Cucumber Quest
| Cucumber Quest | |
|---|---|
 Cover art for the first print volume | |
| Author(s) | Gigi D.G |
| Website | cucumber.gigidigi.com |
| Launch date | 3 April 2011 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, comedy |
Cucumber Quest is an ongoing adventure webcomic written and illustrated by Gigi D.G. since April 3, 2011. The comic features the character Cucumber and his sister Almond traveling across a fictional world in order to defeat the Nightmare Knight, meeting various friends and foes on the way. The childfriendly comic has multiple volumes in print thanks to crowdfunding.
Plot and setting
Sporting a "bright, candy-colored look" and featuring "adorably rendered" bunny people dressed in the style of food, Cucumber Quest tells the story of Cucumber, a young boy that simply wants to go to "magic school," but is forced into heroism as the magical land is in danger and his father is captured.[1] Together with his more heroically-inclined sister Almond, the cowardly Sir Carrot and the energetic Princess Nautilus, Cucumber travels the fantasy world to collect signatures of the princesses of each of the six kingdoms of Dreamside, meeting various eccentric characters on the way.
Development
Cucumber Quest is Gigi D.G.'s second major webcomic project - her first being Hiimdaisy, a gag-a-day webcomic that provided bizarre twists to various video games. Hiimdaisy is no longer officially available, but the video game influence has persisted in Cucumber Quest. Though not explicitly referring to gaming, Cucumber Quest is influenced by Kirby and Paper Mario, making use of various video game tropes.[2]
While attempting to raise 10,000 USD through Kickstarter to self-publish the first volume of Cucumber Quest, Gigi D.G. made 62,953 USD long before the deadline of the campaign.[3] Multiple printed volumes have been released.[2] In 2016, Gigi D.G. made a new one-shot webcomic, titled Lady of the Shard. The infinite canvas webcomic, which was heavily praised by Zachary Clementy on Comics Beat, is—in stark contrast to Cucumber Quest's rich color palettes—deliberately limited to two or three colors at a time.[4]
First Second Books is planning to publish a new physical release of the webcomic in the second half of 2017.[5]
Reception
Larry Cruz of Comic Book Resources has praised Cucumber Quest for its humor and art style. While noting that its "story is fun and more polished than a lot of webcomics," Cruz states that he'd recommend the comic for its art alone.[1] Lauren Davis of io9 stated that it is easy to think of Cucumber Quest as a "children's comic," but that it has a lot "sly moments" that raise interesting questions in the reader.[6]
Lauren Davis listed Cucumber Quest among 51 webcomics that should have been nominated for an Eisner award, but never have,[7] as well as their "top 10 webcomics that would make incredible tv shows," noting it would fit in well with animated shows such as Adventure Time and Steven Universe.[8] Storyboard artist of Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears Louie Zong has stated that reading Cucumber Quest inspired him to become an artist.[9]
References
- 1 2 Cruz, Larry (2014-06-23). "'Cucumber Quest': Destiny is fickle". Comic Book Resources.
- 1 2 Smith, Kyle (2014-06-24). "Top 10 Comics Inspired By Video Games". Explosion.
- ↑ Siegel, Mark R. (2012-10-08). "The New Serial Revolution". The Huffington Post.
- ↑ Clemente, Zachery (2016-05-13). "Drop Literally Everything You're Doing and Read "Lady of the Shard" Right Now". Comics Beat.
- ↑ Davis, Lauren (2016-10-06). "First Second Is Publishing the Hilarious and Stunning Webcomic Epic Cucumber Quest". io9. Gizmodo.
- ↑ Davis, Lauren (2011-05-14). "In "Cucumber Quest," a funny thing happens on the way to Hogwarts". io9.
- ↑ Davis, Lauren (2014-04-16). "51 Awesome Webcomics The Eisners Have Completely Failed To Recognize". io9.
- ↑ Davis, Lauren (2014-09-19). "10 Webcomics That Would Make Incredible TV Shows". io9.
- ↑ McDonnell, Chris (2015-09-20). "Artist of the Day: Louie Zong". Cartoon Brew.