Everybody’s favourite time skipping dudes, Bill and Ted made a most triumphant return to the big screen with Bill And Ted Face The Music and boy was it the light hearted relief that the world needed in 2020. With Face The Music creator Ed Solomon once again passed on the duo’s eternal optimism and upbeat spirit reminding us comic book and movie fans that all is not lost and the world is largely worth fighting for. What we didn’t know at the time was that due to his commitment and love for Bill and Ted, he’d also been brought in as a consultant to a direct sequel to 1991’s classic Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey titled Bill And Ted Are Doomed. Picking up exactly where we left the boys, Death, Station and the “Babes” in Bogus Journey, Bill And Ted Are Doomed, takes us on the journey that’s briefly looked at in the film’s end credits.

Writing the song that would bring about world peace, is proving too much of a strain for the twosome, who’s relationship is straining as well as the relationships with the people around them. The fans are growing disillusioned with the band and Death is threatening to walk, seeing a better future as a solo artist. Not the time to be going on a world tour, that seems them cast off by the metal community as “false metal” and hunted down by the malevolent metal band “Evil Empyre,” themselves a parody of all things heavy metal. It’s nice to see Billie and Thea running around bridging that gap between the this and the latest movie and the Stations are still knocking about.

There’s no major peril, because as is this case in every entry of this saga and quite rightly so, the emphasis here is on fun. In fact that is the perfect word to describe this book as it exudes fun from every word written by Evan Dorkin, also returning to the franchise, and the artwork of Roger Langridge. This is a combination that know exactly how to bring the best out of Bill and Ted. Bill and Ted Are Doomed delivers on every front. The fact is this franchise can go on and on. There could never be enough Bill And Ted material. Older fans will dig jumping back into the familiarity of this world, while the bright, breezy nature of the book will also open it up to new fans. Cudos Messrs Langridge, Dorkin and Solomon on a most excellent book…. Chris Andrews