Shelly Frankenstein!, Book One: Cowpiggy (Family Comic Friday)

Shelley Frankenstein wants to be a mad scientist just like her great-great grandfather, the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein! Along with her brother Iggy, Shelley conducts experiments on her stuffed animals in hopes of creating the most terrifying toy ever. Only each one of her creations is more adorable and cuter than the next. Finally, when Shelley crafts her latest, greatest creation, the Cowpiggy, the fanfare is just too much and the budding scientist takes her frustrations out on the little monster. 

Saddened and feeling rejected, Cowpiggy runs away. Luckily, Shelley realizes that she's been too harsh on her new creature and goes off looking for the toy. Only there's a massive blizzard on the horizon and neither Shelley Frankenstein nor Cowpiggy are properly equipped to survive the coming frigid conditions. 

This book was so charming. It's got so many tributes and nods to the Mary Shelley classic in which this graphic novel is not just based upon, but set firmly in the Frankenstein family universe. There's Frank and his bride. Even a wolfman! Even villagers. But they're all so gosh darn cute! 

I really felt like this book has the makings of a great new series for readers aged 8-12. While there isn't any indication in this graphic novel that Cowpiggy is the opening edition for a series, Amazon and other book sellers list this as Book One! That's just awesome as this was such a fun read. I'm just racking my brain to see where this book can go from here. Not only does this series have Mary Shelley's creation to draw inspiration from; perhaps the Universal Monsters could be involved somehow. We already have the wolfman. Maybe introducing the Invisible Man or Gill Man. Could we see the Mummy?

The artwork, along with the story itself has touches of Tim Burton in terms of the gothic theme. But the characters are just so cute. This was a fantastic work by children lit veteran Colleen Madden. There are monsters and creepy elements, but nothing scary... nothing evil. Parents and guardians will delight at this family friendly reading to kick off the Halloween reading season! Only beware! By the time the young reader in your life is finished with this book, they're going to want a Cowpiggy stuffed animal of their own! I know I want one!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Batman: Masque

Both DC and Marvel love to explore the realms of alternate histories and realities. While Marvel is great looking at small decisions that could have huge impacts. Like what if a character decided to go left instead of right on the way home from work and didn't become a superhero?

With DC's Elseworlds, they like to explore what would happen if characters existed in works of fiction. DC Comics explores other time periods and some small decision changes. But I think their alternate books are best when they tackle the classic story variants.

In this Elseworlds graphic novel from 1997, the members of the Batman Family are still in Gotham City, but it's now around the turn of the 19th century and the characters are now players in the Gaston Leroux gothic classic, The Phantom of the Opera. 

Selina Kyle is the Christine archtype; an up-and-coming opera singer in whom fate has begun to smile on her career thanks to an assortment of tragedies that have occurred at the Gotham Opera House.

Bruce Wayne is playing the Raoul role- a wealthy socialite and paramour of Selina.

But who is the mysterious Phantom that haunts the Gotham Opera House? Is it the urban viglante known as the Bat, who assists the Gotham Police at night? Or is it another unknown factor from Selina's past?

Batman: Masque was a fun read to get in the Halloween spirit (Yes, I am a little behind on my reviews.) I could so see this an an alternate reality musical episode of Gotham. The double duty of art and writing of Mike Grell (Action Comics) was near perfection. I felt that story ends a little too abruptly. Plus, I was really put off by the cover being just a recycled image from the book and not an all-new image. I just feel like that's a cheat against loyal Elseworlds readers who shelled out their hard earned money for this book. Forgivable- YES. But still annoying.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #1

    Boston Brand, the Fearless Deadman, is summoned to a creepy Victorian Mansion by a woman seemingly in distress. Only this lady is a ghost and once Deadman enters the domicile, he finds himself trapped, not only unable to leave the building but now unable to past through walls. Obviously, Deadman is trapped. But he’s found a way to travel the house, as the girlfriend of the mansion’s new owner, Berenice, can see him. However, she can’t she the dark menace that is threatening her and her lover. Now the two must team together if they have any hope of discovering the secrets of the Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love.

    The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love was a short lived horror anthology series that had a bent towards Gothic love stories. Starting in 1971, the romance angle was scrapped after only 4 issues and rebranded Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. But an already over-saturated market of horror comics was too much for this struggling title and it was cancelled after 15 issues.

    Deadman is a B-list character of the DC Universe that’s become a bit of a cult favorite. Great art by Neal Adams and Jim Aparo and some pretty epic team-ups with Batman has made the character a 70s legend. Having read and collected quite a few Deadman comics as well as the Showcase Presents treasury of Dark Mansion/ Sinister House titles, I was intrigued when this book was announced a few weeks ago.

    Let’s talk about the artwork first. There’s an almost painted quality to the pages crafted by Lan Medina (District X). The faded tones make the scenes a little more spooky and I felt like I was watching the opening act of an old scary movie from the 70s on a projector or fuzzy TV set. I really enjoyed it.

    Now, the story. There’s a great mystery here- 3 actually. 1) Why is Deadman trapped? 2)Why can Berenice see Deadman? 3) What’s the sinister secret to the mansion? There’s some other minor plot points but they are such surprises, I don’t want to spoil them. And for these reasons along, I am interested in coming back to this series at some point. But as with many mysteries, not everything is clear- YET!

    But the series runs for $5.99 per issue. The plus side is that this book, which is 48-pages, is presented in prestige format and is ad free. But, still, for a bargain hunter like myself $6 is still pricey. So, I may wait for this to be collected to finish out the story. But if money was not an issue, I’d been getting every issue new on the day it would drop.

