‘Sophie: Jurassic Bark’ and ‘Sophie: Frankenstein’s Hound’ (review)

Written and Illustrated by Brian Anderson
Published by Marble Press

Here are two books about a character that is outside of my wheelhouse.

I came into reading these books without any idea who the Sophie character is. I did know Brian Anderson from the syndicated comic strip Dog Eat Doug, but I had never read that so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Then I opened to find that these books are actually from that syndicated strip, so I had a point of reference to go on here. It looked pretty fun and interesting but these were young adult books and I generally am not the audience type for these.

Luckily, these are both very accessible and easy to digest.

Sophie: Jurassic Bark is the first of the two books that I read in this series. This is the ongoing story of Sophie, who is a chocolate lab living the good life as a dog. Sophie gets a new baby boy as a companion. His name happens to be Doug.

This book covers Sophie’s first meeting with Doug and how she has to try to get used to the idea that she is not the only one in town anymore. We get to see the trial and error that any new relationship goes through here through the respective characters and their eyes. A lot of fun hijinks ensues from their relationship.

The interplay between the two is strong and you can tell that Anderson has a lot of experience documenting the pair’s wild adventures.

Sophie and her brother Doug soon go on a quest here. It’s pretty basic, and a tad bit juvenile, but I did smile a couple of times with this. The adventure that they are on has to do with a couple of cats trying to take over the world. Sophie and Doug discover what these cats are attempting to do almost accidentally. From there, they have to work jointly together to stop their feline foes. Can they get it together long enough to stop them or is the world’s fate in jeopardy?

This leads the intrepid pair to a place that is very sacred. It is apparently called The Temple of the Lost Cookie. They make their way there and that is when they discover how it is that they are going to handle these cats. The adventures are light, and the resolution of the whole situation isn’t that deep. I had enough of a light and breezy time that I figured that I would try the second book in that came my way.

That book is called Sophie: Frankenstein’s Hound.

This one is a bit darker (if you can call it that) than the previous book. This time around, Doug and Sophie go on another adventure. It is a bigger adventure than before so the dynamic duo have to level up in a sense. So they decide to bring along some new friends in this new journey.

They have come across a bunch of foster puppies for instance and they join the gang. A pair of kittens join the gang too, as the family Sophie and Doug are a part of just got them. These two kittens are mysterious and they may not be able to be trusted (at a certain point, I started to wonder if creator Brian Anderson had a thing against cats). The cats names are Chewy and Equi and the two of them are not to be trusted!

There is a Ninja Hunt that takes Ginger beginning of the book, that made me roll my eyes a bit. Nevertheless, if I was a young reader, I might have appreciated this a bit more. Still, there is fun to be had. After the Ninja Hunt, Anderson delves more into the two cats Chewy and Equi. Are they two cats part of the forces of good or do they have plans for world domination?

The two books are a lot of fun and Brian Anderson really writes and draws towards his audience. His characters are strong and simple to understand and he gets a lot of mileage out of very little. I enjoyed his two books, though I think younger readers will experience a deeper appreciation for them.

They are funny, well paced, and just different than most things out there.

SOPHIE: FRANKENSTEIN’S HOUND: B+
SOPHIE: JURASSIC BARK: B+