{"id":16284,"date":"2016-12-22T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=16284"},"modified":"2016-12-21T13:33:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T13:33:12","slug":"abigail-and-the-snowman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/12\/22\/abigail-and-the-snowman\/","title":{"rendered":"Abigail and the Snowman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abigail-snowman-150x230.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"230\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-16285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abigail-snowman-150x230.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abigail-snowman-250x384.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abigail-snowman-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abigail-snowman.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><br \/>\nBy <strong>Roger Langridge<\/strong>, with <strong>Fred Stresing<\/strong> (Kaboom!)<br \/>\nISBN: 978-1-60886-900-8 (PB)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 eISBN: 978-1-61398-571-7<\/p>\n<p><strong>Win&#8217;s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A New Seasonal Spectacle to Enjoy Over and Over Again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 10\/10 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cartoonist Roger Langridge is a very talented man with a uniquely beguiling way of telling stories. He has mastered every aspect of the comics profession from lettering (<strong>Dr. Who<\/strong>) to writing (<strong>Thor: the Mighty Avenger<\/strong>) to illustration.<\/p>\n<p>When he combines them (<strong>The Muppet Show Comic<\/strong>, <strong>Zoot!<\/strong>, <strong>Fred the Clown<\/strong>, <strong>Snarked<\/strong>), the approbation, accolades and glittering prizes such as Eisner and Harvey Awards can&#8217;t come fast enough.<\/p>\n<p>He is also a bloody genius at making folk laugh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abigail and the Snowman<\/strong> started life as an all-ages comicbook miniseries before being gathered in one single sensational package just in time to become a Christmas favourite.<\/p>\n<p>When nine-year-old Abigail and her father move to a British seaside town just before her birthday she&#8217;s not expecting much. Things have been tough lately. It&#8217;s just her and Dad now and he&#8217;s having job troubles whilst the prospect of starting a new school fills her with dread and resignation\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>It goes just like she expected. Whilst the hard-pressed Man of the rented, box-filled House frantically scrabbles for work to make ends meet, she gets the cold shoulder from her new classmates at Shipton-On-Sea Primary School.<\/p>\n<p>At least she&#8217;s still got imaginary friend\/invisible dog <em>Claude<\/em> to play with and her dead mum to talk to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s when things get really strange as Abigail stumbles across a hulking, nattily-dressed and well-spoken Yeti hiding in the playground. He was kidnapped as a baby by a shady department of the government who want to abstract and duplicate the Abominable Snowmen&#8217;s ability to cloud men&#8217;s minds. He&#8217;s just escaped and been on the run for ages\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully Yetis can walk about unseen in the midst of men, but it quickly becomes apparent that the trick doesn&#8217;t work on humans who haven&#8217;t endured puberty yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Pretty soon the affable giant is a shared secret amongst the kids and weirdo newcomer Abigail is the most popular kid in school. Sadly, the Yeti &#8211; who happily adopts the name Claude &#8211; has been followed since his escape.<\/p>\n<p>British Shadow Men equipped with special goggles to track him are hard on his hairy heels, and soon trace the snowman to Abigail&#8217;s bedroom where he&#8217;s comfortably hiding\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>When the kid conspirators satisfactorily deal with them, however, the clandestine organisation calls in its biggest gun: a gung ho, total maniac dubbed <em>Mr. Fix-It<\/em> who never fails and considers collateral damage or civilian casualties as fringe benefits\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>With the net closing in, it&#8217;s clear that Claude has to leave, but even as Abigail executes a heartbreaking and devilishly clever plan to sneak Claude out of the country and back to the Himalayas, the ruthless, relentless Ministry monster-hunter strikes and, despite the surprising assistance of a few former enemies, Claude has to find a new and lasting solution to all his problems\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Drenched in wit and warmth, this is a hilariously fun and fast-paced adventure romp, loaded with spectacle and action yet concealing plenty of twisty surprises to enthral young and old alike.<\/p>\n<p>In an age of bonuses and extras this slim tome also offers a cover-&amp;-variants gallery by Sonny Liew, Langridge and his faithful colourist Fred Stresing, plus a quartet of mostly monochrome mini-exploits of the shadowy Ministry Men in their alternative career as <em>&#8216;The Zookeepers&#8217;<\/em> of the clandestine and fabulous Crypto-Zoo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>An utter delight from start to finish, this yarn is a perfect example of comics at its most welcoming, and don&#8217;t be surprised if it turns up as a movie or BBC TV special one of these days\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<br \/>\n\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 &amp; \u00c2\u00a9 2014, 2015 Roger Langridge. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Roger Langridge, with Fred Stresing (Kaboom!) ISBN: 978-1-60886-900-8 (PB)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 eISBN: 978-1-61398-571-7 Win&#8217;s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A New Seasonal Spectacle to Enjoy Over and Over Again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 10\/10 Cartoonist Roger Langridge is a very talented man with a uniquely beguiling way of telling stories. He has mastered every aspect of the comics profession from lettering (Dr. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/12\/22\/abigail-and-the-snowman\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Abigail and the Snowman&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,90,125,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-cartooning-classics","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4eE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}