Cute, fun, and creative. Might be hard for younger readers or those who have trouble with English but the concept of not having vowels in the language is a great concept that is executed well!

Ths cmc bk bcm qt hrd t rd n sm sctns! Did you get that?

After being exchanged by three previous families Frank is due for an appointment with a fourth potential family, Mr and Mrs Fugly (I kid you not! 😆). He “drops in” to the meeting with the director of the orphanage, who accidentally admits she doesn’t know what happened to his parents. Deciding to run away (again!) Frank is caught by the gardener who tells Frank the truth, that he found Frank when he was about a year old.the gardener shows Frank a map of where he found him then sends him on his way.

After a journey on foot to find his parents, complete with some pretty funny falls, directionally challenged Frank finds himself sucked through a portal of sorts and winds up in prehistoric times. There is no phone service, no internet and apparently vowels haven’t been invented yet, so the locals tlk lk ths (talk like this). It does take a bit to get used to the way they talk and because of this, FRNK may not be the best comic book for reluctant readers. There’s one swear word in this book but your kid most likely already knows it anyway and its use is really funny.

This is the first comic in a series of three so there’s the inevitable ending just when you’re really getting into it. I’ve read this comic book twice now. The first time I was so frustrated by the lack of vowels in the prehistoric world that it took my attention away from the story. Having said that, after a break and coming into it knowing about the vowel situation, I really enjoyed reading this the second time.

There’s a fair amount of humour I missed the first time around and this time I really focused on the awesome job Brice Cossu has done with the illustrations. The expressions in both present and past add to the humour of the text and the details in the landscape, plants and animals are wonderful.

The vowel situation will be off putting for some readers, although it’s only for a portion of the book. If you can get past this, you’ll find a series that has a lot of potential. Besides the humour and time travel, there’s action and fight scenes, along with the mysteries of where Frank’s parents are (if they’re still alive) and whether Frank will go home in the end. I suspect he may find home in prehistoric times but I haven’t read past the first comic so that’s only my gut feeling.

What this comic proves to me is that if you’re not entirely sure what you think of a story it’s completely fine to cleanse your reading palate with other books before you attempt a reread. Had I reviewed this book straight after I read it for the first time you’d be reading a very different review. I’m definitely interested in getting my hands on the rest of this series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this comic.

P.S. That first sentence? If you didn’t get it, it reads “This comic book became quite hard to read in some sections!”, but I’m sure you already knew that! 😜

Frank is an orphan who runs away from the orphanage is search of his parents. He gets transported back in time and meets a bunch of cavemen who speak without using any vowels.

The art is very good. All of the people talking without using vowels can get very confusing especially if they speak in short words.

The first artistry we get is a delicious reproduction of cave paintings that look like the ones in Chauvet, France. Things go downhill from there.
A sullen young teen is not looking forward to his fourth adoption, figuring this family will be just as bad as the previous three. He tries to escape, but only makes things worse; in a large shot with a building filling the background, there’s a red arrow to show us where he’s falling. (Thanks for that.)
The kid goes through a glass roof, falls off a wall like Humpty, and goes head over heels down a rocky hill, but other than a band-aid is perfectly fine. Huh. After a lot of ows, they add one more “And ow!” Cute.
I love the redhead administrator for much more than the color of her hair; too bad she’s only appears at the beginning. But then they placate me with more redheads later.
It was never meant to be realistic, obviously—not with time traveling—but some of the small moments, like him running on water, are too ridiculous and didn’t need to be. He takes too long thinking it’s a theme park, then instantly jumps to the most absurd possibility. (The fact that he’s right is just a coincidence.) More than anything else, this kid is just too annoying to root for.
2.5 pushed up to 3/5

'FRNK: The Beginning Begins' by Olivier Bocquet with art by Brice Cossu is a book that would be fun for young readers, but there is one 4 letter word that, while it is hilarious in the context of the book, may offend some parents.

Frank is an orphan who can't stay in any foster home. When his latest "parents" show up, Frank decides to run away. With the help of a friendly gardener, he is given a lead to where his real parents might actually be. He finds himself transported to a weird prehistoric world where everyone wants to eat him or use him for bait. Frank can't understand them because they don't use vowels in their speech (they haven't been invented yet).

It races right along and Frank's clumsiness keeps getting him in and out of trouble. It's all perfectly fine, but parents might have problems with that 4 letter word for excrement. If you can see your way past that, it's a pretty fun adventure.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

A quick bit of whimsy this, with an unfosterable boy escaping his institution before his new surrogate parents recover from first meeting him, only to enter a prehistoric world of some dreamy quality that seems to have a clue to where he came from, and who his birth parents might have been. That's all forgotten, however, in order to have slapstick action scenes, and different tribes of cavemen, ll f whm tlk wtht vwls - sorry, all of whom talk without vowels. Yes, if you haven't watched Only Connect then you'll like as not suffer. Pleasant artwork, but the story isn't all there, and you have to wonder why this publisher has rushed to get this book in translation (it's still ongoing, with the third volume a month away as I write for the native French audience) when so many better books must have been available. Still, this is reasonable for a bit of juvenile lightheartedness.

I really did not like this and had to put it down less than halfway through. Thought it has beautiful art work, the fact that most of the characters don't use vowels when they speak got REALLY annoying REALLY fast. Also, it's hard to root for a protagonist who is just so obnoxious and unlikable!

