Review by Ian Keogh

Pablo and Splash are a pair of penguins living in Antartica as all penguins do. Pablo, the taller and slimmer penguin pictured on the cover, is very content with the icy surroundings, but Splash is constantly cold and wants a holiday somewhere warmer. How are they going to manage that? Well, Antarctica is host to a number of scientific bases, one of which is run by the unconventional Professor O’Brain, and although she’s still working out a few bugs, she’s invented a time machine.

Although marketed alongside Dog Man and Bunny vs Monkey, this is more definitively aimed at a younger audience, largely lacking the additional sophistication and mind-expanding aspects of those series, although Sheena Dempsey does include information pages in the back. Pablo and Splash are instantly likeable, though, as the standard comedy duo of wild enthusiasm and lack of caution matched with the more intelligent voice of reason. They’re designed for slapstick, and that duly manifests.

Dempsey keeps the art as simple as the plot, avoiding complicated backgrounds and using big panels. The cast are cheerful, even the slightly scary elements, and if any young reader wants to draw their own adventure, there’s a guide on how to draw the main characters after the story.

While attempting to avoid Professor O’Brain, Pablo and Splash tumble into her time machine. They’re first taken to the sun, and then to a time before the land masses on Earth separated, meaning Antarctica was almost tropical. It’s a feature enjoyed by the penguins until they discover who’s living there. However, Dempsey avoids anything too threatening, and it’s the situations requiring solved rather than anything else.

Pablo and Splash make for a cheery couple and young readers will laugh along at their antics.