Movies may be our first love here at Cinefessions, but we are proud dorks in the truest sense of the word. We love not only movies, but video games, books, comics, board games, men and women in spandex, and everything else that goes along with nerd culture. As longtime readers of graphic novels, comics, and trade paperback collections, we are excited to bring you a formal look at this genre in the form of criticism. The Cinefessions team will use Graphic Novel Capsule Reviews to look at a single issue of a comic series, a collected trade paperback, or a stand-alone graphic novel, and review it based on five of the most important aspects of the medium. This allows us to discuss a comic or graphic novel clearly, decisively, and with brevity. These are not our full thoughts, just a highlighting of the major pros and/or cons.


Bobs Burgers Volume 1Title: Bob’s Burgers Volume 1
Release Date: April 2, 2015
Cover Price: $17.99
Publisher: Dynamite

Story
There isn’t much of a story in this graphic novel, which collects issues #1-5 of the Bob’s Burgers comic series. Instead, each issue contains a short story from each of the Belcher’s. Tina has her erotic friend fiction tale, Bob has his Burger of the Day ideas list, Louise has Unsolved Mysteries and Curious Curiosities, Linda writes a letter to a different company each issue, and Gene has a new musical each time. These self-contained stories can be humorous, but since they don’t tie into each other, or the show, really, they leave a lot to be desired.

Writing
I enjoy that each section of each issue has its own style, and you can tell that the writers of the show had a lot of input in these issues as the voices are very true to what we get in the show. There is a severe lack of dialogue between the family members as themselves, however, and that is what makes the show so special. Each of the stories are really inconsequential and have little relation to the show itself.

Artwork
One of the smart things done with the artwork is the font choice in each story. Every character has their own voice as represented by their own, unique font style. It’s a small touch, but it makes a lot of difference while reading the stories. I was impressed with how spot-on the characters almost always looked throughout to their TV show counterparts, but it could’ve used some more creativity and risk-taking throughout to make the artwork stand out a little more.

Originality
This is definitely a unique book, but that’s mostly because it is random as can be. Each issue has five unrelated stories, and almost all of them are off-the-wall, as one might expect from something with the Bob’s Burgers name on it.

Intangibles
This volume just isn’t that fun to read through, unfortunately. I expected something much different when I read on that back that these were “in-canon stories”.

The Verdict
Bob’s Burgers is my absolute favorite cartoon of all-time. I have seen every single episode at least twice, probably more. I was more than excited to read more about my favorite family, but instead, this comic series just goes for random short stories that have no impact on the world of Bob’s Burgers. I am utterly obsessed with this show and these characters, and even I am disappointed with this comic book series, which leads me to believe anyone who likes this show a little less than I do will surely wish for their money back. This one is not worth the cash or the time, frankly. I’d just skip it entirely, which I hate to admit.

one_and_a_half_stars