Riding high from his newfound Marvel Rivals fame, Jeff the Land Shark returns to stores this week in his first-ever trade paperback edition! It’s Jeff! Jeff-Verse is where the Marvel Universe meets the Sunday funny pages through the eyes of our favorite precocious pet. Courtesy of collection editor Jennifer Grünwald, all four previously printed Jeff comics from Kelly Thompson, Gurihiru, VC’s Joe Sabino, Clayton Cowles, Sarah Brunstad and Jordan D. White assemble into this delight of a book.
Marvel Comics’ 2021 creative overhaul of their webcomic offerings into the digitally exclusive, vertical scrolling Infinity Comics kicked off with a slew of newly debuted titles. Updated weekly, a quick standout among the crowd was It’s Jeff!. The series found the unofficial pet mascot for Kelly Thompson’s run on West Coast Avengers taking center stage, and it follows the daily life of a baby land shark finding his place in the Marvel Universe. Similar to Nao Fuji’s Marvel Meow, It’s Jeff! offered short, largely standalone stories of good-hearted mischief with little to no dialogue (a single, shouted “JEFFERY!” is a common refrain in many early issues). The Infinity Comic proved to be quite popular, which led to nearly thirty installments of It’s Jeff! to be rereleased in print across two issues, It’s Jeff! #1 and It’s Jeff! Jeff-Verse #1.
The lovable land shark’s star has remained on a steady rise ever since. Leaping from the Infinity Comics format to print-first issues, the It’s Jeff! team returned for another Jeff romp in the anthology series Extreme Venomverse #5. The symbiote-splattered story later served as a jumping off-point for the character’s first full-length print issue of an entirely new Jeff adventure in the one-shot Venom War: It’s Jeff! #1. Now, all of these stories have been collected into a single-paper back edition, It’s Jeff! Jeff-Verse.
How can you not love him?
Credit: Marvel Comics
I will admit, there is a small part of me that prefers the style of It’s Jeff! over later stories like those in Venomverse and Venom War. It’s a small gripe, but I find the mostly text-free Infinity Comic stories to be a fun new take on classic comic strip conventions. The later stories being designed for the print issue format does create a noticeable difference in paneling, which is a fundamental aspect of comic storytelling. It’s not a bad shift, and other structural changes around dialogue are important for telling a story that is complex enough to span an entire issue. The original It’s Jeff! shorts feel almost akin to a Snoopy comic, and I think part of me will always be partial to that format for Jeff.
If it hasn’t been said enough, each and every Jeff tale from Thompson and Gurihiru is a treat. Thompson’s mind for comedy and Gurihiru’s signature style make each entry a blend of cute and funny casual-reading that anyone can enjoy. At the same time, the entire collection has cameos and homages sprinkled throughout, whether it be Jean Grey relaxing in a pool posed like the cover of Uncanny X-Men #101 or Gwenpool reading Gurihiru’s collaboration with Mariko Tamaki, Spider-Man & Venom: Double Trouble. And, for fans that have been following Jeff since his West Coast Avengers days, Jeff’s Venom War story features nearly a full reunion for the Kate Bishop-led roster.
If you came to know Jeff from Marvel Rivals first, you may think this push for the character in publishing is a synergy strategy. On the contrary, It’s Jeff! Jeff-Verse is a testament to the little guy’s enduring rise in popularity over the last four years. He was already a fun new character in West Coast Avengers, but the slight retooling of his design from Gurihiru has become the definitive baseline for Jeff’s appearance moving forward. Together, Thompson and Gurihiru have made Jeff the Land Shark into an iconic character worthy of showing up in your Rivals roster, as well as in Jeff’s first printed ongoing comic. That’s right, a five-issue Jeff the Land Shark miniseries from Thompson and new artist Tokitokoro starts this June, and It’s Jeff! Jeff-Verse is the perfect primer.
You must be logged in to post a comment.