Teen Titans GO! is easily one of the favorite television shows in our house and has been for the past two years. Our boys are eight and ten now and I suspect that this show will still be in their queue for the next three years. Moreover, the show is incredibly smart and displays a very high level of humor, all the while making fun of how dumb it can be in certain moments. For us, the show rivals The Simpsons in its intelligence and laughs per minute. Similar to that show, it had a comic book element that was equally as fabulous. Unlike Homer’s vehicle, Robin and his crew continue to have new adventures, and the first one of these, Teen Titans GO! To Camp! is out and is everything that fans of the show enjoy and want.
For me, one of the things that I enjoyed the most about the show was the utter randomness and speed of some of the jokes. It also challenged viewers by throwing different animated elements at them. The animation style was never afraid to change or even mix up multiple different styles within the same scene. Our children liked the slapstick comedic aspects in the show, but would a standalone graphic novel really capture the same energy?
If you’ve read any of the Teen Titans GO! comic books when they were being published on DC Comics then you know the answer is a big yes. However, they were shorter and didn’t have as long as a story as Teen Titans GO! To Camp!
The result of the first graphic novel since the comic book ended proves that the most re-booted DCU team can easily handle the weight of an original graphic novel. Robin is still a lovable and controlling overachiever and leader who always falls short when Speedy gets around Starfire. The story in the graphic novel is big enough to sustain its 152 pages.
This year’s summer camp isn’t going to be as special as last year when it took place at Justice League Headquarters when Camp Super Friends happened. Due to the hijinks and pranks that the Teen Titans did they’re going to camp at Apokolips this year.
Joining them are many of their friends from the show. Doom Patrol, The Hive and some other familiar faces pop up to help things or make the situation worse. It’s funny stuff. Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire do not get the point of this summer camp. While camp’s setting is entirely painful, hot and uncomfortable, they Teen Titans go about conducting musicals, subverting team work and behaving the exact opposite as normal teams that want to win competitions would do.
Fans of Teen Titans GO! would expect nothing less. At $9.99 retail this original graphic novel is a fiscal slam dunk. It provides a new story from characters that fans already love and presents it in a package that’s more durable than individual comic books. Our 8-year-old loves Teen Titans GO!, but the reading level in this is just a bit too high for him to dive into the book as comfort food. His 10-year-old brother could read the graphic novel in short order and loved it, so did I.
The graphic novel is written by Sholly Fisch who handed some of the Teen Titans GO! comic book, as well as, lots of Scooby-Doo comic books. He knows the fast pacing that’s needed to keep the attention of young readers. There is also a litany of artists, inkers, pencilers and colorists that teamed up to make the graphic novel happen, all of whom are listed in the back also.
Teen Titans GO! To Camp is written by Sholly Fish and illustrated by Marcelo DiChaiara and many more.
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