The Mighty Bite #2

May 1, 2024
Extinct creatures gear up for the ultimate battle! In his newest adventure, Trilobite decides he wants to go viral by making a funny video. After uploading content showing himself getting hurt, Bite garners millions of views (and a paycheck!), and his rival, Opabinia, decides to join in on the action. Bite's reckless attention-seeking antics land him in the hospital, where best friend Amber, a nonspeaking walking whale from the Eocene Era, gets into an altercation with a surly walrus. As the competition for internet fame grows, Bite, Amber, and human friend Tiffany find their boat capsized after a confrontation with Opabinia, landing the motley crew at the Sea Mall Ball, a spherical floating shopping center. When a revenge-seeking baby walrus picks a fight with Amber, Bite and his friends must survive an all-out pinniped rumble to escape. This second series entry keeps the pages flying with its over-the-top zaniness and abundant silliness, but it has a slyly smart undercurrent throughout, with the author/illustrator offering quiet social commentary and deftly tying up seemingly unrelated narrative threads. His illustrations are singular and stylish, featuring hand-lettered and hand-drawn, two-toned art. Although this is a follow-up to The Mighty Bite (2023), a cheery introduction establishes that each volume is a self-contained episode and can be read in any order. A sensationally silly sugar rush of a read. (minicomics) (Graphic fantasy. 7-11)

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July 19, 2024
Grades 3-6 Trilobite (The Mighty Bite), Amber the Ambulocetus (a mute, walking Eocene-era whale), Tiny Spinosaur, and human newscaster Tiffany Timber are back for another whirlwind adventure on the Island of Losta Founda. Yet again they are up against the five-eyed Opabinia as each team tries to create the most viral video. Tiffany aims for an educational video but is outvoted when Trilobite goes viral in a violent video. When Amber outrages the local pinniped (walrus and seal) army, they challenge her to an epic battle. Meanwhile, every move by the furious marine mammal mob is filmed by Team Opabinia for their Mammal Fights subscribers. Narrated by Radcliff, the all-seeing ape god from a previous title, the graphic novels in this boisterous and charmingly odd series are self-contained episodes. The artwork is hand-drawn with dramatic two-color spreads. The storytelling is a sparkling mash-up of hilarious lowbrow jokes and stunningly hyper-syllabic characters. A quick pace, terrific cast, and jokes that pour off the pages make for an adventure as silly and wild as the title.

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