of the book, I couldn’t tell you what it is.  There is conflict, though, and plenty of it… Mac has to pass numerous obstacles, some dangerous and some ridiculous, and throughout his expedition, a mysterious man appears to make life difficult for him. (He’s not identified in dialogue, but the script calls him Patch.)

Just as there’s no plot, there’s no character development to speak of.  Mac is just a guy — we don’t know anything about him, or where he came from.  He exists only to move from one strange and surreal situation to the next.  That’s probably another good reason this is a graphic novel and not a real film… If it were a film, we’d be talking about how a proper movie needs a three-dimensional lead character, but the visual emphasis provided by the comic book format makes it matter less.

I guess it’s cliché to make this analogy in a book review, but Tale of Sand is like a ride… There are sudden drops and turns and loops that are kind of disorienting, but it’s all so entertaining that it’s worth it.  It’s not like a Muppet production, but it’s unmistakably a product of the Muppet guys. Their sense of humor is present throughout, and as the Archaia folks have pointed out, even the western setting echoes (or whatever the opposite of echo is, as Sand was written first) the ghost town from The Muppet Movie.  For this screenplay to have been uncovered from the depths of the Henson archives and turned into a work of art that we can own and enjoy over and over again is the happiest possible ending this Tale could have had.

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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

There are two exceptional graphic novels coming from The Jim Henson Company and Archaia, and they both happen to be hitting stores on the same day: Wednesday, December 14.

The StoryTeller (based on the TV show by the same name) and Tale of Sand (based on an old Jim Henson/Jerry Juhl script) are the comics in question, and both look to be phenomenal.  You’ll probably want to make your way to your local comic book store and buy them both.  You won’t be sorry.

And keep your eyes on ToughPigs for our reviews of both books, coming soon!

Click here to hold your breath until Wednesday on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

Last year, we asked everyone we met the ever-popular question, “Who is your favorite Muppet?”  But this year, we decided to make things much more topical by asking, “What are you most looking forward to from the new Muppet movie?“  We were able to ask a bunch of our friends from the world of Muppet and Fraggle Rock comic books, a couple superheroes, and even a few honest-to-Frog Muppeteers!

Watch the video here, and let it get you all excited for the new movie in just a few more days!

Many thanks to everyone who participated in our video, including David Petersen, Eric Jacobson, Amy Mebberson, Jeff Stokely, Superman (Alex Rae), Katie Cook, Dave Hulteen, Joe LeFavi, Grace Randolph, Tim Beedle, Kevin Clash, Nichol Ashworth, James Silvani, Batman (Bruce Wayne), and Peter Linz!

Click here to look forward to Animal ripping apart the villains of the city on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

Yes, your pals from ToughPigs own the Star Wars DVDs, we have an opinion on whether Kirk or Picard was the better captain, one of us actually cosplayed recently, and we read comic books.  If that doesn’t give us the right to wave our geek flags, then I don’t know what would.

So of course, we attended this year’s New York Comic Con, because if there’s anything nerds like, it’s being in a convention center with 100,000 other nerds.

As we posted last week, there were lots of Muppet-related happenings, panels, and people at the Con.  And guessing that a few of you out there didn’t make it to Comic Con, we’ve got lots to say about what we did, who we met, and what exactly went down.

We attended the Con for all four days (including the press-only day, because apparently we’re press), and one of the recurring highlights was the Archaia Comics booth.  They had a constant stream of writers and artists signing autographs, drawing sketches, and meeting their fans.  Among the people we got a chance to talk to were David Petersen, Grace Randolph, Joe LeFavi, Tim Beedle, Nichol Ashworth, Chandra Free, Jeff Stokely, and Ross Campbell, all of whom worked on the Fraggle Rock comic book.

Also at the Archaia booth were the new Fraggle Rock v.2 hardcover and the upcoming Storyteller graphic novel, which looks absolutely gorgeous. (Our review of which coming soon!  We promise.)

