Hello, Spongey here.

When it comes to the franchises, one of my favorite things about them tends to be the expanded universe materiel. Basically, all the stuff outside of the primary medium the franchises started in. Even adaptations can be lumped into this as even the ones with the most involvement from the creator still has some input from others and can often have them putting a unique spin on the ideas.

It’s interesting to what other people do with the ideas, especially if these are things the main series can’t do due to limitations of some kind. One example I’ve talked about before would be the MLP comics, which I don’t plan to come back to due to how much I’ve missed at this point.

Still, most of the ones I read were good and told some solid stories with the groundwork laid by the show. As you can tell, I fell out of them around after I finished covering them. Those comics were made by IDW, and I feel like they knew I was doing that because in 2017, they decided they had to reel me back in with a totally different property I’m obsessed with more than someone my age should be!

How you like that transition, huh? Anyway, Goosebumps is one of those things where I like seeing other people handle because as much as I respect Mr. Stine, he isn’t too ambitious and doesn’t experiment too much. I get why, he’s aiming these at the kids of today more than people like me. Still, it is nice when we have things like the movies ad TV show for example playing around in the sandbox he created.

And now IDW has given us a comic series. The franchise did have the Graphix line but they were straightforward adaptations, while these are new stories. So far we’ve got three arcs of three issues, and of course it’s an anthology which means new leads and such each time, although the first two arcs do have one certain villain in common.

I was excited when I heard about this as it allows some creative minds to do some interesting things with the Goosebumps concepts. Hell, the story could even even introduce concepts one may not expect from the franchise. I wasn’t expecting them to go full Detention on us since it is more directly tied to this brand but the possibilities are there.

Side note, since this debuted Stine himself has gotten into comics with a Man-Thing series and original one that’s more his speed, so maybe we’ll cover those someday. But for now, we’re seeing how the official Goosebumps series handles itself.

For the creative team, this was written by Jeremy Lambert with art by Chris Fenoglio. The former seems to be known for Doom Patrol and the latter has mostly done comics based on other franchises like Star Wars and X-Files. Being a comic noob, I’m not familiar enough to really comment but I say certainly see the style of the latter that is showcased here based on what I’ve looked up.

So, how does the first original Goosebumps comic story/arc pan out? Let’s find out.

This, is Monsters at Midnight

First off, the trade actually has an introduction by R.L. Stine himself. He basically talks how excited he is to see other people take his work in a new direction, as well as his own history with comics growing up. Nothing too crazy but it’s cute and nice to see.

Anyway, we begin with our protagonist Mia and her younger sister Ginny, as they are walking with their grandmother, who they are staying with at the moment. Well, there’s two Goosebumps cliches right off the bat. Another one gets at least mentioned as we find out that Mia has injured her leg, so she can’t go to camp with her team.

I’d say you dodged a bullet there, since this is Goosebumps after all.

“I’m supposed to be at Camp Jellyjam with my team”

…Well, it didn’t take long for them to pull out the references. This is literally the very first panel too! But yeah, she totally a dodged a bullet, as well as some snails.

“Can we at least stop in Licorice and Lemon Drops? Mia ate all the candy at your house, Grams”

“Ha! Your moms’ll kill me as it is when they get back, Ginny. You’ll still be hopped up on slushies from the look of it”

Ha ha-wait a minute…,moms? Plural? But that usually means….okay, when I said this could introduce concepts one may not expect from the series, I wasn’t expecting that but okay.

Ginny screams…because of a cat in a window. And with that fake out, this is officially a Goosebumps product, hooray! The cat is in the window of a scary bookstore, which excites Ginny since she’s reading a book that she left back at home, and hopes the store might have it.

The book is called “Don’t Go in the Basement”, by the way. Heh, I get it, based on the Jellyjam comment this is the actual GBLU (Goosebumps Literary Universe) and thus she’s reading a stand in book. By the way, Ginny has asthma and it’s thankfully treated a lot better than in Camp Cold Lake, so points there. Grams says no to going in and that night, Grams falls asleep, so Ginny wants to use this chance to explore that bookstore.

“I gotta know how the book ends. I mean it’s called Don’t Go In the Basement and Mia…they went in the basement!”

It’s all a weird gay metaphor, there I spoiled it for you. Ginny is able to convince Mia to take her there, and they head into the creepy place to find their book. While looking, they find the Necormincon! No seriously, the artist just snuck that in one panel.

But on the same shelf there’s something confusing: There’s the obviously fake book “Cooking with Monster Blood”, but next to it is “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp” which of course actually exists. How does a real Goosebumps book exist while Jellyjam actually exists as a location? Weird.

They find a section called “The Really Scary Stuff”, and there’s an open room that features just a pair of creepy eyes, along with a voice telling them “You’re in the right place! We’ve got all the endings you could ever hope for”. You’d think that would tell them to run as fast as they can but instead Ginny just waltzes in.

