To be completely transparent, I did receive an e-ARC of Star Pig, but because I am two-years behind, I read a final copy from my library.

This was.. something. I don't know what I expected -- probably not Keanu Reeves & talking gas, but here we are. Just read it. You might love it, you might hate it but either way, you'll definitely have a strange time.

When I first saw the cover I thought the art work looked stunning and they summary sounded good, but when I started reading it this book was way too random for my taste and the plot did not seem to go there for me. This was disappointing since I wanted to like this book.

I would only recommend this book if you enjoyed really cheesy lines.

Like what the schett's creek?
Or references to Keane Reeves and JT

Pros
Art style was fun
A few of the cheesy lines made me laugh!
The Pig was honestly my favorite character - very funny

Cons:
The plot was just convenient overall and the ending wasn't satisfying.
Too many pop culture references
Very short and rushed


Overall if this is supposed to be a parody - I would consider it fun

3 - 3.5 stars. It's a fun read. I enjoyed the references and bright eye catching art work. I felt like I wanted more from the story itself. I would definitely read more though because it was fun and funny.

This was so much fun to read. It had references like Star Wars, Celebrities, and popular songs. Don’t think I forgot about Edwards room, I died of laughter!

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

This was just okay to me. I loved the artwork. It was very cute and very bright. I didn’t really care for the story line though. So I’m kinda of mixed up about this. I do know I won’t be buying a copy.

This comic has great drawings and the characters seem interesting but the plot was just not that interesting to me and I found myself just trying to get thru it instead of enjoying it.

Vess is on her way to space camp when she's waylaid, meeting a giant space version of a tardigrade. Tardigrades are real microscopic creatures sometimes referred to as water bears. The two of them end up making first contact with alien creatures who are obsessed with earth culture. It's a cute all ages tale even if it features some iffy science from a science fiction author. (The whole beginning where space flight remarkably is treated just like flying in a normal commercial airline, including emergency procedures.) The art is very good with vibrant colors that pop across the page.

*I received this book as an eARC from IDW Publishing via NetGalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

This graphic novel begins with teens heading to Space Camp...IN SPACE! Something goes wrong and only Vess survives thanks to a giant tardigrade. This just starts the adventure in the stars. There are aliens, both humanoid and not. A whole bunch of fun pop culture references. And they make sense because it turns out everyone is completely obsessed with Earth.

This is a really fun story. I hope this is just the start of Vess's adventures. I give this book a 5/5.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I requested it because yay, tardigrades! It was a fun read. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

Very cute graphic novel! Personally don't think I was the target audience for this so I can't give a very accurate review, but I did enjoy it.

Ok, I really dug this one, it's light and fun and geeky, plus there's a giant tardigrade named Theo. It takes place in 2760 I think? Way in the future, anyway, and Vess has convinced her parents to let her go to space camp, literally a camp in space. On the way there, the ship is hit by an asteroid, and Vess is the only survivor, rescued by the aforementioned giant tardigrade. They're picked up by a sentient cloud of spores, who is a collector of Earth pop culture crap, and hilarity and shenanigans ensue. So much pop culture going on here, so many references, it's like hunting Pokemon- gotta catch 'em all! Basically, the rest of the universe is obsessed with Earth culture after humans started shooting trash into space in an effort to clean up the planet, and a live human could catch a high price on Galax-eBay (insert eyeroll here), and tardigrades are thought to hold the secret to immortality, so everyone's after Vess and Theo. The jokes are cheesy, the banter is slickly dorkish, and the future teen-slang is great fun. The artwork is gorgeous- bright neon/jewel tones, emotive facial expressions, lots of detail- just fabulous. Is this a deep story? No. This is wild ride action, and I'm cool with that, we're still getting our story set up, after all. Depth can come later, as our heroes try to find their way home.

#StarPig #NetGalley

Vess is traveling through space to a space camp when her ship crashes. She is saved by a space pig, or a tardigrade, who sucks her into his body. Then, they are captured by an alien who collects things from earth. They come into contact with some other space creatures through the rest of the comic.

I went through so many different emotions while reading this graphic novel. Some parts were funny, like when they referenced earth songs that the aliens liked. Other parts were really gross, such as how the different aliens looked and behaved.

I had to look up a tardigrade after I read this book, because there were some fun facts about them at the end. They are a real creature, though only about 1mm in length in real life, not giant sized like in the book. They really look like a space pig, so that’s an appropriate name for them!

This was a great space graphic novel.

Thank you IDW Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The art gets five stars for sure! This was an enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book. I read it aloud with my son and had us laughing out loud.

I received an advanced copy of Star Pig from Netgalley so that I could share my review with you!