A few other Muppet/Fraggle artists were in attendance, though they had their very own tables located in “Artists’ Alley”.  Katie Cook, Amy Mebberson, and James Silvani were there, creating sketches and selling a lot more.  We ended up getting a Muppet/Doctor Who mashup from Amy and Katie Cook’s awesome (and adorable) new Gronk book.

Over at the Mighty Fine (aka welovefine.com) booth, they were selling a bunch of awesome Sesame Street t-shirts (all of which you can see/buy here).  In case you weren’t in a spendy mood, they were also giving away these nifty Cookie Monster crowns!  It was a little surreal to spot so many Cookie Monsters around the Con, and even moreso to see them attending panels.

Attached to the Mighty Fine booth was a poser Oscar the Grouch, which was a popular photo op destination.  We missed seeing Evan Cheng, who was sketching on Friday, but we did catch up with Muppeteer Eric Jacobson on Saturday and illustrator Louis Henry Mitchell on Sunday.  Eric is in “no comment” mode until the new Muppet movie comes out, but he seemed to be pretty excited and optimistic about it.  And Louis made my day by drawing me a sketch of Bert (he said it was his only Bert of the day, having drawn dozens of Elmos, Abbys, Grovers, and Cookie Monsters).  “Happy Bert or angry Bert?” he asked me.  “Angry Bert!” I replied.  “Good,” said Louis, “That’s how I was going to draw him anyway.”  Score.

Two other Muppet celebrities made some unscheduled appearances, though not at any booth.  We spotted Joey Mazzarino (Murray Monster) and Peter Linz (The Muppets’ Walter) just walking around the Con like they were normal people!  Joey was in the midst of promoting Sesame Street’s current anti-bullying campaign and took a break to see what all the geekery was about.  Peter was accompanying his daughter and her friends, and he took a few minutes to tell us about how he thinks that Muppet fanatics like you and me are really going to love the new movie.  And if you can’t trust Walter, who can you trust??

For the first time ever, I tried my hand at cosplaying at this year’s con.  My girlfriend and I decided to dress as Zuul and Vinz Clortho (aka the Gatekeeper and Keymaster from Ghostbusters).  It was a lot of fun, and we probably had our pictures taken about 50 times.  In any case, cosplayers have been expanding their options beyond comic book and anime characters in recent years to include anyone and anything from pop culture (hence our Ghostbuster theme).  So of course, a few Muppets are bound to make an appearance.  We spotted a homemade Big Bird and Labyrinth’s Jareth, and we heard rumblings of a Swedish Chef and Yip Yip Martians walking the Con floor too.  No word on whether or not any of them were Justin Timberlake though.

But there was more to Comic Con than getting autographs and randomly bumping into celebrities!  We attended a bunch of panels as well!  In a desperate plea for more Muppet comics, I went to the Disney/Marvel panel, which was almost entirely about Marvel’s new line of all-ages picture books.  When the Q&A portion came, I had the opportunity to ask about the future of Muppet comics, aside from the Boom Comics reprints.  After an awkward pause from the panel, I added, “What I’m trying to say is: Please make more Muppet comics,” which got some applause from the audience.  My question got a quick blow-off with a yarn about the pages for the other reprint books coming over from Thailand, followed immediately by a non-sequitor about who would win in a fight between Thor and the Hulk.  So, I’m pretty sure my question was answered there.

I was unfortunately unable to attend the Drew Struzan panel, which had Caroll Spinney as a speaker.  Luckily, ToughPigs’ own Ryan did attend, and here’s his recap of the event:

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster was a panel hosted by the filmmakers behind the upcoming documentary Drew: The Man Behind the Poster, about the prolific movie poster artist Drew Struzan. Struzan has painted the Muppets numerous times, but I was curious to see why Caroll Spinney was on the panel, as its description didn’t explain his presence alongside the director and producer. Is he a friend of Struzan? Did they work together on some kind of art project? As it turned out, Caroll is one of the many, many notable people who were interviewed for the documentary… Basically, he’s just a fan of Struzan’s work. And I’m pretty sure the real reason he was there was that Caroll Spinney is awesome and they knew he would bring folks to the panel.

