‘Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards’ Review

One of the best things about Adventure Time is the way that it has tapped into pop culture and while it may have its hordes of young fans it fully understands how to attract adults into its world too.  Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards is a new book that is a perfect example of this, especially for fans of art.

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As you’ll know the title cards are shown at the start of each episode and would usually work as a teaser of what is to come.  Adventure Time title cards tend to take the theme of the episode and allow the artist to be a little more experimental in what they create.  Using characters from the episode and setting the overall tone it usually catches our interest then lets the crazy world of Finn and Jake take over.

In Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards the structure of the book is to show a full-page reproduction of the title card for episodes from season one and two, then allow the artist to write about their inspiration for what was created.  Pendleton Ward, Nick Jennings, Andy Ristaino, Phil Rynda and Paul Linsley are the artists who worked on the cards and they all have their own ways of creating their art.  Whether it’s finding inspiration from feeling hungry and thinking of burritos or taking a more conventional approach of looking at the episode itself it’s interesting to hear their thoughts on how exactly they created the cards and finalised them.  If there are different versions of the cards we also get to see these versions, showing the production process up till the episode’s card is finalised.

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What fans will like about Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards is the fact the humour from the show is very evident in the way the artists talk about how they created their title cards.  They show their love not only for the show as a whole but also the characters and this shows in the pieces of art that they create.  Not giving a simple piece based on the episode but being able to use their imagination to create something special it really shows the thought that has gone into not only the show itself but everything that surrounds it.

When I watch I Adventure Time I do find that the title cards are something that do attract my attention, and that is one of the reasons that I really enjoyed this book.  Being able to read what the artists themselves thought of the card and what their process is really is interesting to read, and with added quotes from the characters themselves from the episode the book never gets boring, though I would think that this is a book that may not really be for the younger audience of the show as there is not much action from the cartoon itself, this is one for the fans of the art of the show and what happens behind the scenes of the show.

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Adventure Time is fun, crazy and for many hits that right levels of pop culture to make it just that bit more special than many other shows.  Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards is the perfect book for fans of the art of the show and even though it doesn’t really feature too much from the cartoon itself it does keep its spirit in place, and if anything it shows that the people who work on the show and the title cards are as fun as Adventure Time itself.

Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards is available in the UK from 26th September 2014.

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