The primary half or so of the e-book consists of 2023’s It’s Jeff! and It’s Jeff!: Jeff-Verse #1, which appear to be onerous copy variations of the web comedian strips. These are very quick (the primary is just 4 panels, though most are a number of pages lengthy) and principally silent. There’s no dialogue of any form, other than the variations of “Mrrr” sounds that Jeff makes, and his human companions Hawkeye Kate Bishop or Gwenpool sometimes shouting his identify (or, if he’s actually in bother, shouting “Jeffrey!”). In any other case, Jeff typically communicates in dialogue bubbles with pictograms in them, like a damaged coronary heart, a musical notice or a scribbly cloud of frustration.

These tales are all easy however pleasant, as Jeff lets his abdomen get him into bother, performs dress-up, ruins a Marvel pool occasion along with his scary fin, and borrows the varied weapons of the Avengers. Among the many longer tales are Jeff’s investigation of the villain accountable for manufacturing Jeff toys (Spoiler: It’s M.O.D.O.Ok.) and one through which he rallies a model of the Pet Avengers to assist him free all of the animals from a pet retailer.

The Gurihiru staff are amongst my favourite superhero artists, their enticing characters managing to look considerably simplified and intensely cute whereas nonetheless wanting like themselves; their designs provide a kind of a classical animation tackle acquainted characters from comedian books and live-action motion pictures and TV, with a little bit of a manga accent.

And Thompson provides them loads of alternatives to attract Marvel heroes, because the strips are filled with guest-stars, a pair that includes entire crowds of them.

It clearly takes a fantastic artist to tug off these principally silent comics, given how a lot must be communicated by way of motion and expression alone, and Gurihiru are greater than up for the problem.

The second half of the e-book options extra conventional superhero comedian tales like people who first spawned the character, though these are nonetheless drawn by Gurihiru. Taken from the pages of 2023’s Excessive Venomverse #5 and 2024’s Venom Struggle: It’s Jeff, these are tied to the goings-on in Marvel crossovers, however the premise of every is fairly simple to grasp with out ever having heard of these tales: Primarily, Jeff merges with one of many inky black goop aliens that Venom-ize the characters that they possess.

The primary of those tales is an easy five-pager through which Jeff will get Venom-ized and scares Hawkeye, though she’s in a position to free him pretty rapidly. Although there’s precise dialogue on this story, which is definitely form of jarring after all of the silent strips, the storytelling is so clear that it’s hardly obligatory.

The second is a full-length story, through which Jeff is once more Venom-ized and, after numerous makes an attempt to shake the symbiote off, he and it comply with give attention to a standard objective and head to Coney Island, the place the now larger, stronger, scarier Jeff proceeds to eat each snack in sight. He finally makes use of his newfound well-muscled arms to staff up with Hawkeye, Gwenpool, and another younger heroes and save Coney Island from the menace of many Venom-ized civilians.

Although that’s the tip of the e-book, it’s nearly definitely not the final we’ve seen from Jeff. However for now anyway, this charming little assortment affords a bookshelf-friendly, library-ready manner for brand spanking new readers to get all of his adventures in a single place.

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