The Adventures of Kung Fu Robot

They Got the "Madcap" Part Right

This is a fast paced and clever entry in the silly-superhero sweepstakes, and it does what it does very well. Kung Fu Robot is the hero and main character, while his nine year old sidekick Marvin serves mainly as a Greek chorus commenting on the action and having his warnings and predictions of doom and danger ignored. This combo works very well. Kung Fu Robot is actually a fairly endearing goofus and Marvin gets all the funniest throwaway lines.

The plot is built entirely around the wonder, appeal and sheer awesomeness of peanut butter and jelly and kung fu sandwiches. (The kung fu comes in when you slap the two slices of bread together.) An evil chicken villain is stealing all of the peanut butter and jelly in the city, and Kung Fu Robot has to stop him. We start with an extended scene involving the making of a sandwich that turns out to be unacceptable because made with chunky peanut butter. So it's off to the grocery story, where we have a lengthy scene of android ninja fighting. Then we're off to the chicken's lair for a final decisive showdown. This sounds silly, and of course it is, but given the length of the book this really reads like at least three full graphic novellas collected in one volume. There is a lot of reading value here.

I appreciated that there isn't a single fart joke in the entire book. Actually, if anything there are many fairly sophisticated jokes, (many delivered by Marvin), and some of those lines could be entertaining for parents and older readers and might very well go over littler readers' heads. That's fine; I'd rather be stepping up in class than going down.

The drawing isn't traditional, but it isn't manga style. It's sort of disjointed and angular and expressionistic. But, it's almost always clear what's going on, which I guess is the most important thing.

The book invites the reader to download a phone app that makes the book interactive. I didn't test that, but I've seen it with other books and that does add a whole new dimension to the experience. Whether it's a good idea to tie a kid's book to a phone app and bring the whole phone deal into the reading equation is something, I suspect, that each person has to decide for himself.

So, this is good-natured, fun, funny, energetic and extremely fast paced. It struck me as a nice change from the usual fare and so might be worth a look. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

My son and I had a great time reading this comic. The Kung Fu part of the sandwich making was imitated immediately (thankfully not with actual food...yet) and the best parts (for my son) was always announced by a large 'Jieehah' exclamation of the Kung Fu Robot. There were a lot of more subtle jokes - I especially liked Marvin's sarcastic comments. And we both just loved the silly but mighty cute little ninja they finally 'adopted'. The style of the illustrations was different from the usual cartoon comics, with bright colors, expressionistic but also with a kind of retro touch to it which was much appreciated (especially by me).

This book is definitely aimed at younger readers, however parents may have double the fun when experiencing the adventures of the Kung Fu robot together with their fascinated kid.

This book is a load of Kung Foo fun! It’s very reminiscent of 80’s Saturday morning cartoons, that would take something simple, like making a PBJ sandwich, and have the most absurd things happen. The graphics are spot on, and I bet the action with the available app just makes it an even more entertaining series. I know lots of kids who will be addicted to this series and begging for seconds. P.S. please include the PBJ. I prefer strawberry.

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