Wacky Squirrel Halloween Adventure Special #1

I purchased this 1987 special for one reason and one alone. And it sure wasn't because it starred Wacky Squirrel. Until I read this book, I don't think I could have picked the character out of a line-up. I still don't trust that I could do it correctly. The main reason I recently bought this Halloween special is because of the guest-star: Mr. Monster! Okay- being a Halloween themed book is another reason why I got this book. So I had two reasons and two alone!

I enjoy the heck out of Michael Gilbert's Mr. Monster. He's like a slightly saner, paranormal investigating version of the Tick. His stories are brilliant satires of the horror genre. And I don't feel like I am being talked down to by the writer. My biggest complaint about Mr. Monster is that his books are difficult to find and that it seems that Michael Gilbert stopped creating Mr. Monster books about 2 decades ago. Thus, finding this book with appearance by the character was a huge treat.

The Wacky Squirrel Halloween Adventure Special has the main character taking pity on a crying kid on Halloween. The boy and his family have been recently evicted from their home by ghosts! Wacky, believing that there's no such thing as ghosts arrives at the house to perform an exorcism. But what Wacky really needs is a hero. A hero which appears in the form of Doc Stearn, Mr. Monster!

This book was classic Dark Horse Comics. Though I'm not really sure if you can consider the early days of Dark Horse to be all that classic. At this point in the publisher's history, Dark Horse had only been in existence for a little over a year. The majority of the comics released by Dark Horse were in black and white, only just starting to issue a few select special edition titles in full color. This special was not one of those editions.

It's really interesting seeing the old ads for Dark Horse. Paul Chadwick's Concrete was by far the publisher's most popular title at the time. They had just recently obtained the rights to Godzilla and anthology series Dark Horse Presents was in its immediate infancy. Within another year, Dark Horse would have major hits on their hands with adaptations of the Alien and Predator franchises. But it would be about another 4 years until Dark Horse becomes known as a heavy hitter in the comic book industry with the obtaining the rights to produce books based on Star Wars in 1991.

This was a fast-paced fun read. It's mostly Wacky Squirrel's show. At least Mr. Monster appears in more than just 1 page. He's not in the whole thing. Maybe 8 pages. Yet it was more than I was expecting and Michael Gilbert draws all of the Mr. Monster images which was something else I wasn't expecting. If you love slapstick cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes, you'll especially love the middle act when Wacky heads over to the haunted house. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Mr. Monster: His Books of Forbidden Knowledge, Volume 1

The legend of Doc Stern, Mr. Monster, begins in this collection of first appearances by Michael T. Gilbert and William M. Loebs. In the early 80s, Gilbert refurbished a one-shot character from a 1940s anthology to craft one of the most over-the-top characters in all of comics history. (Yes- reboots were happening even in the 80s. But they were good back then!)

The legend of Doc Stern varies from issue to issue. Was he the lone survivor of a zombie apocalypse? Was he trained by mysterious monks in the art of war? Regardless of his origin, Mr. Monster has one goal in life- to destroy all monsters. But Doc Stern seems to help the creatures of the night more than he winds up extinguishing them!

This book opens the case files of Mr. Monster. From a reluctant werewolf to a living trash heap; these ghouls boggle the imagination. And they also straddle the line of good taste. 

Michael T. Gilbert was firmly set in the camp of 1980s creators such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore (who penned the foreword.) Miller and Moore were renegades who saw the Rambo-eqsue excesses of the Reagan Era and made it even more violent and absurd. Helping Gilbert with this is Bill Loebs. Long before he took the reigns of Wonder Woman, Loebs cut his teeth on Mr. Monster and he did a fantastic job! Loebs is so much like Frank Quietly or any of the usual gang of idiots from MAD Magazine as he puts so much fine detail into his work. Being a satire, Loebs peppers the panels of Mister Monster with dozens of tiny jokes. And I so loved his Will Eisner-like experimentation with titles and credits. 

This is a wild collection of stories. I've got to admit, these tales are extremely creative. The dialogue is insipid. Some of it might be parody. But it's some pretty B-movie level stuff. But I loved the encompassing brilliance here. It's like an issue of Wolff & Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre but on steroids!

Lastly, I need to brag. I bought this book new. Despite being published nearly 20 years ago, I found this book, shrink-wrapped at a comic book store in Greensboro. Having the book on his shelf for decades collecting dust, the owner gave me the book for a good discount. But that's not what I want to brag about!

Inside the book was a limited edition book plate that was signed and numbered by Michael T. Gilbert. While that itself was cool, what made it cooler was that this book was numbered 1 of 999! I've gotten low numbers before. I think a 7 or maybe 11 was my record. But never a #1! This was an awesome unexpected addition to my collection!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Trencher X-Mas Bites 1994 Holiday Blow-Out #1

  Gideon Trencher- Zombie repo-man. His mission, to kill those souls that were erroneously reincarnated. With the help of his dispatcher, Phoebe, it doesn't matter if you are a good soul or bad. If you are on Trencher's list, you're as good as dead.
    The creation of Justice League legend and Ambush Bug creator, Keith Giffen, I was excited when I found this holiday special in a bargain bin. You can tell that this is a Giffen project. The art is gritty, the humor is dark and somewhat absurd. But it's also kinda gross.
    In this 1994 holiday special, Trencher is on the hunt for a Proctologist whose also a serial killer. See, after the doctor performed a rectal surgery on a superhero, result in radioactive far-...
    I'm sorry, I can't go any further. It's really that disgusting.
    I tend to keep my holiday comics, even if it's just the biggest load of manure I've ever laid my eyes on. This holiday special might very well break that rule.
   Part one in which Trencher himself, while pretty crude, was enjoyable when he targets one of Santa's helper. The back-up features including pin-ups of Trencher characters, a short story starring Mr. Monster, and some other one-pager gags were pretty funny. But the potty humor of Part two includes quite a bit of beans jokes and noxious gases was beyond the pale for me.
    Really, a big disappointment for a book that I at first thought would be pretty dope. Instead, it's just dopey. At least I only spent 50 cents on it...

   Not Worth Consuming

   Rating: 2 out of 10 stars.