Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Strips Vol. 3 review

I was relieved when both of our children let me know, in their own unique way that they liked Wallace & Gromit.  Wallace & Gromit is our DVD comfort food.  Whenever the streaming is slow or our kids need a treat we’ll put in one of their shorts or movies so that we all can chill.  As we live on this side of the pond we only recently discovered that they have a daily comic strip too.  Titan Comics compiles these daily comic strips and the third volume has just been released.

One of the great things about Wallace and Gromit is that the quality that goes into every scene is obvious and full of love. It never is laugh out loud funny, but it is so consistently charming and family friendly that it makes it all but required viewing for anyone with small children.  Having said that; we’ve been watching them in one form or the other for 20+ years and have only been a father for 5 of those years, so you do the math.

The newspaper strip version will not disappoint fans of Wallace and Gromit.  It’s dry, very creative, packed with creative machines, cool inventions, home grown businesses and puns, lots of puns.  Each newspaper strip story consists of 3 to 4 panels and every story lasts for seven days.

Between some of the newspaper stories are full page images from one of their movies or shorts.  These serve as a nice way to break up the separate stories and remind fans of the medium that made Wallace & Gromit famous.

If you’re not familiar with Wallace & Gromit you will enjoy the newspaper strips.  Children will especially enjoy them, its gentle humor, approachable lessons and goofy appeal is ageless and will enchant anyone.  One added bonus is that since it’s a serial children will have to wait, look forward to the next episode and use their imagination in re-telling the story.

The Wallace & Gromit newspaper comic is read by 2.5 million each day in the UK. This version is hardcover and retails for $17, but you can find it online for less.  Outside of the UK this is the only way to get your Wallace & Gromit comic fix.  If you’re on pins and needles for the Shaun the Sheep movie this is a great way to get your Aardman on also.