Mia follows her and suddenly they find themselves outside. Thankfully, a monster pops up to tell them exactly where they are.

“New guests! Ahem…WELCOME TO HORRORLAND!”

Yeah, no surprise there. The only thing less surprising is if-

“Oh, don’t run away. It’s only me…Slappy!”

And there we go. I guess at least the first comic had to shove him in there somewhere. But there actually is a surprise here, as Curly is with him! I don’t think I’ve mentioned him before but he was basically created as a mascot to put on merch and was never in any actual story…until now. So that’s awesome.

Side note, I like how in this first big peek at HorrorLand, we see signs advertising both things from the original book (Doom Slide, Coffin Cruise) and the HorrorLand series (Stagger Inn), so it’s a nice mix. This ends issue 1.

All I can say is…I don’t like Slappy’s design.

He looks more like a child than a living dummy, frankly. Design gripes aside, Issue 2 starts with Slappy bringing out some other monsters, announcing that the “midnight march” has begun. He also starts rhyming for some reason, and the door that could lead them back is gone.

So uh, what’s going on here, exactly? In the universe of this comic, where did Slappy even come from, why is he in HorrorLand, and what is up with the creepy bookstore portal? Does the old woman who works there I didn’t mention have anything to do with this? This is supposed to be all weird and supernatural but I still can’t quite my wrap my head around everything. But whatever, what were you saying, Slappy?

“A haunt in every house and a scream in every mouth, that’s the plan! And it all begins here…first stop, HorrorLand, next stop, The World!”

That explains nothing but I love that second part so you get a pass for now. Slappy forces Mia into the Hall of Mirrors and instead of closing in on her, they show her images of her moms scolding her for being a bad older sister. Finally getting into slight complexities here but I’d like to point out that yep, these are indeed two moms here. Wow, they ain’t even hiding it.

Really, I’m only focusing on this aspect because they really aren’t acting any different than other Goosebumps parents. Side note, Mia and Ginny are sure taking all of…this well. I guess they’re too busy being scared to ask questions but still. She escapes but then Slappy and his goons force the two onto the Coffin Cruise, but a little creature named Irk ends up being pushed with them.

Instead of the coffins closing on them, they approach a waterfall and before you can say “Insert Emperor’s New Groove Reference Here”, they survive the fall okay but end up facing grabby hands that came from under the water. They pull Ginny under and Irk jumps in to rescue her, which is a pretty awesome moment. Ginny even hugs Irk when she discovers they saved her, d’aww. I think this proves she is a way better sister named Ginny than the one from Bad Hare Day.

They get back on shore, but bump into Slappy doing the slow villain clap.

“Never thought a Horror would stoop so low!”

Wait, Irk is supposed to be a Horror?

…I don’t see it.

Anyway, Irk’s deal is that she’s small so naturally the other monsters don’t think she can as scary as the others. Originality aside, it’s something we haven’t seen with any of the Horrors before, so it’s slightly fresh for this series in that sense.

Irk pulls them into the crypt, as she recalls it has some secret stairs they can use to escape, but they don’t seem to be there and they end up falling into a room full of “Scary stuffs”. And by that, she means…Barrels. Sure.

Irk gets randomly insecure about her scary-ness, and eats the contents of one of them. Contents that happen to be green. …Yeah, you know where this is going. Turns out this is Monster Blood, so Irk starts to grow and get truly scary, which pleases Slappy as he watches them.

“Irk’s an annoying little thing but she really does grow on you!”

Boooo!

That’s the end of issue two, and the final issue starts with Giant Irk breaking out of the crypt and grabbing the kids. This leads to the moment where Ginny pleads with Irk as they bonded over the course of a small period of time we’re gonna pretend was bigger than it was.

Jokes aside, in execution it’s kind of cute with how she reminds Irk of small bits from earlier. After a bit of that, Irk shrinks back to normal. Huh, there’s a method Evan never tried. Slappy is naturally pissed that Irk is useless to him now but she tries to hold off the monsters while Mia and Ginny attempt to escape.

They run into a funeral parlor because they think they see Grams in there. Well, actually Ginny forces Mia along with her before Mia can really tell her this is totally a trap but either way, there is indeed a fake evil Granny waiting for them. Her evil act is to… offer them worms to go eat, but it’s in a creepy and over the top way, so sure.

They thankfully don’t fall for this, and Mia throws her crutch at the fake granny, which makes her vanish. Okay, that was an awesome moment, especially with her saying she “won’t be afraid anymore”. Their victory is short lived though as Slappy and his monsters come in. There’s a door nearby that Irk tells them will lead them to some “Special books”, which is convenient but really I’ll buy anything at this point.

They get in and Irk says the books will take them places, and they are how Slappy gets “new kids”. They look in a book with the name of the bookstore and it has a picture of a younger version of the creepy owner lady, as it seems she was stuck here at one point and Slappy uses her to “bring new kids now”. That…still raises so many questions about how this all works. It gives me a better idea I suppose but it’s still weird.

