The Lion King is Disney’s second highest grossing animated feature worldwide, after the Pixar feature Finding Nemo and third overall, with Shrek 2 being the biggest grossing of all time. The other two films being CGI animated makes the Lion King tops in the traditional animation realm and rightfully so. Released in 1994 the story has an intimate yet epic sensibility that still holds up remarkably well some 13 years later. This comic adaptation does a fair job in bringing the story to the comic page. The young lion cub Simba learns life lessons while growing up to become king of the jungle. Along the way, he befriends Timon and Pumbaa, the comic relief. To this reviewer, the Lion King is the last of Disney’s animated films that can be counted among the pantheon of the studios finest achievements. On the surface, the story is simplistic. But within its framework are all the elements of classic children’s literature: birth, friendship, love and even loss. The graphic novel, while using a great deal of storytelling shorthand, does an admirable job of bringing the tale to a new generation. The art does what it needs to do, and that is to ape the style of the animated feature film. While an argument can be made that in this age of the DVD, there is very little point to a graphic novel adaptation of a 13 year old movie, this book is a perfect introduction to reading for any child that loves the film and wants to recapture it in a different way. Recommended.

I can understand the need to update an old concept. Sometimes it’s needed when the original concept was so hackneyed (Battlestar Galactica) that any kind of tinkering would only be an improvement. But in most cases, it’s done to make it more palatable to a young audience. Such is the case with Papercutz Publishing and their new version of the book series that ran from 1927 through 1979 under the pen name of Franklin W. Dixon. However, writer Scott Lobdell has overloaded the story with so many youth pleasing elements, that the book feels more like a laundry list of pop- culture. Kid’s love Pirates of the Caribbean so let’s have the boys take part in a faux version of the amusement park ride. Kid’s love to skateboard. So the Hardy boys infiltrate a skateboarding contest to find a killer. There’s also a pop music star named Pinkshade that is involved. All of these ingredients make for a tedious read. None of it gels into anything cohesive. It all feels calculated to appeal to the preteen crowd. Some of it is down right silly. For instance, of the skateboarding team has a mentor/teacher named Mr. Moto who is described as a master trainer from the Orient. Funny, but I don’t remember hearing anything about the ancient Chinese art of skateboarding. Silly, sloppily written and instantly forgettable. Not Recommended.