It’s been a while, guys. How have you been? Since my last article, I have backpacked across Canada and am currently doing so in the States. Or rather, I will do so again in January after the holidays. In the meantime, I have a lot of books that have come my way since I started back in July.
What better way to return than on Halloween? And what better thing to talk about on Halloween than the monsters themselves?
The Book
School for Monsters: Origins #2
Written by Jessica Maison Judd
Illustrated by Anna Wieszczyk
Letters and Design by Matt Krotzer
Publisher: Wicked Tree Press
Origins issue two takes place after the events of School of Monsters and begins with Frank going on a quest to find Barg, the monster who tormented the characters in the first main story. Frank finds the beast, and a brief battle ensues. Right when it seems like revenge is about to be served, we see the real purpose of the conflict. Barg is set free of Dr. Ms.’s control, and we get a brief glimpse of the real Barg afterward.
Eventually, Frank and Barg catch up with Mary and Necro, the book who kind of responds to Mary as if it was a pet of some kind (which is hilarious) who is taking Dr. M to the killing stone in Japan.
Dr. M doesn’t seem to go quietly at night. It turns out the Killing Stone is also the home of the Fox with Nine Tails named Mae, who M has a history with, and together they attempt to stop Mary and Frank’s efforts to imprison the villain.
It turns out that before the fox shows up, Mae and Mary had had a conversation about Dr. M and it was all part of the plan. Together, they manage to get Dr. M into the killing stone, trapping him for good, but not without the cost of trapping the fox.
Mary makes a promise that she’d find a way to rescue the fox, but after decades, seems to have given up, and the fox has gone slowly mad with hate since.
I love the contrast in the story told here. The story begins with Frank releasing a monster from control, while the story ends with Mae being imprisoned and slowly descending into madness and evil. In the podcast I just released chatting with Jessica, she mentioned how she used the real-life shattering of the Killing stone to inform the story told here, and it was masterfully done. Maison is a fantastic writer and I love the inversion in this issue here. Beyond that, the tone, skill, and style of the story are fun and feel like a fantastic YA story.
Anna Wieszczyk has the perfect style for this tale. She gives the characters a fun, kinetic tone to the story that eases the tension perfectly and reminds me just a touch of the old-school Beetlejuice cartoon. It’s the perfect compliment to the story being told her as Anna is adept at drawing either monsters or human beings with the right kind of tension and tone.
Matt Krotzer deserves some love as well. I love the lettering in some of the parts of the story. You can see right where the fox loses faith in humanity and her friend, and it wrenches you. And then you have the perfect reaction to her next line. That’s a credit to him and the work he does here.
School of Monsters is one of the best Young Adult books you can get in comics. It’s worth checking out, either through Jessica’s Kickstarter now, or through her website. This book is worth a look.
The Business
It’s been a crazy three months. As you can see, I’m currently working on telling my travel tales on the road for the last bit, from one night working for a pro wrestling company to seeing some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It’s been a blast backpacking through North America. I can’t wait to resume this after the holidays going south. If you want to read about my adventures, subscribe to my substack. You’ll get a card from me from somewhere in the world. I’ve just delivered my first few cards and I have plenty more to do.
I’ve written quite a few articles, a lot of them coming out imminently, one of which is on Taypedia. Freelancing has been a big part of the evolution in the last few months as I have lots of content coming out all over the place in the next few weeks. I just finished my first travel article and hope to do a lot more in the days and weeks to come, but I’ve written about a lot of things. I wrote about Taylor Swift and travel, and am working on video game content.
Lastly, I’ve expanded the podcast. I have two of them. This was kind of an accident, as Podomatic is now sponsoring a travel show. In my latest episode, you can listen to me talking about the hidden treasures in cities as I explore John King’s books in Detroit.
I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world, other than to add that if you need this, an edit, or something written, give me a shout.
That’ll do it this week. Soon, I’ll be bringing up some great indie books out there. Until then, safe journey.
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