Cuphead, Volume 2: Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities

Cuphead #2

by Zack Keller, Shawn Dickinson (Illustrator)

Our plucky heroes return in this brand-new collection of adventures starring Cuphead, Mugman, and now Ms. Chalice !

The trio can't seem to catch a break as they find themselves in a plethora of peculiar positions and side stories in the all-cartoon magical wonderworld of the Inkwell Isles! This original graphic novel features fresh new tales, all authentically drawn to match the glorious, award-winning vintage animation style of Cuphead !

Don't pass up this chance to see Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice in their second collection of adventures wonderfully realized by the returning team of writer Zack Keller and artist Shawn Dickinson!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Young Adult, Video Games

72 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2021

About the author

Zack Keller is a writer and director for TV, feature films, videogames and comic books, currently working as a Narrative Director at King and a creator/writer at Dark Horse Comics. After beginning his career at Pixar Animation Studios, he co-created Dick Figures, the highest-rated animated web series on YouTube which earned nearly a billion views and an Annie Award nomination. At Telltale Games, he was a lead writer and narrative designer for such franchises as Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman, The Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands. Most recently, he was a screenwriter for Cartoon Network’s animated series Unikitty!, produced by Warner Brothers Animation and The LEGO Group, and wrote the graphic novels Cuphead: Comic Capers & Curios, Creeping, and Hotel REM for Dark Horse Comics.

He lives with his family in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Rocio Voncina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Titulo: Cronicas y calamidades caricaturescas [Cuphead #2]
Autor: Zack Keller, Shawn Dickinson
Motivo de lectura: -
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Mi edicion: Electronico
Puntuacion: 3.5/5

Esta antologia incluye 11 historias.
Las historietas entremezclan las historias junto a posters y promociones de una pagina que aportan mas comicidad.
La ilustracion es fantastica, pero admito que el primer volumen es mucho mejor a nivel historias.

Mugman in building blast off: una critica social al sistema belico. Un planteamiento de construccion-destruccion sin un motivo real, en loop infinito, la logica de una mente enferma en el placer de destrozar el bien. 4/5

Cuphead & Mugman in mountain madness: la astucia vs. la fuerza. En ese duelo, quien ganara? 4/5

Elder Kettle in jingle jest: cuando la necedad toma el timon en una disputa. 4/5

Cuphead & Mugman in siren smackdown: las ventajas de a veces no escuchar. 4/5

Cuphead, Mugman & Ms. Chalice in natural knockout: jamas subestimen el poder de la naturaleza. 3.5/5

Evil Cuphead & Vile Mugman in workday wind-up: el equipo antivicio trabajando a full. 4/5

Elder Kettle in phantom phoibless: salvado por un ticket! jajajaja 5/5

Cuphead in tempest tantrum: no hay que perturbar el sueño de nadie..nunca se sabe las consecuencias! 3.5/5

The whole gang in holiday haymaker: el rey de la malas ideas, entre chiste y chiste la casita zas! 4/5

Cuphead & Mugman in chef chaos: engañar a un engañador! 3.5/5

Mugman & Ms. Chalice in maltose fracas: probablemente la peor historia de la antologia, la resolucion del conflicto no estuvo bien ejecutada. 2/5

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
“Cuphead: ‘IF I HAD MY Y-RAY SPECS I WOULDN’T HAVE TO ASK, BUT…
WHATS GOTTEN INTO YOU?!?’

Mugman: ‘SUGAR... SO MUCH SUGAR...
MY SWEET TOOTH WENT ON A RAMPAGE, CUPHEAD!! I THINK I HAVE A SOUR AND SALT TOOTH TOO…’”

Fab drawings, short comedic and droll storylines - lovely stuff, and just the kind of thing that I want from a comic

[☮ morgan ☮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love the artwork in these comics

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

gives me the feel of old cartoons and childhood happiness and old mickey mouse comics.

[Δημήτρης Μπ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Cuphead comic series is very similar to the first one. Beautiful and colourful hand-drawn illustrations in an old-school art-style. A lot of familiar characters, like the Devil, Cala Maria and others make their appearance. There's a lot of crazyness, humour and word-plays.

All of the above are combined in a neat little volume that's a great way to cheer you up on a gloomy day.

As a side note, this comic series will mostly be appreciated by fans of the hit video game with the same name.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Las ilustraciones son exquisitas pero las tramas son simplistas, sin gracia o con una traducción regulera.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

More fun and delight throughout the collection. Great reversals of fortune that were clever or comical, also I love puns and alliteration.

“Building Blastoff” Thought the German accented rat was a bit much, but not bad.
Loved the second comic “Mountain Madness” and the competition/tricking of the giant; the concept of winning by losing.

“Jingle Jest” Enjoyed the kettle not hearing the musical competition, or perhaps composition. And the full page that makes me think of a poster promoting literacy through puns makes me smile. There’s another full page that encourages mending that was great, too.