A Gothic love story set in the modern day with some spooks, chills, and things to go bump in the night.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Emily's Secret Book of Strange (Family Comic Friday)

  I've been holding on to this week's selection for just a time as this. It's the last Family Comic Friday before Halloween and I thought now would be the right time to read and review Emily's Secret Book of Strange.
    A little background about Emily. She's an advertising mascot designed in the early 90s. Since her inception, Emily and her kitties have graced skateboards, purses, guitars, stationary- you name it. There's even boutiques devoted to her in Taiwan, Japan, and in 2017, a store will open in her birthplace of San Francisco. In 2001, Emily even made the jump to comics and graphic novels.
    I had seen a couple of Emily the Strange books in the Young Adult section at my local library. But I just wouldn't make time to check it out. Then one day at a discount book sale, I found a copy of one of her books for literal pennies on the dollar. "Huh,' I thought, 'This would make a great Halloween read' and I snagged it up.
    So, was it a great read?
    The neat thing about about Emily's Secret Book of Strange is that some of it is printed in this kind of invisible ink. If you hold the book up to the light in a certain way, secret messages and other spooky images appear. That's actually pretty neat. There's even this secret decoder activity throughout the book that requires you to find a secret rune in order to find even more hidden messages from Emily.
    Stylistically, this book is beautiful. But the book itself borderlines on the disturbing. Emily hates people. Her only friends are her cats. In order to not feel so lonely she creates these hybrid creatures called Zonsters. So far, I'm on board with everything though I'm a bit spooked as well.
    Because of her creation of new beings, she also shes herself as God.
    Huh? say what? Yeah, I'm sure there's some Doctor Frankenstein mixed into this but if I am trying to be objective for parents, I have to point this personality trait out because some adults may find this objectionable for their kids. Going on the Emily the Strange website, it's pointed out that Emily isn't for kids. But this book is aimed at those 10 and up. Honestly, some of the images and cryptic messages might be too scary for youngsters. So, I would have to say that the suggested reading age actually be 12 and up.
    A very artistic book that is at times visually beautiful as it's advertising at it's very best. But it contains images and ideas that parents  and guardians may not feel are appropriate for their child. Personally, this won't be a permanent fixture of my collection but that's my opinion.

   Rating: 6 out of 10.
    

Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

   Tonight's Halloween themed comic is a from a grab bag. (I know, but I just love grab bags.) This 1994 one-shot by Caliber Press seeks to recount the terrifying events of Mary Shelley's original novel without any of the trappings of Hollywood. I had to read Frankenstein for a college course years ago. While I do not remember that book verbatim, I would have to say that the editors and writer, Eric Johnson, of this comic did a pretty good job at that goal. One thing I feel that they failed at was the art.
    First of all, the painted cover by Vincent Locke was fantastic. There's actually an ad in the back of the comic for an autograph lithograph of the cover image and if it wasn't 22 years old, I'd actually try to send away for one. But the interior art wasn't so great.
    I try really hard to be fair with artists. They do something amazing with their hands that I could only dream of. But I have carpal tunnel and they toil away for hours/days/weeks at a project doing something that would have me in tears if I tried for more than 5 minutes. But something with this artwork was off.
    The characters looked static. It reminded me of the artwork used in textbooks for 5th graders. There's not much depth and with such thin ink lines, not much of a 3-D quality either. Plus the Monster and all of the females in this story's hair is thick and tubular like it's made of those foam noodles you take to the pool. The scenery wasn't much better- except for the opening and closing scenes set in the frigid Arctic Circle. Those are actually pretty sweet.
     Not a terrible read, (plus it's a little creepy fun) especially for something that I got as a total surprise and probably for only about 50 cents or so.

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
   

Sherlock Holmes: Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Holmes

The Caliber Press Cover.
Same as Tome, except for the different logo.

  The evil Mr. Hyde is terrorizing the streets of Victorian London. On the case is the brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion, Watson. In this fantastic crossover comic thriller from Time Press, we see what might have happened if Robert Louis Stevenson collaborated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  

   This one-shot from 1998 is Gothic storytelling at its very best. The writing of scripter Steve Jones was so perfect that I felt like I was reading something actually written by the original authors.

    I had gotten this book's in a grab bag a few months ago, holding on to it as a Halloween read. The decision was well worth the wait. The artwork by was similar to the Gothic illustrations of Sidney Paget, whose work chronicled the adventures of Holmes in the pages of the Strand Magazine. The whole package made for a delightfully spooky read.

   If this is what Tome Press' other Sherlock are like- then count me a new fan. Over the past couple of years, my love of Holmes has grown exponentially. The BBC series SHERLOCK has helped, but it's rare little treasures such as Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Holmes that has colored me Sherlocked!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

(Addendum: In 1979-80, Loren Estleman wrote the novel 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes.' The novel was crafted as an lost manuscript by Dr. John Watson, but kept in a security box, unpublished, due to the sensational events the journal contained. Whether this comic was written as an adaptation of Estleman's book is unclear. On the credits page, Steve Jones gives thanks Doyle and Stevenson for their creations but no credit is given to Estleman. Also, the novel was written from Watson's perspective as this comic was scripted as a letter from Holmes to his biographer. 

    In 2010, Titan Books reissued Estleman's novel to much success. Whether the novel inspired this one-shot or the publication of this comic inspired Titan to re-release the novel is a mystery worthy of Holmes and Watson's attention.)