Brothers Wirt and Greg, and a talking bird named Beatrice begin their 5 issue miniseries from BOOM!. Over The Garden Wall™: Soulful Symphonies #1 is the first issue of this title based on the Emmy award-winning Cartoon Network cartoon series.

For first time readers like me, this title is an odd read. It’s part charming, part alarming. What’s a fella supposed to think, when the rambling quest for these characters brings them out of the woods and into a strange little village? A strange deserted little village. Oh, wait, here comes someone, let’s talk to them! Oh, you’re looking for actors in a stage play, and you want us to audition? How unusual! Where is everyone else?

It’s an off-kilter helter-skelter little episode, part David Lynch and Mr. Dressup (for the Canadian boomers reading this). Where the town with no pity and no one wandering around looking for the best wifi leads us, we have no idea! But Soulful Symphonies has got my attention, and maybe yours too.

It’s all thanks to creator Pat McHale, Writer Birdie Willis, Illustrator Rowan MacColl, Colourist Dean Stuart, and Letterer Mike Fiorentino. Take a bow, everyone! Break a leg, as they say in the theatre industry…The words are witty and filled with character. The characters are full of words, expressions, and offbeat shenanigans. The colouring tips us off that things are stepping off the Stepford path into unusual behavior. And that’s why this title is mystifyingly fun.

BOOM Over The Garden Wall™: Soulful Symphonies #1, $3.99 for 24 pages of content. Not rated, but intended for middle school and younger readers.

By Alan Spinney

After a career of graphic design, art direction and copywriting, I still have a passion for words and pictures. I love it when a comic book comes together; the story is tight, and the drawings lead me forward. Art with words... the toughest storytelling technique to get right. Was this comic book worth your money? Let's see!!