“Siren Smackdown” was good, I like the mermaid character.
“Natural Knockout” felt like a classic cartoon, where our main characters go camping.

Enjoyed the powerful, female bosses in “Tempest Tantrum” where some zodiac figures also appear and “Maltose Fracas” with the potential to get free candy goes awry.

There were also some ‘darker’ stories about What If Cuphead and Mugman lost their souls to the Devil and work for him and later a tale about Kettle getting on the wrong train that takes him to Hell because he needs glasses.

Great mix overall

[Siriwó · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it!!!! vull més

[Joseph Maria O.T.F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito bom, melhor que o primeiro até

[Dan Blackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This new edition of cartoons are great to look at as the animation is amazing. Keller captures the pure horror of the early cartoons of the thirties with these characters and puts them into stories that are fun but frightening.

[Jesse Baggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun adaptation of the Cuphead game. The stories are light but charming and zip right along. The art is a dream, real over-rendered, classic-cartoon chaos.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good on a purely slapstick level, nothing particularly deep that would keep newcomers from understanding what's going on (assuming they have at least a baseline understanding of the old timey cartoons the franchise was based on).

I do feel like this is sort of a way to help the creators recoup their costs without having to scrape together the funds for another game, though. Probably not a fair assessment, since this is ALSO a lower-risk investment that doubles as advertising for the game for readers who weren't even aware it was a game, like the Sonic the Hedgehog movies were aimed at reaching non-gamers more than existing fans.

Anyway, it's a collection of VERY short stories (some are single-page!) about a talking cup (Cuphead) and his friends and family (Mughead, Ms. Chalise, Elder Kettle, etc.), up to a lot of bizarre antics like being hypnotised by a siren, dealing with the literal devil, and solving a mystery (probably the most interesting story since there's some thought behind it beyond making a silly joke). Hard to describe beyond that, but very typical of the earliest black-and-white cartoons while having a modern (colourised) touch.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities is another wonderful addition to the printed adventures of Cuphead and his friends, building on the foundations of the frenetic computer game that inspired this collection of short gags. The brevity of each little tale in this volume in no way detracts from the appeal, as Shawn Dickinson's visually rich panels practically explode off the page with a manic intensity.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pas eu le temps de le lire intégralement comme on me l'a prêté pour une journée mais cette BD a des dessins et des couleurs très funky ! Le style m'a rappelé les anciens dessins de Mickey et Picsou mais dans un univers comptant encore plus de gags toujours plus foufous et délirants.

[Preethi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like a volume 3 ◡̈

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are so fun. So much to look at! I hope Keller and Dickinson put out a Volume 3.

[Matt Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great addition to the Cup head series. Very funny and entertaining throughout. Looking forward to the next issue.

[Jennifer]

I received an eSample courtesy of Dark Horse Books.

[JG Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of Cuphead comics. More of the same from volume 1.

[JoeK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another gift, like the first volume this book was high on visual splendour and low on humour/story. Any chuckles I got out of the book were visual rather than derived from the writing.

[Cayddrick Harris-Ballard]

Fun read, always like Cuphead and the art, read to see where to add it in a collection

[Catherine Emma Boudreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun book! The art work is amazing, wish we had some posters made out of these pages!

[Théa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambiance fidèle à la série et les dessins toujours aussi magnifiques

[forky wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely LOVED THE ART, so FUN!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art

[Ed C · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as volume one. art is still great but the stories are not as exciting or feature cuphead as much. merp couldve been included in volume one instead of this sequel

[Thedefarted · Rating 5 out of 5]

bonkers ass retro cartoon style. insane eye candy.

[Miquel Jornet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha convencido bastante. Es una gozada poder disfrutar en nuestros días de un estilo de dibujo tan clásico (técnicamente los entendidos le llaman 'rubber hose' -manguera de goma- supongo que por la analogía con las extremidades de los personajes), justo mañana empieza la serie de animación en Netflix y me gustaría que los productos derivados de este característico videojuego: cómics, serie, merchandising... tengan mucho éxito. Es al cómic lo mismo que a la música el hecho de escuchar el Back to Black.

Incluso los matices del cómic clásico americano que se tachan de no envejecer bien también están plasmados en este tomo (e intuyo que en el primero, que está de camino a casa). El humor es básico, las historias simples, el dibujo sobrecargado y muy efectista, los personajes (tanto "buenos" como "malos") carismáticos, el mundo interesante y a la vez algo oscuro... y con algunas historias sin demasiado filtro (algo que lo hace interesantísimo). Además creo que como producto editorial es MUY coleccionable. Ojalá salgan más volúmenes en castellano, yo estoy "dentrísimo" en esta buena mandanga.

[pau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si es de cuphead le tengo que dar 5 estrellas, guilty