PIRATE PENGUIN VS. NINJA CHICKEN

A nutty ninja chicken and a hapless pirate penguin have more screwball adventures.

This third graphic installment in the ongoing series opens with Pirate Penguin sharing his outrageously zany origin story, immediately setting the sugar-high tone that continues throughout. In a series of loosely strung vignettes—some only a few panels and most not more than a few pages—the duo has many oddly madcap adventures, including an encounter with their friend Wizard Wombat, Pirate Penguin’s transformation into a weregoose that leads to a beauty parlor trip, a sudden visit from pal Astronaut Armadillo, and “a barbecue that could have gone better.” The beauty of this construction is that it makes the book an excellent choice to read either episodically or nonlinearly. Most of the duo’s exploits are rampantly nonsensical and go unresolved, Friesen apparently opting to prioritize silliness over plot and character development; that said, readers who revel in such imaginative wackiness should be over the moon. Straying from a conventional layout, the vibrant full-color panels often burst from their borders, utilizing unique sizing and shape; many have solid, unembellished backgrounds, focusing readers solely on the characters, who bounce around their panels with an infectious, manic glee. In a concluding Q&A, Friesen refers to his titular characters using they pronouns.

Buckle your seatbelts: This is one goofy ride.