Rainbow Brite

Cute. I wasn't familiar with the original Rainbow Brite, except that it was from the 80's. I thought this was really fun and excited to continue the story. There are rumors that it's cancelled, but other rumors say it depends on performance with this volume. Personally I hope they continue. I think they have a nice little gem here.

Writing - 4 stars
Internal art - 2.5 stars

Well, this was disappointing. I loved the writing, and the take on the story, but the internal art was not my cup of tea, and it's been canceled before it really got started.

I loved the friendship between Wisp and Willow, and their relationships to their parents. Wisp's sense of doing what's right even when lacking confidence was really lovely, and Twinkle is positively charming. I also really enjoyed that the story takes its time to unfold, allowing Wisp some time to develop and for some world building.

The art was perfectly competent and not at all bad, but really just not to my tastes and I didn't think it quite supported the quality of the writing, but it might be your jam. I felt that it was a little generic and skimped on detail. The lack of backgrounds didn't help the world building that the writing took such care with. I'd have preferred it was more like the cover artwork, which was really quite lovely.

I'm all for reimagining characters, but a lot of these were misses for me. I loved the character design for Twinkle; he was so cute and expressive, so that was a win. But the design for Rainbow Brite didn't stick close enough to the original or push far enough towards something new. It seemed like just a loose impression of the original and didn't have much impact. I was so excited to meet my favorite Color Kid, and her reveal was so disappointing. I liked the explanation for her design, but it wasn't very pleasant visually, and seemed like an afterthought.

Even though I didn't connect with the art, the writing was strong, and I liked the characterizations and the time and care put into building the story bit by bit. To be canceled with no resolution after teasers for some really interesting developments is extremely unsatisfying and unfortunate.

So, give it a read if you're a Rainbow Brite fan, because there's a lot to like here, and the art might be your flavor. But be warned that the story doesn't resolve at all. Hopefully if the trade paperback sells well we might get more. I definitely think there's a lot of potential here to build on, so fingers crossed.