STORY : Art Baltazar and Franco
ART : Art Baltazar
Simple, goofy, fun.
That’s in a nut-shell pretty much an apt description of the comics that Art Baltazar has become famous for and all his various versions have garnered a solid readership – more so because they allow for a kid friendly entry to comic characters.
THE REVIEW:
Previously he has done a lot on the Tiny Titans over at DC and more recently Itty Bitty Hellboy with Dark Horse, but I have to admit that the Mask is a hard one to get right – just like Hellboy, the original is decidedly not something most folks would have given their littler kids to read in a hurry.
To deal with that, Baltazar and Franco seem to have drawn from the more silly aspect such as in the animated series which was more family friendly and it’s not exactly rocket-science to write a story about someone finding a magical mask that makes them capable of anything and also a little super-nuts as a side-effect.
They’ve just severely dialed back the crazy and gone for more flat out silly – which one would think would be great for a kids comic and I daresay it will be enjoyed, but this is definitely the weakest of anything I’ve seen from this creator because it becomes all about the silly with nothing of any real interest in it. The others mentioned were also kiddy comics meant for just fun but at least the characters felt distinct and fun individually, this one just felt like they took the most obvious or blandest way to go with this, made no effort at the jokes and just threw it together.
It’s sad but hey, it’s a kids book and so I hope they do better the next time around or with whatever character comes next in this Itty Bitty series.
THE LAST WORD:
Baltazar’s art is as always bright, cheery, neatly-messy and fun to see so that’s a decided pro for the book.
Would I recommend it? Half-heartedly, I’d rather say go read or re-read their earlier comics and wait for something better.
OVERALL SCORE: 3 / 10
One Happy Monk's Reviews 