Star Pig is a fascinating sci-fi/vintage graphic novel that follows one human girl’s adventures through space! After a trip to space camp goes wrong, Vess is left alone in with no one to turn to. That is, of course, until she meets her first ever alien, a Tarigrade “Space Pig” who rescues her from certain death. As the two journey through space, it become clear that they both are desperate to find their home worlds and that neither of them have a clue where those worlds might be. Fending off menacing aliens and learning the meaning of friendship are just two of the many things you can look forward to in Star Pig!

You can get your copy of Star Pig now from IDW Publishing!

Delilah S. Dawson wrote a fun and engaging story in Star Pig! This was an extremely quick read for me (I actually finished it in one sitting) and I immediately found myself immersed in the story. Possibly my favorite part about this book was the art style of Francesco Gaston! The characters were so crisp and well drawn that I often had to stop just to admire how they looked! The combination of art and story made this a fantastic read!

My Recommendation-
If you love funky graphic novels, Star Pig should definitely be on your list! The story has lots of pop-culture references interwoven with the space world, which were quite fun to read. If you need a short story to blaze through quickly, Star Pig would be a great quick read for you!

I was really looking forward to this one - I loved Dawson's Sparrowhawk, and so was hoping for something along those lines. But while the vivid colors and wonderfully unique character design are there (a sentient cloud of spores! A mega-tardigrade!), and the plot is serviceable, the tone and the dialogue killed it for me. Everything read like a script someone had written, rather than organic speech ("You are doing me a frighten"? Really?). I appreciate that the authors tried to think ahead, linguistically, and some of it works, but most is it feels too try-hard.

The watermark across all the pages was incredibly frustrating.

All I can say is, I want my own Water Bear! Star Pig is a weird fun romp through space with one very fortunate and confused girl named Vess and the planet sized Water Bear who rescues her. Set this comic to your favorite 80's and 90's tunes and you are set for one fantastic space adventure. Vess is spunky with a good head on her shoulders and with her new alien best friend, she just might find her way home.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher IDW Publishing for allowing me to receive this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Star Pig
by Delilah S. Dawson

Now to be completely transparent I had already read issues #1 and #2 before getting this ARC of the story! I think this is so much fun and the artwork is beautiful. I think the characters and concepts are very original and just like I said is a fun Graphic Novel that is so easy to read and breeze right through.

4 Stars / B+

Graphic novels and Delilah S. Dawson are two of my favorite things. So as soon as I discovered Star Pig, I knew I had to read it as soon as possible. Space adventures! A female lead! The absolute cutest tardigrade I’ve ever seen! It all sounded like the perfect formula. And don’t get me wrong, Star Pig was good! It just wasn’t as great as I was hoping it would be.

One thing I really did love about Star Pig was the art. Francesco Gaston captured my attention from the first panel with its vibrancy. All of the aliens looked great, the settings were detailed and fun, and did I mention that there’s an adorable tardigrade? I also thought, with the main character Vess in particular, that character facial expressions were really well done, which is a make it break it king of thing for me when it comes to comics.

The writing was a mixed bag for me on this one, which I hate to say because Delilah S. Dawson is a favorite of mine. There were many fun and cool moments in the story, but never quite enough depth to really pull me in. It even felt a bit rushed at times, which I think was a result of the focus being placed on smaller stories and conflicts as opposed to the overall story arc. I do think this could easily be remedied though in future issues, as there’s obviously more story to be told. A bit more focus on that overall story could give this series just the depth that it was lacking in this first volume.

I loved the characters, though. Vess was a fantastic lead. She was funny and snappy and just a delight to read. And there there was Theo, who is my new favorite pink tardigrade. Theo was basically a ‘very good boy’ who could talk. Easily my favorite character. Vess and Theo’s interactions were the best thing about this comic for me, which I found interesting because the other character interactions all felt a little stiff and/or rushed. Vess and Theo’s budding friendship really gave this story its heart and is what made me most want to keep reading.

Overall, I did like Star Pig. Was it the best comic I’ve read lately? No. It wasn’t even the best Delilah S. Dawson one I’ve read recently. (See: Sparrowhawk.) But it was fun. A series of cute, funny stories with enough depth to make me keep reading but not enough to really make it stand out for me. The art alone though does make this one worth reading. I do plan to continue reading the series, though, if more are made, and with the way this volume ended I really, really hope more are planned I have high hopes for future installments. The overarching story seems to be a big one, and I think more focus on that could really take Star Pig up a tier. So I definitely recommend this one. It’s fast and fun and very easy to take in. Don’t go in with super high expectations, just go in expecting to have a bit of fun.

(This review will go live on NovelKnight on 3/9/20.)