Halloween Comicfest 2016

Peach and the Isle of Monsters #1

Written and created by Franco Aureliani
Artwork by Agnes Garbowska
Review by Will Dubbeld

Ah, Halloween Comicfest. It's like Free Comic Book Day, but not! It certainly hasn't got the clout that its May counterpart possesses, but is well worth supporting nevertheless. Any opportunity to spread the joy of funnybooks is okay by me. Halloween Comicfest has a similar formula as FCBD, giving away freebie comics contributed by a melange of companies as promo material.

Unfortunately many of the Halloween Comicfest and FCBD offerings are often reprinted comics plugging a hot new book or mega-event. Thankfully many of the smaller publishers aren't burdened by the pressure to pimp the new hotness and give out original pieces.
Thus Peach.



After perusing a buffet of reprinted screed and otherwise unappealing comics, I settled on Peach from Action Lab Comics and Aw Yeah Comics! (exclamation thieves). The cover told me it was an all-ages/kids book, but that was just dandy for me. I've no qualms about reading lighter fare intended for young readers as they're always a breath of fresh air and a welcome break from superhero angst. In addition, folks periodically ask about appropriate comics for their children/nieces/etc. and it's always nice to have an answer other than, "*shrug. I dunno. Not The Boys?"

Peach and the Isle of Monsters has a pretty great cover depicting a young girl beset upon by a couple of titular monsters. It immediately brought to mind "Where the Wild Things Are", which probably cemented it as my pick, to be honest. Having a young, female heroine always helps as well considering it's generally an underrepresented reader demographic.

The pages within made for scant reading, unfortunately, as the comic is a mere 10 or so pages and roughly ashcan-sized. It introduces the reader to our heroine, Peach, and enough of her backstory to set the scene. Beset by bullies and sent out into the world to seek adventure, Peach doesn't really delve into a deeper story other than the inhabitants of The Isle of Monsters are creeping into Peache's village and stealing things and our young heroine is dead-set on proving herself by retrieving the stolen valuables. Her father all but banishes her with some thin logic about sending her out into the world to find her own way. A bit of misadventure follows, but the book's page count prevents much more than that.

The most interesting snippet I found in the book was the origin of Peach. Her wizened father discovered a giant peach floating down the river, sliced it asunder with his katana, and discovered a child inside who he named Peach and raised as his own. For some reason this story seemed like something straight out of Japanese folklore and I took to it immediately.

All in all, Peach and the Isle of Monsters was a good, quick read I would recommend highly to any young reader, especially young ladies. I probably will not delve deeper into the further adventures of Peach, but I would absolutely recommend the book were someone to ask for an all-ages selection.

The Haunted Mansion #1

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Jorge Coelho
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Review: Madman

What we have here is material that was originally in magazine form as Haunted Mansion #1 . . . big shocker.

This 15 year old kid named Danny has a pretty cool Grandpa. This is no bridge playing, $2 off at IHOP on seniors’ day, plaid and corduroy wearing old timer. No Sir! This Grandpa is a total adventure nut . . . my kind of guy. Gramps had walked the entire length of the Great Wall of China by the age of 15, etc. and so forth. Having said that, Gramps and Danny make plans to explore the old, abandoned, “haunted” mansion on top of the hill on the edge of town after Gramps gets back from his trip. As it turns out Gramps’ trip was really a nice relaxing stroll up to the peak of Matterhorn. We are gifted a pretty stunning panel of the panorama as Gramps exclaims “Hm . . . Beautiful” . . . and then he dies a horrible death by avalanche in the next panel. Tough break, Gramps. Better luck next time.

A mysterious ghost comes to Danny a month after his Grandpa’s asphyxiation by Matterhorn. The ghost lady head informs Danny that his grandpa’s ghost is trapped inside the mansion, held captive with all the other ghosts, by an evil dead pirate and his band of monsters . . . F-ing yeah! I as far as ghosts go you just can’t trump an evil pirate ghost . . . #ainthapping #tasteslikeElvis. EXCEPT! By an evil pirate ghost with a stable of evil monster lackies . . . FACT!

Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much from this Comicfest freebie; after all they’re usually just reprints and advertisements. Let’s face it, they’re the bastard children of the reprints and advertisements we get on FCBD. I totally dug this here bastard child. I’d never heard of the Haunted Mansion comic before now and that’s sad. The good news is, thanks to the full page advertisement, I now know that the full work comes in a nifty hardbound edition that I will be purchasing in the near future. The art is an all around homerun and the story is definitely aimed at Disney’s bread and butter, the younger crowd, but I totally got into it. I care about Grandpa.