Raise your hand if you watched and loved the Bill & Ted movies. If your hand is not raised right now then you should leave this review, this book ain't for you. My hand is firmly jammed into the sky (it's hard to type with one hand). Okay you can put them down now. Some people might be offended by the notion of another comic revival of an old movie property, those people are not me. I like being able to spend a little more time in the things I enjoyed, just don't mess it up and stay true to the characters. So onto the book, was it most excellent? It wasn't but it certainly wasn't bogus either. There are two stories that are drawn in different styles. the first is the main attraction, a direct continuation of the second movie. It's fairly predictable in what will happen. We see them after the battle of the bands and inevitably there is a problem which requires the use of the phone booth time machine. The final note is a common trope when revisiting a nostalgic property.

The story is okay and it's fun to read the dialogue (I hope some people do (or at least did) speak like Bill and Ted in America). It's nice that they don't try to recap the previous movies it just follows on from the movies. Most of the characters show up (and those that don't I'm sure will turn up in the next five). The art is fantastic, it feels like an updated version of the cartoon. Yes I watched that too, did you know that Bill, Ted and Rufus were voiced by their movie counterparts? Excellent.

The second story is drawn in an Adventure Time style, which given that Ian McGinty worked on the Adventure Time comic is not that surprising. The characters still look like Bill and Ted and the voices also sound like them. This story is a one-shot, it's fun and self-referential. They make use of the borders for liner notes (does this have a specific term?) similar to Squirrel Girl.

I didn't know what to expect going in, so my expectations were super low especially as Big Trouble in Little China is on a downward spiral right now. Luckily this is a mini-series so hopefully they have enough interesting material to fill it up. I would be more worried if this was an ongoing series (unless they hired a really good writer).

Score: 3/5

Bill & Ted's Most Triumphant Return #1 Writer: Brian Lynch and Ryan North Artist: Jerry Gaylord and Ian McGinty Colorist: Whitney Cogar and Fred Stresing Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/11/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital

Listen to the CBMFP talk about Bill & Ted on their comic podcast this week...