Jungle Boogie
Written by: Gail Simone
Art by: Walter Geovani
Colors by: Adriano Augusto
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Publication Date: 4 July 2018
I have to say that this title has been a marvelous retreat from the madness of the world in recent weeks. Every time I open up my issue of it I leaf through its luxurious artwork, I lose myself in a world of early 20th Century London, and the heart of the jungle. A strange combo to be sure, but add in some sinister villains, time travel and a hard-drinking redhead and you'll soon find your daily troubles easing away as you get lost in the story...
This issue sees things heat up as Duul and his evil band of mercenary huntsmen (and woman) continue on their path of destruction of anything that Tarzan holds dear. Only Tarzan and Sonja can stop him and they call upon the help of HG Wells in London to help them with the time travel element necessary to foil Duul. Meanwhile in the jungle of Cameroon Duul is hitting the Greystroke clan where they are at their most vulnerable and the heat is on to see if a rescue mission can be mounted in time to stop him in his tracks. Now Simone is a fine writer, but time travel elements usually confuse me no end and the same goes here, I've not much of an idea as to what exactly the time machine element entails (it seemed to me to be more of a teleporting mechanism lent to them by Wells) but my advice is just run with it. I've never read a time traveling storyline I understood anywhere in fiction anyway, but then I am a big dumbie. Simone's writing is brilliant and a lot of fun in this book. Who would expect less?
The art in this issue from Geovani is gorgeous to look at and the colors from Augusto. Sure you could read this in digital, but for me this is a series I had to possess in my hand after reading issue 1 in the review copy. I particularly love the rendering of expressions on people's faces. In this issue, there is a very funny panel when Sonja admits to having been quite drunk when Duul stole her Sword of Sorrow. The book combines this with explosive action sequences, including an epic scene in which Jack leads an army of elephants directly at Duul's forces. That is jaw-dropping, other panels and pages are heartbreaking.
Bits and Pieces:
I'm becoming really dependent on the comic book medium being a last place of escapism from real life and news coverage. I used to actually quite like real life events being paralleled in my comics but increasingly I just can't bear it. I find that I am searching out books like this one with an exotic setting, a strong writer at the helm that I can trust to structure a good story, and a top artistic team. Bring on issue 4. This was wonderful.
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