John Carpenter Presents Storm Kids: The Yard Gang Halloween Special (Family Comic Friday)

After a week off due to a very long and busy period at work, Family Comic Friday is back. We kick off Halloween a little bit early with a release that I never in a million years would have expected to review for young readers and their families. Legendary horror director John Carpenter and acclaimed horror comics writer Steve Niles working together on a comic book for kids? C'mon, is this a dream?

Storm Kids is the all ages imprint to John Carpenter (the Halloween film franchise) and wife Sandy King's comic book publisher Storm King. The idea is to open young readers up to age appropriate horror and thriller stories illustrated and written by some of the top talent in the comic book industry. 

30 Days of Night's Steve Niles and wife Monica Richards work together to bring families this adorable story of a family of house pets as they prepare for All Hallow's Eve. 

Lucy the kitten is the biggest fan of Halloween. This year's festivities take place during a full moon. But instead of bad luck, the full moon provides Lucy the chance to make one wish come true before the clock strikes Midnight. Will the precocious feline wish for it to be Halloween every night? Or maybe more wishes? One thing is for sure: whatever Lucy decides, it will change her eclectic family furever!

I absolutely loved this Halloween special. I thought that the way all of the animals spoke was perfect. I always make my fur babies talk and they don't quite get all the concepts right. And that's sometimes how Lucy and her siblings talk. I also loved the expressions of the animals. Artist Kelly Williams (Metaphase) creates some really adorable looking characters. 

Though I did think that the sizes of some of the characters were a bit off. For instance, Lucy and her brother Yob are able to ride on the back of their hound dog brother, Oliver. Now my Harley is tiny. But I don't think there's any way in the world she'd be able to ride atop the back of a full grown canine.

The Yard Gang was a great way to kick off my 2022 Halloween reads. It was adorable, a pinch bittersweet (which I'll not spoil why) and above all- magical. I really hope that co-creators John Carpenter and Sandy King along with co-writers Steve Niles and Monica Richards have more adventures of these cute little guys in store for years to come!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Dio- Holy Diver (2022 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

If you hit record stores in late May 1983 you might have seen a certain debut album with some interesting art. The cover shows a giant demon creature standing over a mountain side as a priest wrapped in chains struggles to stay afloat in the waters below. Welcome to heavy metal band Dio and their debut album Holy Diver.

The religious right had a fit. They argued that the artwork was satanic with a demon killing a man of the cloth. But Dio front-man Ronnie James Dio argued that things were from a different perspective. And that perhaps it wasn't a priest being killed but in fact a monster!

The cover was painted by Randy Berrett and has since become known as one of the most iconic album covers of all-time. The album cemented Ronnie James Dio as one of the preeminent heavy metal headliners after tenures with the bands Rainbow and an Ozzy-less Black Sabbath. But the question still persisted 'What's the story behind the album cover?'

Over the years, Ronnie James Dio and his wife Wendy would conduct charity work for exploited children; later for child sex victims of the Catholic church. In interviews, Dio would claim that his controversial album cover was coming true. Some would question if Dio himself was a victim of molestation, having been raised in the Catholic church. While Dio was not officially listed as having answered in the affirmative, the singer would continue to allude to his Holy Diver artwork as being something 'not as it seems.'

Ronnie James Dio passed away in May, 2010. While he never fully gave away all of his secrets, he left a backstory to the Holy Diver artwork. According to wife Wendy, Dio was okay with the story being revealed after he passed. She just needed to find the right voices to do it.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Ronnie James Dio's death, Dio's widow selected 30 Days of Night's Steve Niles to take the singer's notes and turn them into a cohesive story. Artist Scott Hampton (Black Widow) would illustrate. Together, readers were taken back in time to an age of magic and dragons. 

On a secluded island, Father Emil seeks to convert it's pagan inhabitants to Christianity. The elders imprison the priest in hopes of teaching him a lesson in tolerance. But when it's revealed that the holy man has been poisoning the children with lessons on hate, the adults find that they make have to put an end to Father Emil.

The story was quite good. But I was really hoping for a foreword or even an afterword to delve more into the mind of Ronnie James Dio. The priest on the cover of the album is wearing modern vestments. I would have liked to known if setting the story in what I assume is medieval times was intentional or a game time decision in hopes of not offending the Church. 

Scott Hampton's artwork was really chaotic. Some characters looked cartoonish while others looks amazingly lifelike. There's also a lot of nudity in this book (and why are they floating?!). With the druid-like village and excessive skin, this book felt a lot more like a prequel to The Wicker Man than a tell-all about what really happened between the demon, Murray, and the drowning priest. 

This graphic novel clocks in at 124 pages. All story. No backstory. And backstory was why I bought this book! I guess I'll just never know the full ins-and-outs of the artwork to Holy Diver!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Completing this review completes Task #22 (With a music or art theme) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide #1

   When a gang war between vampires and werewolves erupts in old Chicago, the two factions call in some big time help. 

   Enter The Goon and his sidekick, Franky.  

   Enter PI Cal McDonald and his ghoul partner, Mo'lock.

   Stuck in a dimension in-between Cal and the Goon's two worlds, our heroes will meet in typical comic book: first they'll battle, then figure out what's really going on, and finally kick some major butt. But this wasn't any typical crossover/ team-up because when you have Steve Niles and Eric Powell put together in the same project, the results are gonna be anything but typical. 

    A really fun story that ended way too soon. I wish this was a 2 or 3-parter- especially with that twist ending!

   Worth Consuming!

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.