That said, the implication that she went through some scary stuff via HorrorLand and is now being used by Slappy to lure kids is in pretty creepy, so there’s that. Irk tells them just reading some of the book will take them home and this works, but Irk gets one more cute moment in before they leave.

They arrive back at the bookstore and head home.

“But what about Irk? Do you think she escaped? I’m just…I’m so worried about her. I wish she was here”

“Me too”

D’aww.

We cut to “soon” as Mia and Ginny are riding home with their moms. Side note, I did read through this before doing the review but it was late at night which I only mention because being possibly out of it has to be the only reason I managed to miss the moms despite their two visual appearances!

Also, the car is where Ginny left “Don’t go in the Basement”, in case you needed that resolution. They hear some whispering in the back of the car and sure enough, they discover Irk got in, as “Irk can read too” huzzah.

They have their parents stop at a store so they can check for Irk, and they go in so we can get our twist ending: Creepy bookstore lady, Slappy, and Curly all randomly show up (Irk isn’t the only one who can read, Slappy says), as now the store suddenly has a doorway to “The Really Scary Stuff” somehow.

“Miss me?”

This is topped off with a “THE END…OR IS IT?!” I’d say yes, as the other arcs do not follow up this one. So we just end on a note that leaves me with too many questions to be sufficiently scared. …So yep, it’s a Goosebumps twist ending, for sure.

Also, Curly gets his first line in an official product, when he tries on some sunglasses: “Hey, Cool. Whadd’ya think?”. Neat?



Final Thoughts:

This was certainly a mixed bag, but as a whole I did enjoy it. I didn’t find a good place to talk about the artwork so I can go over it here. A few odd design choices aside, I actually quite like it. It’s cartoon-y to be sure but I think that works for this franchise, especially with the story they went with. The expressions are pretty good, and there’s some nice shading and shadows for an okay spooky mood, The art is able to capture that whole “scary and funny” feel the series tries to achieve.

It leans more on the fun but that’s fine, as it doesn’t go too far. Unlike say, the Graphix adaptation of Night of the Living Dummy. (No offense to the artist there, it just…did not fit)

It compliments to the story nicely. The weird thing with this comic is that it’s greatest strength as also it’s biggest weakness, as it pretty faithful to the Goosebumps spirit…to a fault. Aside from hitting certain bullet points I’ve mentioned,(as well as a slightly whiny two dimensional protagonist) the story flows in a similar to a lot of these books, complete with a confusing ending.

The positive side is that this was a lot of fun, and didn’t ever drag too much. It moved from setpiece to setpiece nicely and while some could have been more creatively used, the way things flowed made it fun. And while nothing is too deep, some of the nice moments with Irk were effective. It was pretty cliche but in the end she won me over. Although there was some more interesting ideas they could have done more with, like Mia facing her fears and whatnot.

Protagonist wise, Mia and Ginny are fine. Ginny gets more memorable stuff due to Irk but Mia ends up being pretty passable in the end. They’re in the decent middle ground between Evan and Billy, I’d say.

However, the thing with being generally faithful to a franchise is that you might adapt the flaws and that is what h append here. This is very much in the HorrorLand/Shock Street vein where it’s more enjoyable if you don’t think about it as nothing really makes sense here. Of course, I can accept a lot at this point but there should still be some logic to grab onto, but there really is none here. The leads don’t really seem to ask the questions I would ask.

We find out some things but even in the end I just don’t get how this all works, and knowing more about the concepts used here just leaves me more confused. While the pacing is fine for enjoyment, it’s too quick to let some things sink in. So when it comes to the Irk stuff, it was up to the execution of the later moments to allow that to register.

But I guess “Not doing enough with the deeper concepts” makes it fit in with the brand too.

That said, the approach taken to the story means most people, including kids, will just go along for the fun ride. If it was a more traditional story, the lack of logic would be a lot worse. Overall, Monsters at Midnight is a mixed start for the comics as it mostly sticks pretty close to the Goosebumps formula, meaning it’s a lot of fun, provided you don’t think too hard about what is going on. The general fun going on, along with a few nice/cool moments makes this a fine read.

In the least, the team clearly cared about this property and that really did show in the final product. I’d recommend this, just know what you’re getting into and as always, don’t take it too seriously and just have fun with it. Also, some things are better conveyed in the actual comic vs my recap.

…And hey, this gets 1000 points for the gay moms thing at least.

Rating: Decent

I wasn’t sure about the rating but when I put all the factors into that, I ended up with that one, but it is on the higher end of that, at least on the Goosebumps Scale. The next comic arc is where things will get a bit more ambitious and you’ll read about that come next year, hopefully.

This was fun but next month it’s back to Stine’s writing. It’s October, which means Halloween. That means a party, and I can’t think of a scarier place to hold one then on Fear Street.

See ya.