Caroll was among several famous folks who appeared in the preview video the filmmakers showed, talking about Struzan’s work and career, including his Muppet movie posters. (Though I couldn’t help but notice that Caroll wasn’t really involved in any of those movies, not counting very brief cameos). After the video, the moderator asked the panel several Drew Struzan-related questions, but he also asked Caroll a few non-Struzan questions, because that’s what you do when you have a television legend in the room. Caroll talked about working with Jim, and Jim’s habit of saying “Lovely!” or “Hmmm…” to indicate whether or not he liked something. He also recounted a story I hadn’t heard before, in which Jim, Caroll, and Caroll’s wife were going to dinner at a nice restaurant in the late 70s and they happened to walk past Liza Minelli’s table. Jim stopped, expecting to chat with her, but after glancing up at him, she completely ignored him and went back to her conversation. (Dang, Liza! That’s cold.) Fortunately, the evening was salvaged when Jim spotted Alice Cooper and John Entwhistle at a nearby table and hobnobbed with them instead.

When asked about “how Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch came about,” Caroll went back in time and told some stories familiar to Sesame fans: The ambitious puppet show gone awry when Jim Henson was in the audience, the cab driver who said “Where to, Mac?” in a voice Caroll would appropriate for Oscar, and the evolution of Big Bird from a dumb guy to a child. I’d heard all this before, but it’s always charming to hear Caroll tell it, and of course there were probably several people in the audience who had never heard it.

After the conclusion of the panel, I approached Caroll and talked to him for a few minutes… When the subject of the new season came up, he mentioned the episode “The Good Birds Club,” in which Big Bird gets bullied, and said it’s one of his favorite Big Bird episodes in years. (You can watch it here.) He stayed around to talk to everyone else who wanted to meet him, and even signed some autographs. It was a good time for everyone, from the diehard Drew Struzan fans who also happen to like Sesame Street, to the people who had never heard of Struzan before but just wanted to see the guy who plays Oscar.

Thanks Ryan!

The final all-important Muppet-related panel was the joint panel presented by Archaia Comics and The Jim Henson Company.  Panelists included Archaia Editor in Chief Stephen Christy, Jim Henson Company Archivist Karen Falk, and Archaia Marketing Manager Mel Caylo (who is known for being the “nicest guy in the comics business”, and it’s true).

Karen Falk began the panel with a video presentation, showcasing some of Jim Henson’s early non-Muppet work.  The first video was an example of Jim’s surreal animations set to jazz music, which ended with this lovely bit of video of Jim at his animating desk.  Next was Time Piece, which I’ve seen a dozen times, but never get tired of (and I seem to find something else to appreciate in it with every viewing).  Then came another surreal video titled “Ripples“, back-t0-back with the Bufferin commercial (featuring the voice, but not the face, of Jim) that it was inspired by. Finally, they showed a clip from The Cube, which never ceases to disturb.

After that, Stephen Christy took the lead and introduced Archaia’s upcoming collaboration with The Jim Henson Company, “A Tale of Sand”.  The book, written by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl, is illustrated by Ramon Perez who was supposed to be attending the panel as well.  Unfortunately, Perez has to back out at the last minute, as he was putting the finishing touches on his artwork.  So while we didn’t get to meet him, we’re happy to know that the art is officially finished, and the books will be in our hands soon.

According to Christy, “A Tale of Sand” is Archaia’s “love letter to Jim”.  They showed the first 50 (out of 160) pages of the book via projector, and I’m pleased to say that the artwork is absolutely gorgeous.  It’s both stylized and grounded in reality, which is very much like a lot of Jim’s directorial work. The information given about the book came rapidly, and here’s what we know:

* When writing, Jim conceived of the visuals and sound effects while Jerry Juhl was the “wordsmith”.

* There were three drafts written between 1967 and 1974.

* Certain scenes from the original script were adapted to be included in The Muppet Movie, notably the desert scenes and the final showdown.

* Pieces of the script (with Jim and Jerry’s hand-written notes) will appear in the introduction to the book.

