Goosebumps Graphix #1 - Creepy Creatures

Yes yes, I am FINALLY updating again and you will notice this is a little bit different than the original series book I claimed I was going to cover next. Instead I got sidetracked by Goosebumps the graphic novel! Turning Goosebumps into a comic book makes an awful lot of sense, and this one promises 3 ghoulish tales.

This came out in 2006 which was about 10 years after the original series finished. I believe it came out sometime between Goosebumps 2000 and Goosebumps Horrorland. Interestingly though after 2000, all 3 stories in it are from the original run. There were 3 of these "graphix" adaptation books done in all. And that concludes the paragraph of stuff I looked up on a wiki to know wtf the deal with this is.

So you got your 3 unique monsters on the cover. The stories here are The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, and The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena each adapted by a different illustrator. I got a used copy of this off of amazon that apparently came from the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library. Amusingly (to me) the sticker on it says "Goosebum" with no P. Hah hah. Bum.

Anyway 2 of these stories I've already covered in novel form. The third I intend to if I ever motivate myself to actually read these damn books. I presume the stories won't deviate too much from the source material so I won't spend a lot of time recapping the stories. Just a simple synopsis.

Getting Goosebumps

Story #1: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp

So these kids get forced to move to Florida due to their parents having a dubious swamp deer experiment. There are some new friends there who tell them that fever swamp got its name due to a historic plague there. At night, Grady the lead boy hears howling which is pretty predictable for a book about a werewolf. The presumed culprit of this noise is found in the morning and is a very large but seemingly friendly dog. Also there is a swamp hermit. Why not. After some barking, mischief and dead animals, naturally the dog is getting a lot of heat. Could the dog be the werewolf? Also there is that weird hermit, is he the werewolf? Nope, it's Grady's new friend Will who proves he' a shitty friend by chomping on Grady. The dog saves em, but as we see in the end, Grady becomes a werewolf ultimately.

What I Thought

Gabriel Hernadez who adapted this story apparently has illustrated several children's novels, as well as doing art for a Clive Barker graphic novel. His art style is somewhat serious and while not photo realistic or anything it has a certain "real" quality. Some of the art even succeeds in being creepy, as with the weirdo swamp hermit, or frightening like some bad ass scenes with the werewolf.

Sadly all the comics here are in black and white. While I understand it would probably cost more to print in color (and thus price themselves out of the market for kids) it would have been nice to see full color Goosebumps. That being said, black and white has a certain charm to it. It also has a nice association with horror, going back to the classic Universal Horror films such as the Wolfman which undoubtedly had some influence on Stine's writing.

Now it's been awhile since I've read this book, but from my memory (and a glance at a wiki synopsis) the script of this comic stays pretty true to the book. Naturally in this medium and with the length it is at (40-50ish pages) it probably had to cut some stuff but I couldn't pick out anything specifically they missed.

I think this was a pretty good story to start out the book with. Werewolves are a pretty familiar monster, and this story is a little less odd or... dumb... than many of 'bumps. Good pick for a comicization.

Story Numero Dos: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight

A pair of siblings are visiting their grandparents farm. Stanley, the hired farmhand who is a bit... well uhh, how to put this in a politically correct world... Slow? Is slow acceptable to say? He's not so thinky. How about that? Well anyway he's superstitious fellow who followed some dubious instructions to make a shit ton of scarecrows. Apparently they even walk, though that just seems to be Stanley's son playing a prank. What a rascal. After his prank goes wrong the kids fall from their horses with minor injuries. It's payback time and the siblings plot to scare Stanley's son Sticks by dressing up a scarecrow themselves (how original) but in a twist of fate the scarecrows really do come to life and sticks ends up saving them! Stanley freaks out and tries to get them to obey him, but they think Mark, the brother dressed as a scarecrow is their leader (I didn't know sentient scarecrows had a hierarchy.) The clever solution of having him pull his head off so they all do the same didn't work, but trusty old fire does the trick. Stanley ultimately agrees not to use his scarecrow knowledge again but doesn't give up on the superstition book. Hey, what's the matter with this teddy bear??!?!