Frnk tells the story of an orphan that somehow ends up in prehistoric times.

I’m not sure what to say about this. I didn’t hate it. The art was okay, so was the story but I couldn’t really connect with the story or the characters.
It didn’t captivate me…
I don’t think I’ll be reading the next issues… Or maybe I will to see if I get into it more.

FRNK is an amusing beginning to a series for tweens and above. Frank, who is an orphan from modern times, sets out to find his birth family and ends up way, way back in the past. It has definite shades of "Journey to the Center of the Earth". However, in this case, it's definitely a bit more light-hearted.

I think everyone involved in this did a good job. From the dialogue to the illustrations and the coloring, it's all pretty much spot on. The characters all felt like they could come off the page. Some of the scenes had me snickering. The "first actual word said by humans" had me nodding, because, yep, that sounded just about right.!

A fun, quick, easy read for those old enough to handle a four letter curse word, FRNK is worth checking out.

This is a fun junior graphic novel. Great art and fast-paced story.

*thank you to Netgalley and Europe Comics for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4.5 stars.
I am soooo excited to know that this is just the first in the series! This was BRILLIANT! Any book that can get me to continually laugh out loud gets my definite approval and this Graphic Novel did just that! I had wondered why the title was 'Frnk'. I thought it had been a spelling error or something, I wasn't sure. But, once I found out why, it made sense and was SO funny! The artwork is really good too. The only issue I have is that the text is so small and even on my tablet it's only just readable without having to adjust each page to make sections bigger. Plus my eye sight (touch wood) is very good so people with not so great eye sight might also struggle. In other words, this isn't made for use on phones. But it's totally and completely worth reading! It's written for middle grade but if your like me, still a kid at age 32, you will also enjoy this if the description sounds appealing to you. I'm not saying that everybody will love it as much as me, but that it's not just for kids to enjoy. I need to find out when the second book is due out...
Definitely recommend!

The Beginning begins (FRNK, #1), by Olivier Bocquet and Brice Cossu, is a graphic novel about a teen boy named Frank who’s an orphan, and trying for the fourth time to get adopted. He’s frustrated beyond measure with the entire process and attempts to escape completely and restart life on his own terms. Frank meets an old friend who helps to shed a glimmer of light on his past before Frank is taken for the ride of his life.
This is part one of a series and I thoroughly enjoyed every single page. The artwork is excellent, filled with color and detail. The storyline is engaging and comical throughout. This story hasn’t answered all of my questions since it’s only the first in the series, but it does create a fantasy wherein a child without parents might have had something spectacular happen that caused it all. It wasn’t simply a case of abandonment, but perhaps much more. As I read through the story and noted the similarities between Frank and those around him, I can’t dismiss the possibility that here he will find the answers to the questions he’s had since he could think for himself. The hilarious situations that Frank finds himself in this new place simply adds to the excitement and the reader is taken from one wild ride to the next. I could easily imagine this as an animated film or even a full production. FRNK, by Olivier Bocquet and Brice Cossu targets the young reader age group but I think that anyone who enjoys these types of stories will love it.

Full of adventure, engaging and funny.

Most of the time, he is either running from danger, falling down, or getting into trouble.

Seems aimed at a younger reader who is attracted to women. (At times a bit sexist with some toilet humor).

Love the illustrations! I think this was a fun introduction to a new graphic novel series, and except for <spoiler>humanity's first word being an expletive </spoiler> it seems suited for tweens.

I love a strange, quirky story. This one, though, might me just a step too far. A romp of a ride, however. I will pick up the next volume to see if this odd premise can build into a story.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review!

What happens when a boy, looking for his parents, lands in prehistoric times? Well first of all, learning the natives vowels, as they are all talking without those. And how that sounds/looks? Well, I guess you probably texted enough times and were too lazy to spell out words. There you go. ;)

I wasn't sure about our MC in the first 3 pages (though I can understand why he didn't want those parents, one didn't seem interested in kids, the other was a bit too sports-obsessive, and the other had just too many puppies (I never thought I would say this)), but quickly (probably about the time when he decided it was a great idea to sneak away ending with him hanging for dear life over a greenhouse) I liked him, and with each page I found him more and more interesting and sympathetic.

I loved how he first thought he was at a set (given what he saw at the cave entrance), but how he quickly realised that maybe, just maybe, this was all reality. And like so many typical stories set from modern to prehistoric his first worries were the fact there was no internet and he would miss the release of a game he liked. Yup, priorities straight.

I loved that when the people learned vowels, their first word wasn't their names, oh no, it is a classic and it had me in stitches. :P

The art was fabulous. Unlike so many graphic novels were at times the art doesn't look too pretty when the characters are in motion, this one captures everything perfectly. I really have zero complaints about the illustrations. They are perfect, especially the expressions which had me rolling off my chair a few times. The style is a bit reminiscent of another comic, but I can't for the life of me think which one it was.

It is just a shame that this volume is only 58 pages. I definitely want more of it. I want to see if our MC can find his parents (do they perhaps live in this age, if yes, are they still alive?), and I want to see what his plans are for the cavemen (and cavewomen). Is he really going to start learning them how to farm? Is he really going to show them how life is supposed to work? Boy, I can't wait!

All in all, highly recommended and I hope that a second volume will come out soon.