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O’Moore, Leonie – Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #2
Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #2
Ah, to live in a small press comic book world where every book was as gorgeous as this one. Granted, the $8.65 price might drive some people away, but this is a huge book with a vast array of colors all over the place, and they’re used to illustrate lush landscapes, swaths of ocean and a couple of unexplained monsters. I mostly like the black and white nature of minis, but there are days when I just want to bask in a comic like this. In this issue the crew deals with recently taking over a “haunted” boat, the fact that their financier is broke and the free ride is over, discovers a giant prehistoric shark that seems to have a connection with the mysterious little boy, Ella (the captain) and her feeling that something is wrong with her father, another mysterious monster, and the ex-fiancee of the rival of Chester’s that was killed in the last issue. That’s a pile of stuff to work through, isn’t it? That’s all on top of the fact that Leonie manages to work more character development than should be legal in between all these tense situations. The mystery of that little boy is being opened bit by tiny bit, Chester is being slowly and reluctantly revealed as a human being after all, and even Montague (despite his desperate need for physical proof of these monsters) clearly has his heart in the right place. The basic plot of this issue deals with trying to track down an orca that has been killing people, in case you were curious, but that gets resolved so quickly and in a manner that so effortlessly shifts the story in another direction entirely that it hardly seems worth mentioning.  One minor complaint is the couple of typos in the book, as it makes no sense to me how something that is so clearly dedicated to the best possible artwork could be a little lax in checking the spelling, but at least there aren’t a lot of them. There, I have listed my legally obligated complaint. Everything else about this book is a joy to behold and, seeing as how this book came out in 2009, the next issue must be right around the corner. Right? &8.65
O’Moore, Leonie – Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #1
Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #1
Anybody out there remember the first volume of Monstrum Horrendum? Good for you if you do, but I checked back to my review of the old comic before writing this one and have to say that the artwork is hugely improved this time around. The sheer vibrancy of those color’s don’t hurt a bit, granted, but the it would look nicer even in black and white. It seems to retain the basic concept of the first volume, as this is a crew of five adventurers (ship captain, wealthy financier and big game hunter, scientist, “fish boy”, and an old sea dog) who hunt for different monsters in each issue. This time around they’re trying to track down a giant sea serpent, something that is several times bigger than their ship. This is the point where you have to decide if you’re going to worry about technicalities in this comic or just go along for the ride. I picked the second option, but if I didn’t there was a huge problem with how exactly they planned to kill or capture the creature, as a little dynamite or some harpoons seemed ridiculous, and that leap that is made later in the comic towards the sea serpent is not possible with any of these earthly laws of physics. So screw it, Saturday morning cartoon it is! On that level it works very well indeed. You have the captain constantly getting sick of the financier thinking he’s in charge of things, the financier needing to kill this particular serpent to show up his rival, the scientist who seems to have no skill at worldly affairs, the mysterious fish boy (just a boy who speaks an unknown language, not half fish or anything), and the old sea dog being the constant voice of caution of wisdom. It’s a fun adventure story, the painted look of the book is stunning (I particularly enjoyed Leonie’s willingness to go with the full page spreads when needed), and the pacing was excellent. The sea serpent doesn’t show up until close to the end of the book, of course, but that only gives us time to let us know the people involved and feel some concern for their safety in all this. Nicely done all around, and I’m very happy to note that she also sent along the second issue of this series, so I’ll have more thoughts on all this soon. Here’s a link to buy the book, currently at the odd price of $8.65, but it is in full color and 56 pages you know…
