I laughed. I cried. I cheered. I laughed some more. All in 22 pages. Twenty-two wonderful pages.

Adventure Time: Marceline Gone Adrift is the story of how Princess Bubblegum (ruler of the Candy Kingdom and renowned scientist) fired Marceline (the Vampire Queen and music legend) into space. (PB had good reasons, I swear!) And now, Bubblegum has to go and find her friend by embarking on a crazy space adventure. Like you do.

Writer Meredith Gran first demonstrated an affinity for writing Adventure Time‘s two leading ladies with Marceline and the Scream Queens two and a half years ago. Scream Queens is a fantastic comic well worth reading, but it’s drama/laugh-o-meter hits about a 7, while Adrift hits a 10. The dialogue is insanely clever, and the character portrayals right on the money. But, the thing that wows me the most in this first issue is the background characters. Candy Kingdom residents like Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun steal the show and then politely hand it back to PB and Marceline when it’s time to get on with the story.

Add to that the illustrations by Carey Pietsch and you have a winning comic. Pietsch has drawn for Adventure Time before, but this was my first exposure to her work and she’s incredible. Marceline Gone Adrift has an almost children’s story look and color to it. Every scene is vibrant. And, the way she’s able to draw the characters. That crying mentioned at the top came from a few expressions drawn by Pietsch. Expressions drawn on a group of characters who don’t even have noses. She’s just that good.

As for what I thought of this comic as a fan of Adventure Time . . . I love it, I really do, for all of the reasons listed above, but I wish there was more. I don’t mean the next chapter exactly (although I want that, too), but there are mysteries and situations that are unresolved in this issue that feel like they should have been resolved here in order to pave the way for the meat of the story and get beyond what the solicits blurb told us about this series. But, then again, I might just be impatient.

All in all, Marceline Gone Adrift is a wonderful addition to the library of BOOM! Studios’ Adventure Time comics and a book I’d recommend to Adventure Time and non-Adventure Time fans alike.

Five Chairs for Cinnamon Bun out of Five