* The main character’s name is “Mac”. The story involves Mac in a race across the desert, being chased by an eyepatched villain named “Patch”.

* There is a big focus on sound effects (like “Sploosh” and “Tamp Tamp Tamp”).

* There is a brief (and obscure) Muppet Movie reference: When Mac enters a ghost town, he passes by a still-standing horse skeleton.

* Jim and Jerry both make illustrated cameos in the story.

* The font used for the dialog balloons was created from samples of Jim’s own handwriting.  (Seriously, how cool is that???)

* The book will have an elastic band attached to it, much like a journal.

* Tale of Sand will be in stores this December.

After the impressive Tale of Sand demonstration, Christy also teased Archaia’s upcoming Dark Crystal comic book.  Volume 1 of “The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths” will be in stores on November 22, 2011, with the following two books in the series debuting roughly once per year.  The books will tell the story of Aughra and the UrSkeks before they got split into Skeksis and Mystics.

Aughra’s goofy-eyed son, “Ronip”, will play a major role in the story (that’s him on the cover on your left).  Ronip was created entirely by Brian Froud, who also served as concept designer and consultant for the book.

Speaking of Brian Froud, he is also hard at work on the Labyrinth graphic novels, which Archaia teased at the panel.  The prequel will feature a young man named Jareth, who is taken into the Labyrinth by a witch.  Excited yet???

Thanks to everyone at Archaia Comics, former Boom Studios staff, Muppeteers, Karen Falk, and all the Muppet fans at NYCC who attended all of these events!  Here’s to another great year for Muppet-related comic books!

Click here to wash your hands, turn the page on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

Archaia Comics’ new graphic novel inspired by The Storyteller will officially be out December 7, but they’re selling an extremely limited number of copies at this weekend’s New York Comic Con. To mark the occasion, USA Today has a nifty little write-up about the comic, which includes several preview pages, including peeks at a story based on an unproduced Storyteller script by Anthony Minghella, and stories by Muppet/Henson comic fan favorites Roger Langridge and Katie Cook.  Click here to check it out!

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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

Check out the Take of Sand preview below!  And remember to click on the images to view them in their full glory!

 In addition to the sandy preview, Archaia is also offering a preview of The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, a comic book sequel to the Henson film The Dark Crystal.  Check out those preview pages right here:

Click here to learn the future of Fizzgig on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

The Skrumps are sculptor/illustrator John Chandler’s love child. Chandler created the characters to be sold as vinyl toys and storybooks, and The Jim Henson Company bought them out a few years ago to build them into a franchise for an animated series and loads of merchandising.

We initially reported on the Skrumps waaaay back in January, 2007 (in one of the very first ToughPigs articles written by Ryan Roe!). As Ryan said, The Jim Henson Company hoped that Skrumps characters like “Wishbone” and “Skrumpy” would become household names after the release of their YouTube music videos (one of which is seen below). As you probably know by now, that didn’t quite happen.

But now the Skrumps are back! And thankfully not in the form of Henson’s motion capture puppetry (which seems to work really well for something like Sid the Science Kid, but not so much for something like The Skrumps or Wilson and Ditch). No, now we’re seeing the Skrumps in a whole new medium: comic books.

Archaia Comics, who are already on our good side for bringing us the phenomenal Fraggle Rock comic book, as well as the highly anticipated Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Storyteller, and A Tale of Sand comics, have published a Skrumps graphic novel titled “The Mooch Steps Up His Game”, which stars everyone’s third-favorite Skrump, The Mooch (and his game).

The story begins with Jeff Lebowski The Mooch, notorious in Skrump Land for mooching off the other Skrumps (get it???), and his quest to score some “treats” in the form of free food. After an unsuccessful visit to a landfill and the local diner (where his friend Treats works, which adds the confusion of his friend sharing the same name as the object of his desire), Mooch finds himself at the pet store where he buys a giant Skrump named Tom. After being evicted from his apartment, Mooch and Tom live the hobo life and (spoiler warning) get a little retribution in the form of some deus ex machina.

