Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters Top Shelf Creator: Jef Czekaj 128 pages, ISBN 1-891830-52
Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunter is a compilation of a comic strip that appears in Nickelodeon’s Magazine with some parts adapted and new stories. Julie has to share to read to her class an assignment she wrote telling about her last summer vacation. Grampa is a world famous scientist who spent the summer with Julie hunting for Stephen, the world’s largest Shark. This adventure brought them to the depth of the ocean, odd planets, the North Pole and the desert.
Czekaj callously mixes logic with street smart in series of over the top stories about a shark hunt. Although not everybody is pleasant in this book, getting to know each character’s quirks and madness is cool. The story starts slowly and moves ever faster. As happens, neither kid nor adult can let go of the book. Every time Julie and Grampa are about to get out of trouble and capture Stephen, something zany happens, making the reader wonder how the heroes will get out of the situation.
Visually, the style is similar to what many independent comic book artists serve to adult audiences, so there’s not point complaining about the reductionism. Actually, it works in Czekaj’s favour as he illustrates well the events trough which his characters go through. Too rough for a cartoon adaptation, a little more stylization would make it fit for any media. Czekaj ‘s hand inking scratch style is lively and fun.
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