Giant! (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Deedrick is an alchemist. Though from the looks of the current predicament Deedrick is in, he's not a very good one. When his latest experiment results in embarrassment for the leader of his township, Deedrick is assigned to detail duty for the castle protectors. 

In other words, he's been made to clean pigeon poop off the the community's gargoyles.

Deedrick's day is about to get much worse however when he accidentally turns one of the stone grotesques into flesh and bone. The shock causes the boy to drop his cleaning brush which sets off a Rube Goldberg-like series of events throughout the town until the cleaning tool knocks over a seemingly innocent looking tablet containing various runes. Oh, and the damage to the runes awakens a giant menace who's been slumbering under the town for hundreds of years. 

Chris Warton's Giant! began as a 2013 Kickstarter campaign. Successfully funded, Warton's book was self-published under the banner of Salamander Studio. Only about 500 copies of Giant! were published. I became aware of this book years later when I found a used copy with an original sketch of the gargoyle in the inside front cover. It must have been an incentive for one of the backers. Nowadays, interested readers either have to get lucky hunting for one of the few existing print copies or they can obtain an ebook copy on Amazon as well as at Warton's personal website. A few other digital works are also available from the artist. In 2020, Warton saw another successful campaign funded, the fantasy heavy Venture Cats. 

Original sketch from my copy.

Perhaps Chris Warton's biggest claim to fame are his YouTube videos. Warton's channel features dozens of how to draw mini classes as well as time-lapsed detailings of his latest works of art. 

As for the continuing adventures of Deedrick and the living gargoyle, there's not currently any announced plans. 

Completing this review completes Task #29 (A Book Involving Gargoyles) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Disney Gargoyles Halloween Special (Family Comic Friday)

Taking off from where the 1994 animated series left off, series creator Greg Weisman has been given the chance to continue the story of Disney's Gargoyles.

It's Halloween night and young Nashville wants to experience trick or treating for the very first time. As other Big Apple children are dressed as Gargoyles, Gnash, 'with a silent G', should blend in with the humans quite well. Why would Gnash need to blend in with other trick-or-treaters if his Gargoyle brethren have revealed themselves to the world? It's because there's a group of anti-Gargoyle sledgehammer welding militants called the Quarrymen who long for the old days when the demonic looking creatures were cursed to a millennial long slumber. As the Quarrymen have plans to disrupt a community festival between humans and Gargoyles, it's up to Gnash and his new friends to prevent this from becoming the worst All Hallows Eve ever in New York history.

I'm a little familiar with Gargoyles. My little sister watched them a little bit first run because the little boys across the street were obsessed with the syndicated cartoon. So I'm not sure how accurate to the flow of the original series this 2023 Halloween special is. Though I imagine with having the shows creator behind the new adventures to help keep things seamless. I appreciated that the saga of the New York Gargoyle clan is kept in the 90s making these comics a continuation and not a reboot.

There are some more modern ideals in this 90s set one-shot. But it's left up to the reader how to interpret. For instance, there's a character with the last name of Jones dressed as a witch. Jones later reveals that under the mask and dress, the character is a man. Is the character transgender? Homosexual? Just a dude dressed up for Halloween? It's never really revealed and since Gargoyles was originally an all-ages franchise, it's left innocuous in order to not be too controversial for families who might not feel the time is right to talk about gender norms or human sexuality.

The Quarrymen are some pretty nasty dudes who spew hate and bigotry. There's a couple of scenes of bullying, a big fight between Quarrymen and Gargoyles and two Gargoyle 'dogs' that look pretty intimidating. Not really unexpected for a book rated 'teen'.

If Gargoyles was a show you watched as a kid in the 90s and it's a legacy property you wish to share with your children or other young readers in your life, then this is a Halloween read that will be enjoyed by all. If Gargoyles is a property that is completely new to you, I recommend parents and guardians read it first to ensure it's age appropriateness. 

Back issues can be found on eBay and other comic book retail websites.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.