'Adventure Time' Returns to Mondo

'Jake is a Tent' by Tiny Kitten Teeth: One of the new works for the upcoming "Adventure Time/Regular Show" exhibition at the Mondo Gallery (Image courtesy of Mondo)

Things are about to get way mathematical at the Mondo Gallery with a new exhibition about Cartoon Network's dark and brilliant Adventure Time, paired with their latest rising surrealist star, Regular Show. Yeahuh!

If you've never seen Adventure Time, well, A: what's wrong with you, and B: it's an animated series about the boy adventurer Finn and his adopted brother, Jake the talking shape-changing dog, in a post-apocalyptic world where magic works and half the people are also half-candy. It's mirrored in its wonderful weirdness by Regular Show, charting the slacker lives of two 23-year-olds barely holding down jobs as grounds keepers in a local park. Oh, yeah, and one is a raccoon and the other is a six foot tall Blue Jay.

Last year's Adventure Time show, and the accompanying belly-busting feast at the Alamo South Lamar, was a game changer for Mondo, appealing to a younger audience than most of their prints ever reach. Mondo Creative Director Mitch Putnam said, "When we were planning out the 2013 gallery shows, we knew we had to reconnect with Cartoon Network for another Adventure Time show, as last year's was a lot of fun."

If you think it seems like a short time between exhibitions, a lot has gone on in the Land of Ooo since April 2012. Jake and Finn's relationship has become more complicated, while the boy adventurer grows ever closer to the Flame Princess: Princess Bubblegum is dealing with constant strife in Candy Kingdom, and there was a major revelation about semi-reformed vampire Marceline and inept wizard the Ice King. That should give the 35 artists contributing to the show something to work with.

Adding Regular Show to the gallery mix makes a lot of sense. Not only do the two series run back-to-back on Mondays, but they share the same mad joy and internal logic. Putnam said, "Both shows are rich with wildly creative material, so the artists involved really went crazy. As usual, we couldn't be happier with the resulting body of work."

The Adventure Time/Regular Show show runs June 21-July 20 at the Mondo Gallery, 4115 Guadalupe.