Cheshire Crossing

Andy Weir, author of The Martian, has teamed up with Sarah Andersen of Sarah’s Scribbles to reincarnate an old webcomic Weir (a self-confessed non-artist) created before the fame of his successful novel. Cheshire Crossing imagines what might happen if the worlds of Neverland, Wonderland, and Oz collided. Spoiler alert: Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch of the West (who’s alive) get along famously.

As you might hope, the story is a delightful, chaotic romp, something like when you invite several very different friend groups to mingle at a cocktail party. And Weir has the sensibility to consider how our three main protagonists, Alice Liddell, Wendy Darling, and Dorothy Gale, might be re-adjusting to their old lives, particularly given the trauma they’ve experienced. Watching the three of them interact with each other and then with each other’s enemies is just as much fun as you might expect–oh, and Mary Poppins is there, too. Someone has to be a responsible adult.

All the hopping between various worlds, though, can become hard to track at times because context clues get thrown out the window. Just because Dorothy and the Wicked Witch are facing off on Captain Hook’s ship doesn’t mean we’re in either Oz or Neverland. Using an indicative color filter to denote which world–”reality,” Wonderland, Neverland, or Oz–we’re in could be distinctly helpful.

Ultimately, this is delightful fun. It’s fun to re-encounter famous and infamous characters from classic childhood tales–and even more fun to watch their worlds collide. And Weir and Andersen do it with enough charm and wit (Tinkerbell talks in “jingle jingle jingle” until she gets mad, when she talks in “JINGLE JINGLE #&%^@ JINGLE”) to bring this great story premise to life. I’m looking forward to the next installment.