Review by Frank Plowright

Twistwood Tales is a gloriously drawn experience featuring the strange inhabitants of Twistwood, some of whom would be the creations of nightmares were it not for A.C. Macdonald’s cheery presentation. Many are illustrated on the cover, so meet Argus the Imagician, Bucket Boy, the Doctor, the Ghost, Grim the Troll, Loghead, Jill the Lumberjack, the Robber Duckies, and Strawberry Soo among others.

Macdonald initially uses them for a series of four panel gag strips, yet contrived to make best use of their circumstances, with a series of creative strips about Bucket Boy standing out. Starting with the ludicrous premise of a boy with a bucket for a head, Macdonald makes you care about this sensitive lad. He’s first supplied with goggles to prevent his eyes leaking, and subsequent strips make both charming and limiting use of his bucket. Macdonald then progresses to slightly longer strips extending a theme, exploring the world, and dropping the idea of every strip ending with a joke.

For people with longer memories the idea of strange but friendly creatures inhabiting a forest and surrounding countryside will bring Walt Kelly’s Pogo to mind, both via the cleverness and the ability to switch from the absurd to reveal genuine heartbreak, but there’s no political satire here. Just like Kelly, though, Macdonald keeps introducing more delightful characters each with a distinctive quirk and you’ll be counting the pages until they appear again. They’re self-aware and even if initially introduced as a threat or menace they all have redeeming qualities. Well, perhaps not the Doctor, who’s self-appointed and frankly a danger to society.

Macdonald ends the strip section with the long tale ‘Bucket Boy and the Goblin Queen’s Riddle’. We’ve seen Bucket Boy’s mislaid his goggles earlier in the book, and this is his chance to retrieve them. That leads to the separate, but connected fairy tale of the Goblin Queen and her beautiful amphora. They’re both delightful.

A greatly appealing package ends with the revelation that every strip hides an object to find, and Cuthbert’s actual map of Twistwood. This is the emergence of a creator with something new and different to say, and if you check Twistwood Tales online you’ll discover it becomes even better.