What I Thought

Greg Ruth does the art here and it is rather detailed and has a realistic feel. The shading and details can give off a rather creepy vibe. Not even just the monsters. Some of the facial expressions, especially from Stanley are subtly eerie. That added to the fact that everyone is acting just a little bit tense makes for some suspense. It is probably my favorite art of the bunch though maybe youngsters would prefer something cartoony?

Also, ultimately the scarecrow threat isn't that frightening to adult me, but perhaps 9 year old me would have been more spooked. I, however, am pretty confident in my ability to defeat a straw based lifeforms. I have been well versed in how to do so from the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Though even without fire I gotta believe even magic straw doesn't have that much mass to overcome. A strong breeze should be able to do the trick.

Now I know before I said it was a shame these weren't in color. I might amend that statement for this one. I feel like being in black and white is actually an advantage. The details and darkness in grey scale really make for a great horror atmosphere. It almost feels like it is too good for the admittedly simple and not great story line. I could almost imagine this being an old b-movie.

Shrek Story the Third: The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena

See now I haven't reread the novel version of this yet so oh man SPOILERS! So anyway, two siblings (why it is always two siblings?) go to a place they weren't before (Alaska) and my isn't this formula feeling fresh? Apparently the Abominable Snowman has been discovered and since iphones weren't a thing yet they need the kids dad to be a photographer for it. Father of the year award to bringing your kids to a yeti photo shoot. Nothing could go wrong. Their sled guide thinks the kids shouldn't be there. How unreasonable! Well of course the kids get lost alone, and fall into a pit with a frozen yeti. But he is apparently alive and likes trail mix. Once they get their dad to follow em there ol' Abomi is frozen again in a convenient chunk to ship back home to Pasadena. Naturally the kids show their friends and it ends with a magic snowball being thrown that freezes one of them which can only be healed by WARM ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN HUGS! After this the beast runs off into the sunny California wilderness. Dad is bummed but at least he has his pictures... But wait, none of the pictures actaully have the Snowman in them. Drat!

What I Thought

Scott Morse the illustrator here has a vastly different style than the other two artists in this book. It's very stylized and cartoony. While this is nice for a change of pace I am not a huge fan of the style. Now it's done just fine skill wise but I just don't dig the way it looks. Maybe it's the eyes. For some reason the eyes are just blank circles. No pupils. It's weird,but not in a good way. Even though the Abominable Snowman drawing is relatively bad ass, it's just kind of hard to be "scared"

Now I remember the novel of this story being at about the point I stopped reading Goosebumps as a kid. In addition to just getting "too old" for these stories, the formulaic nature of them and the fact that it was the 38th freakin' book just wore me down. If these comic versions weren't so short, I'd say the same thing had happened to be by story 3 of the book.

Still, I guess there are some key deference even if we are sticking to a formula. They took us to some very different locals. A swamp, a farm, and here the frigid arctic. The monsters are each relatively different. In fact that is probably the key reason Goosebumps has gotten away with making so many books. Just keep plopping out new monsters. As each bit of this adaptation is pretty short, it was pretty easy to plow through.

Now overall, this book as a whole? I think it was a pretty good experience. I think a comic version of Goosebumps is a pretty swell idea, and it was executed about as well as could be. Having 3 stories in one collection is a win for kids with only so much allowance to spend. I could see this being a good introduction for kids to the series, or a nice companion piece for kids who already like Goosebumps.

I am curious to read the other 2 graphic novels they released. Of course first I am planning to FINALLY get back and review one of the original series books. Sorry again that I am so lazy. I have been meaning to update this blog for months. I've got a stack of unread Goosebumps to get to, and I will really try to do so. Until then, thanks for reading.

#20 The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight

Shameless Pandering for Gifts

It happens to be my birthday today and if you would like to give me the gift of Goosebumps feel free to buy me a book off of my Amazon wishlist: http://amzn.com/w/6REQ148ZCYQI . If not (and I fully expect no one to) read on!

Judging a Book by its Cover

The cover does its job. It's a kinda creepy scarecrow, what did you expect? Why does it have to be a full moon? Isn't a crescent moon spooky enough? I guess not.

