By Tracy (and Shelby & Sarah) Edmunds
August 9, 2004
Halloween in August? Why not?! This week we look at a few creepy comics. We’ve got two that have a nice edge to them and one that’s fun for the whole family. The girls are getting pretty good at this review gig – I may have to retire soon and let them handle it themselves! (I swear I don’t change their words – Sarah’s are dictated, but Shelby often types her own, which explains the attack of the exclamation points.)
ODDLY NORMAL: OTIS FRAMPTON (VIPER)
Sarah says: ODDLY NORMAL is about a little girl who doesn’t like her parents. She’s half witch and she wished that her parents would disappear and they did. Her grandma somehow sends her to a magical world where she meets all kinds of weird people. Her best friends are a ghost, a Frankenstein, and a hunchback. Basically, she’s trying to find her parents so she can go back to the real world.
Shelby says: ODDLY NORMAL is about a girl whose mom is a witch and her dad isn’t. Whenever it’s raining and a drop of water gets on her, she goes “ow” because she’s only half a witch – it doesn’t kill her, it just hurts her. She has green hair and she wears tennis shoes all the time. She doesn’t fit in at school and she doesn’t have any friends. When she goes into the magical world, she has a few friends. Her scientist friend has this little invention, it’s an animal, and whoever touches it first, it gets attached to you. It gets attached to Oddly and it’s cute. I like magic stuff, like Harry Potter, so if you like Harry Potter or anything like that, you will like this I guess.
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Tracy says: Shelby really took a liking to this one and was rabid about getting each issue as it came out. She even packed the first three to take to Comic-Con to get signed. We had to practically stalk poor Otis, but she finally got her signatures and the fourth issue, then she promptly plopped herself down by the nearest wall and read the whole thing. A good take on the “not fitting in because you’re different” thing, this is great stuff for kids. Personally, I enjoyed Frampton’s use of color – every scene has its own color cast – and light, and it has classic monsters, a cute ghost, and a devilishly handsome teacher, so I’m good. I get the feeling that there’s a vaguely religious message about belief in this story, but it’s done in such a way that everyone can make of it what they will. Recommended for all ages.
THIEF OF ALWAYS: CLIVE BARKER, KRIS OPRISKO, GABRIEL HERNANDEZ (IDW)
Tracy says: Clive Barker for kids? Hmmmmm. I mean, he’s done some pretty graphic and scary-ass stuff, right? I wasn’t sure about this until I read the first book, but I was glad to be proven wrong. This three-issue graphic adaptation of Barker’s book, THE THIEF OF ALWAYS, isn’t for young or timid readers, but for those who like a bit of creepy, it’s excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling, but I think what turned the girls off was the art. They seem to want clean lines and bright colors–I think the loose style and subdued color palette are just a bit beyond their appreciation. They also love some humor with their fright, and Barker just doesn’t do funny. Despite the girls’ lukewarm reactions, I think it’s a wonderful piece of literature translated very well into the graphic medium, though it’s best suited to those with slightly more mature tastes. Highly recommended for tweens to adults.
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Sarah says: I sorta liked THIEF OF ALWAYS. It starts out about a boy who goes into this magical house behind a magical wall. He doesn’t know it’s magical because it seems like 31 days, but it’s really 31 years that he’s been there. He even doesn’t get older. He leaves and he finds his parents 31 years older than they were when he left them. He has to go back and fight Mr. Hood (which is actually the house) to get back his time. My favorite part was when the big flying monster went into the real world and was dying. He looked cool. The art looks kinda dirty, like the artist drew the pictures and splattered the paint. Probably little kids the ages four and under would be too scared.
Shelby says: Sorry, but I didn’t like it very much. The story is about a house that seems perfect but it’s not ‘cause it’s really a person and it steals time and it’s evil. It wasn’t really very action-packed and it wasn’t funny. The art made it scarier because it’s dark and creepy. It’s too scary for little kids.
DEATH JR.: GARY WHITTA & TED NAIFEH (IMAGE)
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Tracy says: From the adorable character designs, to the dead-on writing, to the cute details (eggs & bacon = skull and crossbones), DEATH JR. is seriously spooky fun. I think I’ve admitted this bias before, but Ted Naifeh is probably my favorite comic artist at the moment (and a great writer to boot – check out COURTNEY CRUMRIN). He manages to combine creepiness, beauty, and an unexplainable cuddliness – I’ll never figure out how he gets so much emotion out of a skull. Writer GARY WHITTA puts a new spin on some old themes – school bullies, coming of age, and family relationships – and makes it all seem fresh and fun without being too “hip and now”. The first book is chock full of humor, but the storyline gets a bit scary in the second book (we’ve only read the first two so far) as DJ comes under the influence of his nasty demon uncle – this isn’t for little ones. *SPOILER WARNING*: DJ actually kills a bunch of kids and his best friend, Pandora (no blood or gore, they just fall down), but Pandora comes back as a ghost to help DJ right his wrongs. The climactic showdown between Death Sr. and his brother, though eyeball-poppingly cool, is very demonic and will be frightening to little ones. Highly recommended for all but little ones or the easily frightened.
Sarah says: DEATH JR. is a really exciting comic book adventure. It’s about a little boy who is the son of The Grim Repair. In the first book, he finds himself at a school with a group of odd friends. They are Pandora, who gets into trouble when she opens boxes, Smith and Weston, who are stuck together at their heads with a big brain, Seep, who floats around in this moving jar, and Stigmartha, who bleeds out of her hands when she gets worried. My favorite part is when it shows Death’s dad at a drive-thru place and he is about to kill a guy and then says to him, “Can I have one of your hash browns?” My favorite thing that the artist does is the style of Death Jr.’s head – it’s sort of looks like a skull but his ears are really curly on the sides and his nose is right lined up with his eyes. He looks cute that way. It’s too scary for preschoolers, but everybody else would like it if they like kinda scary stuff and cute stuff and funny stuff.
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Shelby says: DEATH JR. is good for all ages because whenever he gets close to one of his pets he kinda…kills it, like his cats – he does it nine times to each of them, and he has at least six cats. It’s really funny. His friends are really weird, too. He has a skull head – some of the pictures make the top of his head fly off when he’s really mad. When he kills people it doesn’t show him doing it. He’s not really mean because his uncle told him to do it all!!!! THERE’S NO BLOOD AT ALL, PARENTS!!!!!!!!!! It’s REALLY scary for LITTLE kids. It’s good for any one else, though.
Next time: With the recent release of Disney’s SKY HIGH, we go back to see where the idea *cough* might have come from: ZOOM’S ACADEMY FOR THE SUPERGIFTED, HERO CAMP, SIDEKICKS, and PS238.
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