Didja follow all that? Don’t worry if it seems a little disjointed, it’s not just you. Heck, it’s probably not just John Chandler either. The “story” has little glue to keep it all together, and reads like a series of story middles with no beginnings or endings. And really, the narrative (or lack thereof) isn’t even among the worst problems of the book.

Let’s start with the character designs. They’re definitely very Dr. Seuss-inspired, with loose lines and interesting-looking creatures. But Chandler (who also illustrates the book) doesn’t quite know when to stop, making each page a Where’s Waldo-esque mess for the eyes with lots of colors and lines and spots and stripes and curls and antennae. There’s nothing to make the characters stand out from the backgrounds, and nothing that suggests where your eye should be focusing. If the book were any longer than 37 pages, I’d guarantee more than a few headaches out there.

Chandler’s other illustration problem is that he created so many interesting-looking characters without knowing how to draw them in more than two positions each. As a result, every frame looks like clip art, with each character always looking straight ahead or directly to the left or right. Actually, Chandler could’ve saved himself a lot of time by using clip art, rather than redrawing the same figures over and over again.

There’s also the strange way that the characters speak. Chandler uses a lot of mid-90s slang like “Homies”, “What up, my brother”, and “Back off, fool”. (Note: This is only okay if John Chandler happens to also be L.L. Cool J.) All of that plus a bag of chips-full of toilet humor makes for a script written by someone who’s so desperately trying to sound cool, yet lives far, far behind the times.

As a side note, the aproned fellow to the right is Skraps, who you might recognize as Dexter Jettster from Attack of the Clones. Skrump gets around!

My favorite part of the book is immediately after Mooch gets kicked out of the diner. He decides that since he has no money for food, he should buy a pet. Because that’s what any of us would do, ammiright? And then after recovering from whiplash from that sudden story shift, Mooch tries to buy a “Funny Little Dude”, which just so happens to look like a miniature version of the pet store owner (both of whom are seen on your left), which raises many questions of morality and legality in Skrump Land in regards to child trafficking and potential abuse. Apparently all of the pets in the store not only look like smaller Skrumps, but they can all speak too, raising the question of what truly separates master and pet. I’ll wait a moment while you consult your philosophy textbooks.

In all seriousness, I do have a favorite part of the book. I dug Mooch’s piggy bank, who is suffering from a severe identity crisis. With lines like, “What is my purpose in life?”, “I feel empty inside”, and “Who am I? WHAT am I? WHY am I?”, he quickly became my favorite Skrump, beating Bubbles the Bubble-loving Skrump by a mile. Sure, it’s a little “Flintstones-ish”, but it’s the only gag in the book that I found remotely clever.

The thing is, I have no idea what to make of The Skrumps. It’s not pretty enough to be a piece of art, it’s not funny enough to be a great kids book, and it’s not clever enough to be a critically revered graphic novel. But more than anything, I’m left wondering what The Jim Henson Company ever saw in it. I suppose they could’ve seen some connection between the wriggly designs and Jim Henson’s Doodles, but the nonsensical stories and lack of focus don’t leave much hope for a successful franchise. But if that’s the sort of thing the Hensons want to spend their money on, my nephew has a great story for sale. It’s about a tractor and a kitty and a giant green circle and what I think is a candy bar with spikes.

So, would I recommend this comic book? Only if you’re the type to own everything with the Jim Henson Company logo on it, which I hope for your sake you’re not. I’m sure you’ll be able to find many other options worth buying if you find yourself at your local comic shop with $6 to burn. Might I suggest, oh, anything??

Click here to take a steaming Skrump on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

You probably don’t, because we haven’t heard much from them in a while. But now their Archaia comic book series is about to launch, and Henson is hosting a special event to mark the occasion. This Saturday, June 25, Skrumps creator John Chandler will be at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, giving away sketches and autographs with the purchase of the firstSkrumps comic book, which contains the story “The Mooch Steps Up His Game.”

