So You Want to Read Comic Books 2.0: Marceline Time—c’mon, grab your Scream Queens!

We usually use this column to recommend the superhero books that we think you should pick up. (At least I do.) And that trend is not likely to stop (I’ve just started reading the new Journey into Mystery arc with Sif and The All-New X-Men, so look forward to those in a potential future post). But today we’re not talking about superheroes.

We’re talking about cartoon characters.

“Isn’t there some overlap?” You ask. Well, yes, superheroes can be cartoon characters. But today I’m talking about characters that were animated first, and then expanded to comics instead of vice-versa—and in particular, I’m talking about Adventure Time.

Now Adventure Time currently has two titles out: a basic Adventure Time comic about Finn and Jake, and a separate book called Marceline and the Scream Queens. Because I find the actual Adventure Time show often hit or miss with its surrealist humor, I didn’t really want to spend my hard-earned cash on a comic I may or may not have liked, so I can’t tell you about the Adventure Time comic series. But Marceline is my favorite character, and she has a criminally low number of appearances in the actual show, so I snatched up the book she headlined as soon as I saw it.

Unfortunately, it was a little late, as the first issue had gone out of print already. But your local comic store probably still has #4-6 at least (#6 just came out yesterday), and you can fill in the blanks with digital copies or just get the whole series from Comixology.

So what’s up with Marceline? Well, the series follows her and her band (the eponymous Scream Queens) as they travel around Ooo, with Princess Bubblegum acting as their manager. Marceline has to deal with the stresses of being in the spotlight as her fame grows, and she and Peebs, although they both have the best intentions, end up arguing more than either of them would like.

It’s a really cute story, with lots of silliness, seriousness, cameos from AT faves, and plenty of Bubbline interaction (albeit nothing romantic; sorry, shippers) for people who were interested in seeing more of those two together. The art is well done and pretty much just like the show’s, and there are some pretty cool variant covers for the paper books floating around, too, if you can get your hands on them. And #6, the issue that came out yesterday, is the final issue of the story arc, so you don’t even have to wait around like I did to find out what happens!

If you’re interested in reading more about Marceline, I’d definitely recommend checking this series out. And if you want more awesome female AT leads in your comic book life, all you have to do is wait for next month—an ongoing Fionna and Cake book is going to take the Scream Queens‘ place, and it’s being written and drawn by Natasha Allegri, the Adventure Time writer/artist who thought up the gender-swapped universe to begin with!