Avatar: The Last Airbender—Chibi Vol. 1: Aang's Unfreezing Day

Avatar: The Last Airbender—Chibi Vol. 1: Aang's Unfreezing Day is a chibi comic for very young readers. The comic is written by Kelly Leigh Miller, in collaboration with series writer Tim Hedrick, and illustrated by Diana Sim with assistance from Christianne Gillenardo-Goudreau. A preview of the comic was released on May 7, 2022 as a part of Free Comic Book Day.
Originally scheduled to be released on September 7, 2021, it was delayed several times, and was released on February 1, 2023.
== Overview ==
Celebrated children's author Kelly Leigh Miller (I am a Wolf; I Love My Fangs) teams with Avatar fandom favorite artist Diana Sim to bring young Avatar fans and their families this heartwarming tale of love, celebration, and friendship, in collaboration with Nickelodeon and Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series writer Tim Hedrick.
Can you imagine not knowing your own birthday?
That's the situation for Aang, who was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years! Luckily his friends Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Zuko have a plan to surprise him with a new special day to celebrate. But they'll have to be careful while they prepare--it's a surprise!
== Synopsis ==
Aang wakes up in Team Avatar's house in Ba Sing Se and discovers his friends missing. Sokka has left many notes all over the house, telling Aang to stay where he is, each note being more complicated and starting to "argue" with Aang. Growing frustrated, Aang decides that the notes are stupid and resolves to go into town. However, he finds a note outside the house telling him to go back inside. Frustrated, he decides to check out what is going on, as he decides that Sokka has not left all the notes for anything.
He flies over the city using his glider and finds Toph pushing a cart of items. She grows embarrassed once Aang greets her, saying that she knew that Sokka's plan would not work. When Aang tries to ask about the notes, she says she is busy, and she uses her earthbending to block Aang from seeing what she is carrying in the cart. She tells him that it is "none of [his] business" and earthbends another barrier when she notices that Aang is trying to look at the items from the side. Growing increasingly flustered, she tells Aang to go back to the house and that the rest of their friend will come to get him later. When he asks for what exactly they are getting him, Toph begins to sweat and tells him that it is "none of his business", pushing him away with her bending. Aang deflects the full force with his airbending, but Toph lowers the barriers around her cart and starts pushing him along, musing that they "should have chained [Aang] to the bed".
Aang leaves via glider and finds Katara waterbending into a couple of barrels. When he alerts her of his presence, the surprise causes her to drop her bending stance, making the stream of water crash down on both of them. Aang dries them both off with airbending and asks her if she needs help waterbending, asking her why she has several barrels. Katara tells him not to worry, as it is just a "Water Tribe thing", and asks why he is in town. He asks if it is the same as what Toph was saying, and when Katara learns that Toph told him to go back to the house and wait, Katara says he should probably listen to her. Aang gets frustrated and asks if they think he cannot keep a secret, trying to prove her wrong by revealing that he hasn not yet told her that Toph used Katara's toothbrush to clean her toes. Katara is caught off guard, but repeats that she is really busy and that Aang needs to head back to the house.
Walking along the streets of Ba Sing Se, Aang wonders if he has done something wrong. He then finds himself outside the Jasmine Dragon and wonders if Zuko and Iroh will tell him what is going on. He finds the Fire Lord setting up a table with snacks and a cake with candles on top. Startled by his presence, Zuko slams the doors on the Avatar's face after telling him that he is not supposed to be there and claiming that they are too busy with customers.
Aang stomps away from the teashop, grumbling to himself, until Sokka spots him in the street. Sokka reprimands his friend, as he has left the house despite the specific instructions he left for him to stay in. Aang asks him if everyone is mad at him, given their strange behaviors around him, but Sokka tries to find a reason to explain each of their situations. The Avatar then notices that Sokka is carrying two baskets full of food and asks about their purpose, to which he replies that it is for him to eat. Unable to keep lying, he suddenly points at the distance, screaming "Hey, look, Aang! Is that Azula?!" The airbender turns around and trips, falling over and knocking down a cart full of cabbages. Shocked, the cabbage merchant demands an explanation, but when Aang offers his help, the man responds that he has done enough. Aang walks away saddened while Sokka sneaks away in the opposite direction.
Later, Aang is sitting on a rooftop in front of the Jasmine Dragon and Momo joins him. He picks him up and says that the winged lemur will never abandon him or tell him to go away, but Momo screeches and flies away toward the teashop, where the rest of Team Avatar, including Appa, is taking all the supplies into the shop. Facing away from his friends, Aang goes through everything that has transpired during the day, attempting to decipher what he has done to make everyone mad at him, while Zuko, Katara, Sokka, and Toph try to get Appa into the Jasmine Dragon. After they fail, Iroh draws the flying bison in with the scent of tea.
Iroh then approaches Aang and asks him why he looks so down. When he starts to explain, Iroh notices that Team Avatar is starting to make a mess inside the teashop, and offers the Avatar to talk about his problem over a cup of tea. When Iroh opens the doors of the Jasmine Dragon and then closes them behind Aang, everything is dark, which makes Aang confused and then scared when Zuko suddenly creates a flame in his hand and starts to shoot fire. However, the fire goes to different candles all over the room, lighting it to reveal Team Avatar behind the table. They scream "Happy unfreezing day, Aang!" and tell him that they are celebrating the day he was unfrozen from ice. Aang sheds a couple of tears, surprised that they have prepared a party for him. He then blows out the candles, accidentally splashing some cake over Zuko's face.
Katara shows Aang the gifts that their friends brought for him, as well as the ice sculptures of himself and Appa that she made with her bending. Sokka jokes that if she really wants it to be a true unfreezing day celebration, Zuko should melt them. When Katara disagrees, Sokka asks for Zuko's support, but the firebender refuses to take a side. Toph then tells how Katara made the sculptures, while Sokka was in charge of the food, Zuko set up the party, and Iroh baked the cake. Aang admits that Sokka's notes had made him more curious instead of making him want to stay home, but Iroh gives more importance to the fact that they are all together now and invites the Avatar to open his presents.
First, he opens Sokka's present, an orange boomerang; Katara gets him a new waterbending scroll; Iroh gifts him a Pai Sho board; Toph gives Aang a bison-shaped rock. However, when Zuko tries to hand him his present, Sokka interrupts and announces that it is time to eat. After finishing the food, Zuko finds the time to give Aang his present: fireworks. Despite Toph's protests about the gift being loud and annoying, the whole group follows Aang outside, where it is already dark. Toph bends a rock into a headphones shape and puts them on before Iroh lits up the fireworks, which explode in the sky as the team watches from the ground.
== Production notes ==
=== Transcript ===
=== Trivia ===
* The title refers to the fact that Aang forgot his birthday while being frozen for one hundred years, with his friends making up a new special day to celebrate.
* On April 20, 2022, preview pages for Aang's Unfreezing Day were leaked, leading to a representative from Dark Horse denying that a preview of the comic would be part of Free Comic Book Day for 2022, claiming instead that the Avatar story would be written by Amy Chu. However, upon release of the comic this was proven to be false.
* The comic book includes a section at the end called "How to make comics!" which shows several concept art images and another cover design. It also shows a page of the script and different thumbnails.
== References ==
== See also ==
* List of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics
de:Aangs Auftautag
es:Avatar: La Leyenda de Aang—Chibi Vol. 1: El Día de Descongelación de Aang
ru:День Разморозки Аанга
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