Sleepless Knight

A brave (if scatterbrained) knight and his horse, Edward, go camping. The knight's misplaced teddy leads to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity in which he stumbles into a real bear's lair; sight gags and silliness abound. The knight has a remarkable range of emotions for someone wearing a helmet, and eggplant-shaped Edward is a great straight man (or horse). Endpapers offer amusing drawing tutorials.

In this first Adventures in Cartooning Jr. title, a brave (if scatterbrained) knight and his trusty horse, Edward, ready themselves for an overnight camping trip. The small, portly horse teeters under the weight of everything the knight has packed ("Rock collection: CHECK! Scooter: CHECK! Edward's ukulele: CHECK!"). After building a fire and eating too many marshmallows -- "I only brought 30 bags. I hope that's enough!" -- the knight misplaces his teddy, leading to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity in which he stumbles into a real bear's lair; sight gags and silliness abound. The knight has a pretty remarkable range of emotion for someone wearing a helmet, and the eggplant-shaped Edward is a great straight man (or horse). The bear is fierce but not too scary (he even takes part in the suitably goofy campfire sing-along on the last spread). Happily, the knight eventually finds his teddy -- it was under Edward the whole time -- and settles into slumber. Endpapers offer amusing how-to drawing tutorials, such as the knight playing a tuba and Edward's "sweet dance moves." sam bloom