The tagline on the front is "It's a Field of Screams!" Now that is the kind of excellent punwork I expect on the front of a Goosebumps book. It almost makes up for the boring as heck, "They're Alive!" on the back. All in all a C+ for taglines.

Ultimately there is not much to talk about on the cover so lets just jump right in.

Getting Goosebumps

This book is from the first person perspective of generic tween girl Jodie and her slightly younger brother Mark. They are going to their grandparent's corn farm for the summer. Jodie is excited but Mark packed his bag with 90's entertainment staples like a Walkman with cassettes, and a Gameboy with plenty of cartridges. Hopefully he packed a crapload of double A batteries too.

Now at gramps' farm there lives Stanley and his son, E-I-E-I-O. Ahem, sorry about that. Stanley is kind of a Simpleton who works for the grandparents. He lives in the guesthouse with his teenage son Sticks. Where is the mom in the picture? I think I am giving that more thought than RL Stine did. She's just not there, now forget about it. Besides being a simpleton, Stanley also believes in superstition. He has a large book that tells him about good and bad luck. Also he mentions that, "the scarecrow walks at midnight." Because that's what the title of the book is so someone had better damn well say it in the story! Still a creepy thing for a weird simpleton to be saying to young people who just arrived at a farm. Plus it must be true because OH NO A SCARECROW JUST GRABBED JODIE'S ARM! Oh wait, that was just Sticks showing up and goofing around. Nevermind people it's only the very beginning of the book and I totally though shit was gonna start going down already. My bad. But Stanley does insist he can make them walk for real. Silly dumb guy.

Being at the grandparent's farm holds a lot of memories for Jodie and Mark. They spend most of their summers there. Grandma always makes delicious pancakes. Grandpa always tells them scary stories. But on this trip Grandma says they eat cornflakes now because its healthier. Grandpa can't even remember any scary stories. That's not the only thing that's odd. During the night the kids could have sworn they saw all the scarecrows Stanley made out there moving in unison. When they bring it up to grandpa he tells them to drop it.

They forget about it and go off fishing with Stanley. It goes well until Jodie starts thinking about scarecrows. One reaches out from the water and grabs her! She falls in and discovers it was only weeds on her ankles. Later on she thinks she thinks she sees a scarecrow lurking around the creek. She informs Stanley who is awfully worried and runs off. She decides to go tell her grandpa about it. She goes to the barn and gets locked inside by another scarecrow! Her daring escape is made after she finds a rope in the loft. There is a scarecrow outside waiting for her. As she makes her get away she bumps into Sticks and is suddenly very convinced that this is all his doing. Apparently he likes to spook "city kids."

Naturally with all this scarin' Jodie has problems falling asleep. She tries counting sheep. She tries counting cows. Then the scarecrow comes! The horrifying unliving being has her grandpa's face. In her terrified state she bolts from her room to find scarecrow granny. Eek! It's a dream! Because that happens in every single Goosebumps book!

In the Jodie and Mark wake to find that only grandma is home serving up another boring breakfast. The guys
have gone into town. They're urged to go ride horses, which they do. Two old nags are saddled up for them. They trot around for awhile before yet another scarecrow pops out for a fright. They're thrown from the horses and helped back up by Stanley. Urging them to keep this a secret from grandpa he rushes off to take care of the scarecrow. Even though Jodie still kinda thinks it's sticks she informs the grandparents, who laugh it off as Sticks' pranks.

Clearly what Jodie has to do is confront Sticks. She looks for him in the barn again unworried about getting locked in this time, and finds some scarecrow clothes, kerosine, and torches. Her snooping isn't appreciated by Sticks who shows up assuring her it isn't him. But she saw his stash of scarecrow clothes! Immediately she hatches a plan with Mark to scare sticks. The plan is to dress little bro up like a scarecrow and convince Sticks the scarecrows really are walking around. Not overly elaborate but it might be effective. With Mark in position all scarecrow'd up Jodie goes to get Sticks' attention. On the way she sees that for some reason Mark is following... But it's not Mark. It must be Sticks. To put the kibosh on that theory Sticks comes out and throttles the scarecrow, which is in fact a real walking scarecrow.

