Doogie Horner is the author of This Might Hurt a Bit, Some Very Interesting Cats Perhaps You Weren’t Aware of, Everything Explained Through Flowcharts, A Die Hard Christmas, and other books. His comedy album A Delicate Man was an AV Club staff pick. He won over a hostile NYC audience on America’s Got Talent and is a frequent guest on Doug Loves Movies.
At some point I'm going to stop being surprised by this series, but that moment was not this book. It's a well drawn, very funny book.
When book talking it, I sell the first book as a cross between a super hero comic and Calvin and Hobbes, and I think that's true with the second volume as well. There are plenty of jokes, both in the dialogue and in the art. The details that Horner puts in his art - in one sequence the Pixar ball appears, in the next frame there are tiny turtles wallowing in toxic ooze - pull me in and keep me smiling.
There's more action in this volume than in the first - that's the super hero aspect, I guess. Horner does as good a job at drawing a fight as they do at writing a joke.
Personal bonus - this book has an abandoned amusement park in it, so I get to add it to my Amusement Parks shelf! Horner uses that setting well - but I love love LOVE the Manhattan Mini Golf course that's used as a setting for a fight early in the book. I didn't know I needed a Guggenheim putt putt hole, but I do. I really, really, do.
I'm actually glad that I started this series last year. It's been an interesting journey and I feel like with each volume, Horner provides readers with more depth/layers to the characters and plot. Though I can't say much about this installment, it was just as enjoyable as the first volume and I truly appreciated the exploration of the meaning of friendship. There are a lot of unanswered questions; however, Horner has already alluded to the development of a third volume which I definitely will pick up!
Review copy courtesy of G.P. Putnam & Sons through Edelweiss
Highly recommended for elementary libraries where graphic novels are popular! Horner's second in the series is just as funny, well-drawn, and action packed as his first book. Give this to your Dog Man fans!
The Adventures of Invisible Boy: Zeroes to Heroes is the sequel to the Invisible Boy. The boys invent a trash robot that fights crime but there is no real crime in town until Invisible Boy’s dad’s hardware store is robbed. To help, they open a smoothie stand to raise funds. They also battle henchmen, go to a minigolf venue, and giant-like combatants. The plot Is humorous, and pretty well-written but somewhat reliant on the first book. The characters are interesting, and entertaining. The illustrations are inviting and this book should be popular with children that like other graphic novels in this genre. Recommended for ages 8-10 by the SEPALIB reviewers association.