The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of THE
JUNGLE BOOK #1 from Zenescope Entertainment. The story is by Mark L. Miller,
Raven Gregory, Joe Brusha, and Ralph Tedesco. Mark L. Miller wrote the story
with art by Carlos Granda.
The issue opens with Mother Wolf telling Mowglii (who is
a female in this version) the story of how she came to Kipling Isle and that her
presence ended the war between all of the animals. She believes that she
arrived alone, but there were three other infants with her. The monkeys,
mongooses, tigers, and wolves each take a child to be raised (a weapon?) in their respective clans. Bagheera the panther figured the only way to
keep the peace is for the humans NOT to know of each other and for the clans to
respect each other’s territories. After the story is finished, Mowglii slips
away from Mother Wolf and accidently runs into a bear by the name of Baloo who
was not happy to see her.
The art is incredible! Carlos Granda does a beautiful job
of giving human characteristics to the animals and still be real. The
issue nicely accomplishes the task of giving the back-story and setting things
in motion for the next four issues. With that said, it might have been nice to
know what started the war, but that’s nit-picking. You know the humans will
eventually meet and bring the island to the brink of war again. I’m definitely
here to see how this mini-series ends.
THE JUNGLE BOOK #1 is in comic book stores now or
available at www.zenescope.com.
~ Thomas