It turns out, according to Sticks, that simple ol' Stanley learned how to bring scarecrows to life from his book. He made an army and used it to control the Grandparents. That's why they serve things he likes, and don't tell scarey stories, which he hates. They are terrified of him. Because they started appeasing him he undid the spell, but clearly some scarecrows are still alive. Sticks wanted to keep it secret so Stanley didn't redo the spell but good ol' dad overheard the convo and went off to do just that. All the scarecrows have to be brought back to life so they can be controlled! Sticks talks his Dad out of it but Mark has great timing and shows up in his scarecrow costume. Stanley reads the incantation with a horrified Sticks looking on. He finally comes to his senses and gets the kids to run and warn the grandparents. The whole lot of them end up getting chased back home by an angry mob of living scarecrows. It seems they wont obey Stanley. Jodie's sneeze that makes Mark jump shows who they will follow. Mark. Dressed like scarecrow. He pulls off his scarecrow head to make them all do the same. It doesn't work though. Imagine that, beings with no internal organs brought to life by magic don't need their head connected. What actually saves the day? Sticks and some good old fashioned torches. With the scarecrows in cinders, Stanley proclaims that never again will this happen.

In the end, despite raising an unholy army of Scarecrows in order to exert his will on the grandparents they seem to keep him on at the farm. Very forgiving of him. Also, despite the horror his superstition book brought he continues reading it, just not the scarecrow chapter. Finally able to enjoy the stay at the farm, Jodie sits and relaxes. Wait, is that taxidermy bear moving? DAMN IT STANLEY!




 What I Thought

The bulk of the book is like every single Goosebumps and it's almost not worth talking about. If I was motivated I would make a checklist. Lets just run down a small list of details it had. 90's references (Walkman, Gameboy, Nirvana), generic tween main character, 1st person narration (which seems to have become the norm), trying to scream but no sound coming out, spooky dream sequence, someone being scared simply by someone grabbing their shoulder... So it comes down to focusing on what is unique about this book.

Firstly, what is unique would be the monsters. Scarecrows can be kind of creepy. A magically enchanted one can be extra creepy. It has to be sort of sinister though. These were just sort of aimless meandering piles of straw. They were also thwarted in the most obvious way possible. In a way I kind of liked that though. It's sort of like the Indiana Jones fight where the bad guy does a really fancy display with his sword and then Indie just shoots him. Instead of a very clever solution the simple straight forward burning up the guys made of kindling was the ultimate solution.

Also unique is that the "bad guy" wasn't really so bad. That is, if you consider Stanley to be the bad guy since he is the one who summons the scarecrow minions. I mean, he was a douche because he tried to force the grandparents into accommodating him. But making him "slow" made him a bit sympathetic. Regardless it is complete lunacy that they kept him hired at the farm at the end.

If you consider the scarecrows to be the badguy, well, they are disappointing. They don't do anything interesting and they are thwarted with ease. Even before Sticks gets the fire he manages to incapacitate one bare handed. They have no motivation as evil entities. Do they want to be scarecrow overlords of the world? Do they want control of the farm? Do they just want some corn? Do they want anything at all? Nope, they just roam around looking kinda spooky and being vaguely menacing.

One minor note I'd like to bring up is the title. It shouldn't be the scarecrow singular. It should be the Scarecrows Walk at Midnight. Actually it should be The Scarecrows Walk Whenever. The time of day didn't seem particularly important to their walking activities. I suppose that isn't as spooky a title though.

In the end this book is a forgettable entry to a vast collection of books. Nothing stands out as particularly interesting. Still, like all the books it's a bit of fun with a spooky slant. If you like Goosebumps it's just another book to read, and if you don't this isn't the book that's going to convince you they are great.

Rating 2 out of 5 scarecrows

Up Next!

 

I have gone through the first 20 Goosebumps books! Assuming I paid full price for these back in the day that is roughly 60 bucks worth of literature. Crazy! And what I am I gonna do now that I have gone through the first 20? 

 I'm gonna read Goosebumps #21 Go Eat Worms! I like books with exclamations in the title! Worms are kind of gross. The title sort of reminds me of the book How to Eat Fried Worms. That was a pretty good book. Will this be anything like that? Undoubtedly not! Until then, Happy Birthday to me and thanks for reading.