The Incredible Shrinking Allowance

The Incredible Shrinking Allowance


Publication date	November 2011
Published by	KABOOM!
ISBN	978-1-60886-679-3

Wordgirl: The Incredible Shrinking Allowance is the second issue of a short series of Wordgirl graphic novels distributed by KABOOM! and Scholastic. The issue contains two short comics, The Incredible Shrinking Allowance and Fondue, Fondon't.

The comic follows the first comic, Coalition of Malice, and is followed by Word Up.

Summary[]

HEARD THE WORD?

Word up! Join Wordgirl and Captain Huggy Face, those vociferous virtuosos of vocabulary, on another daring adventure! When Tobey's allowance runs dry, the young inventor has only one terrifying option to finance his horde of destructive robots—getting a job! Will Wordgirl have what it takes to pummel these cybernetic perils once they have a payroll? Find out in this all-new vocabulary-filled volumen!

KABOOM! proudly brings you all-new adventures of WordGirl—based on the Emmy Award-winning animated PBS show.

Plot[]

The Incredible Shrinking Allowance[]

WordGirl and Captain Huggy Face square off against Tobey and his robot army in the park...only for Tobey's robots to fall apart before the fight can even begin. Tobey explains his mother recently insisted he start doing chores around the house, and that his income was cut off shortly after he refused; as a result, his budget for robot construction has been significantly decreased. WordGirl half-heartedly suggests that Tobey abandon his evil lifestyle entirely and try being 'nice' for a change.

One week later, Tobey seems to take WordGirl's suggestion to heart and opens up a robot factory, specifically designed to create robots to help people with their specific needs. Becky and Scoops tour the factory and find it to be surprisingly both legitimate and popular; however, Becky revisits the factory later as WordGirl, after she discovers that Tobey has been telling his customers that WordGirl herself came up with the idea for the factory in the first place. She tries to explain that this is not true, but neither Scoops or the customers believe her. Tobey, wanting to thank WordGirl for her 'suggestion' earlier of becoming good, gifts her a mysterious robot (which resembles Tobey's own head) to take home.

At their house, the robot's purpose turns out to be finding and gifting WordGirl flowers, something Becky is rather confused by. The flowers in question turn out to have been 'borrowed' from the garden of Granny May, who arrives at the Botsford home demanding answers. During this visit, the robot steals Granny May's purse and flies off, and Becky flies away as WordGirl to investigate.

She returns to Tobey's factory, where she finally witnesses the culmination of his evil plan; all of the 'good' robots he had been selling were actually programmed to steal the valuables of his customers. Tobey brags that he shall use his newfound wealth to rebuild his original robot army, but then acts surprised when WordGirl arrives to stop him. He explains the robot he gifted her was MEANT to attack her when her guard was down, and quickly deduces that it is disobeying his orders due to having taken a 'liking' to WordGirl. He uses his remote to cause the disloyal robot to self-destruct, then orders the rest of his robots to attack WordGirl. WordGirl and Huggy put Emergency Plan #84 into action, in which WordGirl fends off the robots while Huggy steals Tobey's remote (which turns out to be rather easy, since Tobey carelessly lets his guard down while criticizing the vagueness of Huggy's actions). Huggy destroys the remote, shutting down all of Tobey's robots just before his mother comes to take him away.

Huggy fixes the robot that Tobey gifted to WordGirl, who is thrilled that her new 'companion' is alive and well. She flies off with her new friend, once again leaving Huggy behind.

Fondue, Fondon't[]

Becky, Huggy, and the rest of the Botsfords attend the City's Bread Festival. Becky's hopes for a relaxing day are quickly dashed when it is revealed that the lake nearby has been turned from water to cheese fondue, which thrills most of the fairgoers but causes Becky to leap into action as WordGirl.

She correctly deduces that Dr. Two-Brains is behind the mysterious transformation and flies to his lair to confront him. The evil doctor explains that his plans for a relaxing day in his private cheese lake have been ruined by the large cheese-loving crowd; he takes revenge by expanding the range of his cheese-ray and turning ALL water in the city into cheese. WordGirl tries to stop him but is a second too late, and must instead let Two-Brains escape as she flies off to save the city from the chaos-causing cheese.

WordGirl flies into the center of town and finds a gigantic straw at The Great Big Things Store, which she then has Huggy use to drink literally all of the cheese flooding the streets. She then returns to Two-Brains's lair, where she demands the doctor turn the cheese back into water. Two-Brains claims the process is irreversible but WordGirl calls his bluff, and during the ensuing scuffle she is able to distract him with...cheese, obviously. She then uses the ray to turn all of the cheese back to water, before destroying the ray and escorting Two-Brains to jail.

Becky returns home, hoping to never see any fondue cheese again for as long as she lives; as luck would have it, her family is having fondue cheese for dinner.

Credits[]

Cover art: Steve Young

Associate editor: Shannon Watters

Assistant Editor: Adam Staffaroni

_{Special thanks to Lynne Karppi, Danielle Gillis, and Gary Hymowitz}

"The Incredible Shrinking Allowance"[]

Writer: Chris Karwowski

Art and Colors: Steve Young

Letters: Steve Wands

"Fondue, Fondon't"[]

Writer: Anita Serwacki

Art: Andy Price

Colors: Dustin Evans