Adventure Time: The Bubbline College Special took me back to the time of Tumblr, shipping, fan fiction, and of course, being a college student (Which was when I got into Adventure Time.) and features 48 pages of hilarious and colorful interior art from Caroline Cash of PeePeePooPoo and Nancy fame. The story is set in an alternate universe in the Adventure Time where Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen fell in love as undergrads not in the series finale, and Finn and Jake also attended college to keep an eye on Bubblegum from any assassins. It’s filled with plenty of hijinks like roommates (Or princesses.) from hell, late night study sessions, raging parties, life-altering concerts, and beautiful human connection.
Bubbline College Special is slow burn, enemies to lovers goodness from Bubblegum and Marceline’s first meeting when she sees the vampire strumming on top of a tower while remarking that it’s probably a fire code violation. Princess Bubblegum is all about studying and STEM while Marceline is all about rocking out, flirting, and taking things easy. I love how Cash draws the push and pull of attraction in their body language using simple, yet memorable gestures. She also has a lot of fun with the side plots featuring Bubblegum’s entitled roommate Lumpy Space Princess (Honestly one of the funniest characters on the cartoon ; she invented the concept of “brat”) and the neurotic Peppermint Butler, who is in some of kind of candy-themed Game of Thrones show not a sapphic romance. There’s a chaos to these moments while Caroline Cash drops the text out and uses wide panels for more tender scenes like Marceline and Bubblegum’s first kiss.
I also enjoy how Bubbline Special isn’t all feelings and butterflies, but Cash actually sets up a kind of road map for Bubblegum and Marceline to be in a relationship. As mentioned earlier, Bubblegum’s main goal is to succeed at school and her science experiments, and that’s impossible to do with Lumpy Space Princess throwing parties every night so Marceline opens up her dorm for rest and study, while she does her nocturnal vampire rocker thing. They might have an opposite aesthetic, but there’s a foundation of empathy and caring in their interactions, which is definitely smile-inducing. The panel of Bubblegum after her first good night’s sleep might be just as romantic as their first kiss or the big concert.
Speaking of concert, I love Caroline Cash’s use of color in Bubbline Special to convey emotions, energy, and characters’ personalities. There’s the luminous night sky during Marceline’s first appearance where she strums her literal axe and more washed out tones of the class rooms, cafes, and typical college spaces that offset the colorful characters. Finally, there’s the tapestry of colors for the Marceline and the Scream Queens with plenty of red, black, and pink to bring the focus on our star-crossed lovers. Adventure Time has some of the most memorable character designs in 21st century animation, and Cash does them justice while adding her own flair like using lines and squiggles to show Princess Bubblegum’s rage and stress.
Bubbline Special is sapphic romance at its finest set in the trippy, yet wholesome world of Adventure Time. Bubblegum and Marceline are iconic characters, but the typical college setting makes them relatable and down-to-Earth also adding to the nostalgia factor. I’ve been a fan of the Marceline/Bubblegum pairing for years so reading this was like a dream come true and proof that maybe once in a while humanities/STEM relationships work out.
Story/Art: Caroline Cash
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.4 Overall: 9.2 Recommendation: Buy
Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
