This is less of a review and more of a delighted “I’m so glad Strange Academy #4 is out!” Seriously, I love this series.
The artwork is just delicious, that’s the only way I can describe it. Humberto Ramos’ and Edgar Delgado do such a gorgeous job with these characters. The expressions are hilarious, the action is unbelieveably dynamic, and the colors and shading are…I’m trying to come up with something more than “beautiful” and “lovely.” They’re jaw-droppingly good, is what they are.
There’s a staggering amount of detail in every panel, in this issue especially: the time it must have taken to draw all those books in the library, exploded all over the place, several times, just blows my mind. But it makes you want to just linger on every page, over and over, finding details that maybe you missed the first time around.
I love how all the characters look, but Doyle is currently one of my favorites. His pumpkin-like face has the best expressions, and the flames coming off of him are always lovingly done, he’s so fun to look at.
As for story, this is a magical school run by Doctor Strange. What could be more fun than a game of tag in a school like that? Specifically: Door Tag. Almost every door in this place leads to a different environment, and most of them don’t seem to be in this dimension. Watching everybody sprint from door to door, dodging through worlds at breakneck speed, trying not to get killed by whatever’s on the other side, I just loved every second of it.
Plus we got some important information on one of the characters (and why Dessy was always staring at her) and a proper introduction to at least one of our Big Bads for the series. (With another possible Big Bad that we don’t get to see. Yet.)
I was very late in starting this series, and I’m kicking myself for it now. I’m not kidding, I own the digital copies of these issues, but I’m absolutely going to buy the graphic novel when it comes out, this is one of those series I want to have in the real world too.
