{"id":32486,"date":"2025-03-22T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32486"},"modified":"2025-03-21T18:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:32:27","slug":"bunny-vs-monkey-the-whopping-world-of-puzzles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/03\/22\/bunny-vs-monkey-the-whopping-world-of-puzzles\/","title":{"rendered":"Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Jamie Smart<\/strong>, with Sammy Borras<\/strong> (David Fickling Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-78845-350-9 (Digest HB)<\/p>\n

Bunny vs Monkey <\/strong>has been the hairy\/fuzzy backbone of The<\/strong> Phoenix<\/strong> since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies in an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.<\/p>\n

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!<\/strong>; Looshkin<\/strong>; Max and Chaffy<\/strong>, Flember<\/strong>), his trendsetting, mindbending multi award-winning yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in digest editions such as this one.<\/p>\n

The tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxiously annoying little anthropoid plopped down in some serene British woodland, in the wake of a disastrous local space shot. Crashed down in Crinkle Woods, scant miles from his launch site, lab animal Monkey<\/em> reckoned himself the rightful owner of a strange new world\u2026 despite every effort to dissuade him by reasonable, rational, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident\u00a0Bunny<\/em>. No amount of patience, propriety or good breeding on the part of the laid-back lepine could curtail, contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape.<\/p>\n

A keen rivalry arose between them, as the ape intruder crudely made himself at home, and to this day Monkey remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout intent on building his perfect \u201cMonkeyopia\u201d – with or without the aid of evil supergenius ally Skunky <\/em>or their \u201chenches\u201d Metal Steve<\/em> and Action Beaver<\/em>. Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, like Pig<\/em>, Weenie<\/em>, Ai<\/em>, Lucky<\/em>, Le Fox.<\/em> Mad scientist Skunky\u2019s intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, Brobdingnagian bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons\u2026<\/p>\n

Here the mundane multi-coloured – albeit rendered here in multifarious shades of mystifying monochrome tones – manic war of nerves and mega-munitions is pettishly paused for a session of traditional entertainment and activities as the entire cast amble \u2018To the Woods\u2019 <\/em>and into a fun-filled framing comic tale. Exploring and ending up somewhere never seen before, our cuddly combatants mutually discover and take charge of a ramshackle and abandoned \u201clost\u201d fun-fair. Their ingrained competitive lunacy sees all involved revive old rides but also -and this is where you come in – refit and revamp games and puzzles stalls, seeking to make it a holiday fun ride for all…<\/p>\n

Cue a selection of character-themed quizzes, puzzles, tests of skill and imagination and other pen and paper activities, Part One<\/em> of which focuses on reconditioned \u2018Games Stalls\u2019<\/em>. We open with the titular attention-seeking simian lout. His odd-one-out conundrum \u2018I am Monkey\u2019<\/em> leads to self-explanatory \u2018Bunny\u2019s Cross Words\u2019<\/em> and more esoteric wordplay in \u2018Action Beaver\u2019s Bibblesearch\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Weenie\u2019s Wall of Words\u2019<\/em>, and \u2018Ai\u2019s Speedy Wordswitches\u2019 <\/em>before naughty wordsearch \u2018Monkey\u2019s Too Rude!\u2019<\/em> brings us to pencil-driven \u2018Metal E.V.E.\u2019s Hall of Mirrors\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Spaces for Faces\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Embiggening for Beginners\u2019<\/em>…
\n\"\"
\nRiddles and enigmas abound next in \u2018Codewords with Le Fox\u2019 <\/em>after which traversing the \u2018Amazing Mud Maze\u2019<\/em> will afford a pause to assess \u2018Who Will Win? Only You Can Decide\u2019 <\/em>prior to Part Two<\/em> commencing with \u2018Costume Conundrums!\u2019 <\/em>and paper-folding foolishness for \u2018Fortune-Telling Monkey\u2019<\/em> and his \u2018Laugh of Truth\u2019<\/em> before \u2018Bunny\u2019s Would You Rather?\u2019<\/em> poses challenging questions in advance of really AARRRRD! stuff in \u2018Name That Pirate with Weenie and Pig\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Talk Like a Pirate\u2019<\/em>, before again asking \u2018Who Will Succeed? Only you can decide!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Part Three<\/em> contains culinary calamities and chewy comestibles aplenty, all bedecking assorted \u2018FoodStalls\u2019<\/em>. Learn how to deal with \u2018Candyfloss Quiffs\u2019 <\/em>and identify \u2018Weenie\u2019s Cake a Difference\u2019<\/em> whilst cowering in glee over \u2018Cookery Corner: Wobbleberry Buns\u2019<\/em>. Having cooked but not burned, we wonder \u2018What\u2019s That Smell?\u2019<\/em>, \u2018What\u2019s That Noise?\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Who\u2019s in the Loo?\u2019<\/em> and reassess how \u2018Only One Will Succeed!\u2019<\/em> before Part Four<\/em> brings us to a House of Horror<\/em> uncovering Skunky\u2019s private lab wherein lurks \u2018Skunky\u2019s Monster Maker\u2019<\/em>, \u2018House of Horror\u2019<\/em>, and \u2018The All-Seeing Eye!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Should you need to take breath \u2018Skudoku\u2019 <\/em>and \u2018Badgoku\u2019<\/em> are available as are \u2018Metal E.V.E.\u2019s Hints and Tips\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Skunky\u2019s Number Puzzle\u2019<\/em> just before a barrage of life-challenging decisions await those tackling adventure quiz \u2018None of the Fun of the Fair\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

The comic story resumes and concludes in traditional shocking vulgar fashion before the last survivors stagger up to the bit with all the \u2018Answers\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Daft, compulsively addictive, dangerously read-out-loud-able and fearfully unputdownable, this cutting edge retro-treat is the perfect gift for anyone with crayons, paper and too many kids.
\nText and illustrations \u00a9 Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles! <\/strong>will be published on March 27th<\/sup> 2025 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books) ISBN: 978-1-78845-350-9 (Digest HB) Bunny vs Monkey has been the hairy\/fuzzy backbone of The Phoenix since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies in an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles!”<\/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":[291,280,351,42,113,125,97,225,242,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activity-book","category-animal-antics","category-apes-monkeys","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-mystery","category-pirates","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8rY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32486","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=32486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32490,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32486\/revisions\/32490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}