Twig #1 Review: A Gorgeous & Colorful Adventure

Image Comics is certainly well known for some of its darker material, with the likes of The Walking Dead, Spawn, and Invincible helping to establish the company, but the comic publishers are diving into some new territory with Twig. The series itself invokes feelings of an adventure that is similar to that of Jeff Smith's Bone, to such an extent in fact that it's even mentioned in the marketing materials, and with good reason, as the combination of Skottie Young as writer and Kyle Strahm as artist help to produce an all-ages romp that introduces some interesting new concepts.

Twig focuses on the small blue furry adventurer and his right-hand man Splat, as they traverse through an anthropomorphic world with the former beginning his first day as a "Placeling," a position that shoulders the responsibility of protecting entire worlds. We get a brief look into the characters of both Twig and Splat here, with the pair definitely eliciting comparisons to the likes of Finn and Jake from Adventure Time, especially considering the fact that their current accommodations are the spitting image of the Cartoon Network locale. While Twig as a comic certainly wears its inspirations on its sleeve, the pacing is brisk and light while the art does the heavy lifting in introducing a strange yet appealing new world to readers.

The colors from Jean Francois Beaulieu and the linework by Kyle Strahm are beyond attention-grabbing, with each panel bursting with information and introducing plenty of characters that haven't been seen before within plenty of other fantasy tales. This comic feels alive as if you're picking up a comic that is set to burst from your hands and start walking of its own volition, and that's honestly a good thing. Twig is a comic book that seems unrestrained by its pages, with its creatures making good use of the comic's landscape, especially with things like Mount Guphin for example. 

On the subject of the characters of Twig and Splat, the unlikely pair are able to help in moving the story along though there isn't much meat on the bone when it comes to the characters themselves here. There are a few pages featuring in this premiere issue that focus on the wild environments that the two adventurers are walking through on their journey, and it almost makes me think that the story would have been better suited to having no dialogue whatsoever, allowing readers to put together the pieces for themselves. 

Twig #1 takes some big swings and for the most part, it hits them out of the park, primarily allowing its stunning artwork to do the heavy lifting and introducing bold new concepts on every page. With the story of Twig and Splat arriving as a five-issue mini-series, it will be interesting to see where the story takes its heroes and what colorful new environments they find themselves in. 

Published By Image Comics

On May 4, 2022

Written by Skottie Young

Art by Kyle Strahm

Colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Letters by Natio Piekos

Cover by Kyle Strahm