A.A. Milne’s silly old bear has been a comic book star around the world since 1977, but the comics are only now being anthologized for the first time in North America. Fantagraphics is launching a new series with this initial release, collecting one long-form film adaptation and dozens of shorts populated with the classic characters we know, along with a few unfamiliar faces.
Buy Winnie the Pooh: The Hundred Acre Wood Comic Collection: Volume 1The book kicks off with a 1998 adaptation of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a faithful 45-page retelling of the 1977 movie. While it’s the longest work by far, it was also the least interesting to me since it so closely follows the film plot and art style. Written by Didier le Bornec and pencilled by Daniel Perez, the adaptation is a completely faithful rendition of the tale, delivered with artwork so similar to the film it looks like stills. While I’m more interested in unfamiliar content, the adaptation is sure to be savored by readers who haven’t seen the film.
The rest of the book consists of humorous full-color shorts ranging from one- to nine-pages long, providing just enough panels to develop gags and wrap up simple stories. With over 100 pages of Pooh stories new to the U.S., the book delivers a wealth of fresh content crafted in a variety of styles, although mostly hewing very closely to the art standards of the Disney films. However, their creation far from the Mouse House allowed the artists some leeway in introducing new characters to the Hundred Acre Woods, including the cantankerous medieval knight, Sir Brian Botany, and a lovable purple dragon who bears a passing resemblance to Epcot’s Figment.
All of the usual gang appears, including an early Heffalump rendition before his film persona was established. Other newbies include Eep of the Gra, a younger gopher companion for Gopher, as well as Beaver, a yokel who eventually made the jump to the screen in the My Friends Tigger and Pooh TV series. It’s fun to see a bit more variety of characters in the Woods, even if the very human but severely anachronistic knight seems woefully out of place.
Fantagraphics intends for future releases in the series to follow the template of this volume, with one long-form film adaptation supported by numerous original shorts. While it’s a sensible approach guaranteed to enlighten readers unfamiliar with all of the films, the real meat of this and future volumes is the fresh short stories never before collected in the U.S. The new tales will delight even the most cynical of fans, reminding readers of the all-ages appeal of the silly old bear and his friends.
