Welcome Foolish Reader

 

Well, your ol' pal Wimbledon Green has done it again!  After nearly 20 years, I have finally completed my collection of all seven issues of the SLG Haunted Mansion series, at last scoring the elusive issue #4.

Now that I have it in my hot little hands, I can see why this issue was so hard to find at a reasonable price: every story is drawn by a good artist!

You've got Lenore's Roman Dirge, Serenity Rose creator Aaron Alexovitch, the spooktackular Drew Rausch-  this is a murderer's row of goth comics...literally.

Well, now that my collection is complete I can finally relax and rest in peace. Muah ha ha ha ha

Dead Girl Superstar

 

Hey Millenials, remember "the aughts"?  The OC, the Nintendo Gamecube, the Emo, the SLG? 

Lenore Meets the Haunted Mansion by Roman Dirge

Welcome to Wonderland....Alice.

The great SLG/ Disney experiment of 2005 must be fondly remembered by other people besides me, because when I tried to fill in some gaps in my collection recently I was gobsmacked by the Ebay starting bids.

These comics were available at every Hot Topic in every mall in America, get outta here with your "Reserve Not Met"!

Anyway, one Slave Labor book that is still readily available for a reasonable price is the Tommy Kovac/ Sonny Liew "Wonderland": 

Debuting at least a year before the great Skottie Young "OZ" series from Marvel, this six-issue miniseries was essentially a goth sequel to the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland.  Think the Tim Burton movie, only with less Johnny Depp and more Jabberwocky Death.

The main character is the Mary Ann the white rabbit was looking for at the beginning of the movie, a maid who works in the royal palace. Mary Ann is shocked at the destruction left in the wake of the events of the Disney cartoon.

The "Alice Monster" destroyed basically everything in Wonderland, like a Godzilla in tights, and now the assorted weirdos need to help Mary Ann pick up the pieces so they can get back to their royal business.

The plot is "ehhhh, who cares."  It's a series of vignettes and a chance to revisit your favorite characters, but there's not much in the way of dramatic momentum.

The star attraction here is the art of Sonny Liew, the genius artist behind The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye and The Shadow Hero.

This particular book is somewhat an outlier for Liew; it's definitely in that early aughts Gerard Way-James Jean- Kingdom Hearts-Korn album cover Emo wheelhouse, if that's your thing (that's totally my thing).

Check out these zombie treacle ladies, spooky!

On-panel murder in an officially licensed Disney comic!  I miss you, SLG.

Comics Review Time!

My local library has Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer and Pinocchio and the Great Puppet Theater in the YA/ Teen section.  Both are well worth your time.

Art-wise the books are very much in the vein of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, but artist Dusty Higgins brings his own enjoyably quirky sensibilities to the story.  For example, Jiminy Cricket looks more like an abstract bunny than an actual insect, but it totally works.

This is a funny, imaginative comic that's a lot more fun than Once Upon a Time or Fables.  Don't take my word for it: the great Chris Sims of Comics Alliance gave it a favorable review.

I give this comic five wooden-nose-stakes up.

Tragic Mirror

New dark Snow White comic from SLG coming next year

Approved by the Comics Code Authority?

Panels from an officially licensed Disney comic book:

Bad. Ass.

From Haunted Mansion #7, SLG comics, 2007.

Stupid like a fox

This is a scene from an officially licensed Disney comic:

It's slightly less creepy in context. Honest!

How great were the SLG Haunted Mansion books? Seriously, I can't believe that Disney green-lit a "Rated T for Teen" series in the first place, let alone that they allowied this little doozy to go to press.

I haven't yet read the Gargoyles, Tron, or Wonderland series, but I hope they also take an "outsider" approach to the Disney properties. I'd much prefer to see unique twists on established properties like this than the neverending Princess and Tinkerbell crap I see at the mall.

From Haunted Mansion #3, SLG Publishing, 2006. Written and illustrated by D.W. Frydendall.

The Secret Origin of Ezra

Scanned from Haunted Mansion #7, SLG Publishing, 2007
Written by John Hastings, Drawn by Jon Morris

I just started collecting these Haunted Mansion comics from SLG Publishing (formerly known as Slave Labor Graphics). These books are definitely going after the older teen market, rather than the traditional young kid/aging collector audience that most Disney comics aim for. Last time I checked, these books dould be found on the shelves at Hot Topic, right next to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Lenore, and Emily the Strange. I'm not a moody teenager (anymore) but I'm digging these comics. Most of the issues are available from the SLG website...check em out.