Owly: the Series
Reviewed by Anthony Feinman
01/19/07

At Chicago Wiz Con 2006, Val McCann (or Val-ee as I like to call her) and I got a chance to meet Andy Runton, creator of this fabulous new series.

It's great to meet cartoonist before they gain national fame. A very personal guy, I got a chance to ask him how he started with his creation. He informed me that he had just finished college with a graphic design degree and immediately went into that field. He learned rather quickly that it didn't appeal to him as much as he thought it would and really wished he could do his own thing. So he quit his job, moved back in with his family, and started cartooning full time. His risk, so far, has paid off. Little did I know that a few weeks prior, Andy had received an Eisner Award for his Owly series in Best Publication for a Younger Audience. For those that don't know, Eisner Awards pretty much help people in the comic book world get put on the map. I appreciate this fact more having found out only after I picked up this books. Once you pick up any one of these books, you'll understand why he received this award.

Owly, insipred with the help of Andy's mother, is about a sweet lonely Owl who just wants to make friends. Each book is about 130-160 pages in length and is filled with whimsical illustrations. In fact, that's all. No text with the exception of the titles and copyright information. Mr. Runton's stories are done entirely without any dialogue. This makes these books extremely unique and I applaud Mr. Runton on doing it. As a illustrator myself, I know the challenges of conveying a story pictorially but he goes the extra step without words which is very challenging. I know of only a few cartoonist that do this on a steady basis and do it well. Examples are Sergio Aragones, Phil Yeh and the many cartoonists one might see in your local newspaper on the funny pages. Andy Runton now joins that group.

Each story also includes a message about tolerence, fitting in, and companionship without being pretenious. If you are looking for great stories accompanied by awesome art that the whole family can enjoy, I highly recommend you take a chance and try one of these volumes. Each is priced at $10.00 and are available through Top Shelf Productions.

Visit them at: www.topshelfcomix.com

You can also visit Andy's website online at: www.andyrunton.com for more Owly stories and other information.

Visit Anthony at MySpace for an occasional blog.

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