The Bad Guys is a series of graphic novels created by Australian author Aaron Blabey. Blabey is known for developing children’s stories that are edgy and somewhat mean-spirited than most other cutesy children's material, but in a way that is entertaining and even laugh-out-loud hilarious. After seeing the blockbuster film from Dreamworks animation, I was intrigued to find out the origins of how these anthropomorphic criminals got their start on paper. Needless to say, I was impressed with how sharp the writing was and how the storytelling enjoys being mischievous in ways that hold up just as much for a kid as well as for an adult.
Mr. Wolf is a criminal who makes it his mission to go good for a change. He gathers his criminal friend's named Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, and Mr. Phirana to join him in his mission to go good but they are not convinced of his supposed “brilliant” plan as they enjoy being bad guys and still do. That doesn’t stop Mr. Wolf from having optimism about his mission as they go around town trying to do good for others but things of course go completely wrong for our former criminals and hilarious hijinks ensue.
The storytelling completely ditches the cutesy and appealing feel of most children's stories and decides to go 100% all out with being as edgy and disobedient as possible. There is a lot of 4th wall breaking and humor that goes beyond the call of duty which helps these stories to stand out from similar graphic novels. Just because it's edgy though, doesn’t mean it is not for kids because this story strikes the right balance of having enough material for kids to keep things engaging for them while also being naughty to a fault to entertaining older crowds with its sharp writing and interesting characters. You are guaranteed to laugh a lot while reading and there are plenty of jokes that will go over kids' heads making for a reading experience that is fun for the whole family.
The characters are both funny and charming considering that they are bad guys. These characters admittedly don’t have the three dimensionalities like they do in the Dreamworks movie, but in this case, the story is short and to the point so the characters are made in the same way as they are simple but still funny and effective. Mr. Wolf Mr. Snake Mr. Shark and Mr. Pirana work well off each other and Mr. Wolf’s constant optimism that they can be more than just bad guys is often hilarious. These characters often get into horrible scrapes which can lead to great dialogue and sharp writing. These well-created characters would go on more adventures in future comic installments and their hilarity and engaging character archetypes is more than outstanding for words.
Now the visuals are the most interesting to talk about because they aren’t in any way complex or groundbreaking, in fact, they are remarkably simple but in a good way. The character designs are very straightforward to look at yet very expressive and cartoony in their actions. The whole visual aesthetic is completely black and white yet still feels colorful in its presentation. Sometimes there will be times when the book will have large thick pieces of text that indicate extreme emotions from the characters or objects in motion. The illustrations are having a lot of fun with the limited simplistic designs and they take full advantage of the limited style by doing as much as possible to create something funny and also unique when judged with other graphic novels.
The first book alone proves why this series of graphic novels would later be turned into a feature film as they were funny and over the top even with a very simple visual style. The characters are a lot of fun and the storytelling is much more naughty compared to similar kids' graphic novels that may play themselves just a little too safe. Even if you don’t have kids, this is still a recommended read for even the most hardcore adults as this book is both cartoony and sharply written with plenty of hilarious hijinks that ensue. Don’t be fooled by its appearance, because this graphic novel has more going for it than the age group it's marketed toward suggests.
(Final Grade: B+)