It’s Jeff! #1: By Print or By Digital, Jeff Will Find You

Comics are a medium that goes hand in hand with comedy but has moved away from the genre for the most part. Looking over the spinner racks or shelves of new titles, stories that focus on emphasizing comedic elements are few and far between. As comics have gotten longer and more focused on trades, they have shifted further away from the comic strip format as well, which operates as one of the most concise methods of joke delivery in media. 

Titles still employ those comedic elements from time to time, usually as one-liners or backmatter material that feel supplemental but not essential to the reading experience. Any time the bigger publishers launch a comedy-driven title, in a strip or full comic format, it feels like a breath of fresh air for fans of the genre. That comedy is what makes Marvel’s It’s Jeff series such a treat to read, first digitally and now in print. 

It’s Jeff! #1, written by Kelly Thompson with art and colors by Gurihiru, is a collection of digital-first stories from the Infinity comics line on Marvel Unlimited. The series presents a cavalcade of misadventures featuring Jeff the Land Shark across the Marvel universe after his introduction in the Thompson-penned West Coast Avengers #7. As a genetically engineered Land Shark, Jeff found himself paired with everyone from Gwenpool to Elsa Bloodstone to Kate Bishop. 

The biggest takeaway that comes from reading this issue is Thompson’s ability to dig into the character and distill the expansive Marvel universe into this comedic world. Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye is the John to Jeff’s Garfield most of the time in these comics, but everyone from Spider-Man to Captain America and even M.O.D.O.K. crosses the Land Shark’s antics and each time their reaction feels aligned to each personality. 

Spider-Man having to clean up a kitchen mess is a great responsibility that falls on the wall-crawler’s shoulders. He doesn’t argue or fight Jeff and hammers the quiet acceptance as Spidey presumably grumbles a retort before cleaning. It helps that the book is almost always silent, with graphics filling the occasional word balloon. Allowing the audience to supply the dialogue in their minds gives a mad libs-esque feeling to these sequences, adding another layer of comedy to the situations. 

This collection of stories also shows Thompson’s knack for comedic writing, and it’s a testament that after a total of 24 stories, the chaotic circumstance Jeff finds himself in (and usually causes) never feels repetitive or bland. The stories range from a few panels to a few pages, but each time Jeff tries to beat the heat thanks to Iceman or battle the scary connotations of a shark when visiting the pool, the rhythm of the story always comes in pitch perfect. 

Thompson’s scripting and Gurihiru’s layouts are in powerful sync for these issues, as though they’re in a strong mutant circuit (to borrow from the current X-line). The cartoonish style Gurihiru employs does a lot to set that breezy pace for every story, giving the book the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon or comic straight out of the Sunday funnies. The linework has a soft but firm quality that renders everything adorable but concrete, making Jeff’s actions and emotions clear in every panel. 

Gurihiru also employs a pastel palette that also gives the connotation of a cartoon, offering bright colors that never overwhelm the eye. Even when the series pivots to slightly darker material, like prejudice against sharks or possible health issues, the colors never shift from their pastel hues which ensures that every punchline lands at the end of the comic. Gurihiru’s use of blues and whites also creates some of the best-looking images of Captain America and water in recent comics. Flipping through every pool or water-themed issue will cause a longing for summer and the beach, that’s for sure.