The Wolf’s Whistle

How did the Bad Wolf get to be so bad? Was it perhaps because as a young wolf named Albert, he and his friends were bullied by three pig brothers named Wade, Rafe, and Theron Honeyroast? And perhaps because these same three pigs grew up to be monsters who thwarted Albert’s dream of being a cartoonist for Wonder Comics? And maybe there was a tragedy that made Albert decide he had to do something drastic? Lie (working with writers Alex Spiro and Scott Donaldson) has created a hard-boiled superhero mashup that inverts the story of the Three Little Pigs. Lie’s art is an evocative mix of William Joyce and Jerry Robinson’s early Batman comics in this first in a proposed series of reimagined fairy tale origins. However, the story—with its satire on the comic book industry and nods to various vices, from sloth to finding inspiration to do the right thing in a bottle of whiskey—will go right over the heads or be a bit intense for the stated age range. Younger readers will like the pictures; readers 14 and up will like the Hammett-esque twist ending. Ages 6–up. (May)■