Public Domain Pooh!

I thought that as soon as Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain some comic book publisher would quickly put out a straight-up Pooh graphic novel adaptation. Two years down the road, while there have been a couple comic series taking Pooh into dark fantasy realms, this is the very first time I have found A. A. Milne's original stories reinterpreted in comic book form. And, boy, was it worth the wait!

Travis Dandro masterfully brings Milne's witty dialogue to life in delightful layouts with expert pacing. He rightly ditches much of the Milne's narration, showing us the story instead of letting his pages become burdened by giant blocks of text. He also pays homage to E. H. Shepard by including the images we all remember from the original books amidst his own original illustrations.

Sure, I could quibble about Dandro's art style and word choices here and there, but I'm so happy to finally have a true Pooh graphic novel that tells all the stories from the first book. I dearly hope Dandro is working on an adaptation of The House at Pooh Corner. I can't wait to see what he does with Tigger.

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh books my family owns (see the list here). While I work through few remaining longer Pooh books we own, I'm missing my daily dose of Pooh, so I'm going to start seeking out some of the Pooh books I don't own – yet – from libraries IRL and online. See the reviews here.) ( )