REVIEW: Jim Henson Presents #1 Comic Book

Published: February 5, 2025
Categories: Feature, Reviews

Did you know there’s a new anthology comic book series featuring stories from the various worlds of The Jim Henson Company? It’s called Jim Henson Presents, it’s published by Boom! Studios/Archaia and the first issue came out in January. Issue #2 is due this month. You can find them at your local comic book shop! Or, as Boom’s website notes, “Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including Kindle, iBooks, and Google Play.”

I’ve always liked comic book issues that contain more than one story. It makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth, which doesn’t really make sense because it usually just means shorter stories. But I like the variety of the anthology format. I read one story and I say “Well, that was nice,” and then I turn the page and there’s ANOTHER story! Whoa!

Four Henson properties appear on the cover of issue #1: Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Farscape, and Labyrinth. I hope nobody buys this issue just to read a Labyrinth story, because there ain’t none. Presumably future issues will include the adventures of Hoggle and friends. (This one does have a lovely one-page Labyrinth drawing by Cory Godbey.)

The first feature in this issue is a Fraggle Rock story called “Beauty Is in the Pie of the Beholder,” written by Shannon Watters and illustrated by Max Sarin. We can tell this is classic-era Fraggle Rock because Mokey’s hair is down and she’s wearing her old sweater.

The Fraggles are getting ready for the Festival of the Bells — a holiday established on the TV show! — and Boober is eager to prepare one of his favorite recipes for the occasion. Unfortunately, the other Fraggles are grossed out at the prospect of eating Boober’s chosen dish, so they hatch a plan to do something about it.

This is a fun story. It’s true to the tone of the show, while also taking advantage of the comic book medium by throwing in a few gags that would be tricky to achieve with a TV budget. Sarin’s art is cartoony and expressive, allowing the Fraggles to make faces they couldn’t in puppet form.

The next feature is “Last One There’s a Rotten Food Cube,” written by Jill Tew and illustrated by Carola Borelli, and it takes us to the world of Farscape. In this tale, the crew of Moya is bored, so Aeryn challenges John to a race, in which they each fly a small spaceship around Moya, which is a very large spaceship. The other characters place bets on the outcome.

I’m sure I would have appreciated this more if I were a Farscape fan. (One of these days I’m gonna watch it! Really!) As a Farscape muggle, though, I enjoyed it well enough, and the interplay between the characters gave me the impression that it’s probably pleasant to watch them all banter on the show. 

Unfortunately, an important panel near the end was drawn in a confusing way, such that I had to go over it three times before I actually understood what had happened. I was also startled to see Chiana announce “John’s about to get his ass kicked.” The comic started with a Fraggle Rock story, so I assumed the whole thing would be family-friendly. Are Henson and the publishers just targeting grown-ups who like Fraggle Rock, children be darned?

Finally, there’s “The Heretic and the Wanderer,” a Dark Crystal story written by Seanan McGuire and illustrated by Countandra. This is a cool story, although it took me a little while to get oriented in the Dark Crystal timeline. As far as I can tell, it takes place before the events of Age of Resistance. It would have been nice to have a little caption box from the editor to explain that. Exposition is such a lost art in comic books these days!

Anyway, this story focuses on a Skeksis named skekGra. That’s the guy who will later become the character voiced by Andy Samberg in Age of Resistance — a fact I was pretty sure of, but again, it would have been nice to have some narration explaining that. I suppose the title is meant to be an indication that this is an origin story for how skekGra ended up the way we met him in Age of Resistance.

At the time of this story, skekGra is still known as “The Conqueror,” and he takes on two Gelfling sisters named Este and Vera as proteges. The sisters move into the Castle of the Crystal with the other Skeksis, but by the final pages it becomes clear that it’s not going to turn out great for them.

I like that this story introduces new Gelfling (unless they’ve been seen before in some books or comics I’m unaware of?), and just as in Age of Resistance, the reader’s knowledge of future events casts a dramatic shadow over the whole thing.

“The Heretic and the Wanderer” is a “Part One” story, and I’ll be curious to see whether next month’s issue concludes the saga of Este and Vera or leads into yet another installment. I like the cliffhanger ending — although I’m glad they didn’t try to contrive one for all three of these stories!

It looks like Jim Henson Presents #2 will include a Labyrinth story, which is cool. I won’t be surprised if future issues include tales from The Storyteller as well. Beyond that, I’d love to see Henson stretch a little. The anthology format gives them potential to try all kinds of things, so I’d love to see some stories from outside the four most recognizable Henson properties. How about a short Earth to Ned comic that takes place on Ned’s home planet? If they have the rights to that. Or a story about the Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow? I’m pretty sure they have the rights to that!

Or what about experimenting with some concepts that never quite got off the ground? They could entice readers to buy the comic with the promise of a Labyrinth feature, then throw in a story starring the characters from Jim Henson’s unfinished project Starboppers.

I know, I know. They’re never going to do this. Jim Henson Presents is going to stick to well-known properties. And so far, it’s off to a good start! I look forward to my comic shop pullbox containing monthly doses of Gobo alongside Thor and Superman.

Click here to race around Moya on the Tough Pigs Discord!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

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