And here’s another exciting part of the press release: Refreshments will be served! Hey, what kind of refreshments do Skrumps like? Skrump chops? Skrumpburgers? I hope these questions will be answered in the comic!

Click here to step up your game on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

And now, presenting to us for the first time and for the second time, Archaia will be republishing classic stories from those Fraggle Rock comic books. And they’re not just reprinted, but digitally remastered too! That’s 80s content with a modern-day feel! Or at least a modern-day coloring job.

Among the stories being reprinted are “The Magic Time Machine,” “The Trouble With Being #1,” “The Monster That Could Be Anything” and “The Doozer Who Wanted to Be a Fraggle.” All those and more will be bound in a softcover book retailing for $9.95.

Fraggle Rock Classics vol. 1 will be available on August 31, 2011.

Click here to dance your cares away, and save back issues for another day down in the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

The year was 2009. The month was March. The day was a Wednesday. The air was cool and there was an aura of trepidation amongst all Muppet fans. For the first time in over 10 years, we would be getting regular Muppet content. Not just a book or a made-for-TV special, but original material starring The Muppet Show gang in our hands on a monthly basis.

Lucky for us, the first creator tapped was Roger Langridge, who wrote all and illustrated most of The Muppet Show Comic. Not only did he put the Muppets back in the Muppet Theater where they belong, but he also brought back the variety show format, complete with the skits and songs and backstage chaos we all remember from the TV show. Add all that to the fact that it was actually funny and (at times) heartfelt, and Langridge quickly became the only current writer successfully capturing the essence of the Muppets (and not in a creepy Skeksis-sort of way).

Concurrent with The Muppet Show Comic Book were the “Muppet Classics” titles, which put the Frog and Pig and company into the personas of fairy tale and literary characters. And while the books were overall hit-or-miss, we were given a platform for different writers and artists with very different styles to tackle the Muppet characters. Because when you can’t get the real deal (sorry, Steve Whitmire’s voice doesn’t really sound so good on a comic page), variety is truly the spice of life. And we were introduced to some amazing talents like writers Grace Randolph and Jesse Blaze Snider, as well as artists like Amy Mebberson, Shelli Paroline, and David Petersen. I know I feel a great deal of pride when I see Muppet Peter Pan and Muppet Snow White on my shelf, and I remember the satisfied feeling I got when I read them for the first time. The Muppets, albeit only on the printed page, were back.

A real highlight for me (and for you, although you probably didn’t know it) was the relationship we got to build with the Boom Studios staff. Thanks to the diligence of Chip Mosher and Ivan Salazar in Boom’s Marketing Department, we had the rare opportunity to provide our readers with preview pages of every single Muppet comic book, as well as a little lead time to ensure that our reviews would be timely and not rushed. They also helped to get us in touch with the writers and artists, many of whom were accommodating enough to give us the time for an interview. They even gave ToughPigs a quote on the back of the Muppet Snow White trade collection. Needless to say, we got the royal treatment from the Boom crew, and we should be so lucky to get the same treatment from any other company in the future.

So now the nagging question is What do we expect from Marvel? First and foremost, we’re hoping for new, quality Muppet comics (they’ll be reprinting Roger Langridge’s Muppet Show comic, but there’s no word yet on original content). Beyond that, it would be nice to have the same opportunity to deliver the Muppet comic news to you with the same amount of reliability and punctuality. I’d also like to see more Muppet work from Jesse Blaze Snider, Amy Mebberson, Grace Randolph, Shelli Paroline, and Roger Langridge, because they have all laid some amazing groundwork for the theme of the comics already, and it would be a shame to deny us of more of their talent.

In the end, I’m left wondering how these last two years will be remembered in Muppet history. Will we recall Boom Studios as the oasis in the center of the Muppet Content Desert? Or will they be overshadowed by whatever will be riding the coattails of the new movie later this year? I know how I’ll think back on Boom: They gave us the Muppets when there were no other Muppets to be found, and that will be remembered for a long time to come.

Many thanks to everyone at Boom Studios for almost two years of quality Muppet comic books!

Click here to go down in Muppet history on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com