REVIEW: MONSTER FUN PETRIFYING PETS SPECIAL 2023

This book is very fun! A collection of stories about pet monsters. You read that right, not monsters who have pets, (although some of them are about that) but pets who are monsters. This anthological issue features 9 fully illustrated short comics each one more funner than the last, and each one showcasing a different pet monster. From sharks to giant spiders, to World War II robots (not really sure how that’s a pet, but let’s go with it), to chickens and monkeys, this is truly a wonderful book.

I am a huge fan of all the art in this book, each story features a very different art style, and yet they all feel very fun and whilst they are all truly talented individuals. I have to say that my favorite stories (based only on art) have to be Witch vs Warlock, The Leopard from Lime St. & Steel Commando.

Witch vs Warlock, written by Derek Fridolfs with art by Rebecca Morse, colored by Hadrien Yannou and lettering by Ozwaldo Sanchez, is just so pretty to look at! Rebecca’s character designs rely heavily on shape to create unique character designs that are both simple and interesting, all in one go. I love her rendition of the hell dog Cerberus and I love what she did with turning the Warlock character into an all-you-can-eat walking dog feast. The colors are very nice too, and the shading is wonderful. Whilst they are a mix of cell shading with a bit of blending, they work really well and the textured brushes use to paint the characters give a really nice look and feel to the two pages of this story. It is short but super nice to look at, and it stood out very much for me. There is a little of Penny Arcade, and Camp Wee Don’t Want Cha by Katie Rice in the art style and I wonder if Rebecca and Hadrien are at all inspired by these comics.

Next, we have “The Leopard from Lime St.” I think this comic is probably the one that’s most produced in this issue, it features some seriously awesome character designs, with almost superheroes-like proportions, and the background art, coloring, and lettering are simply fantastic. Written by Simon Furman, with art by PJ Holden, coloring by John Paul- Bove and lettering by SquakeZz this is probably the show stopper inside the whole book. It is packed with action, and lots of sweet fight scenes, and is the longest one in the whole book. It is definitely a great read. I also really love all the cool sound fxs that SquakeZz added into this story, I think for an action story this is really the way to go and I applaud them for that. Whilst this is not my favorite story in the book, for art alone it gets a spot in my top 3.

Last but surely not least, we have Steel Commando. Written by Ned Hartley, with art by Dan Boultwood and lettering by Leila Jess. As an avid comic book reader, reviewer, and ultimate fan, there are artists that you just know who they are as soon as you see their art style. If the name doesn’t seem familiar by now then let me enlighten you. This story was drawn by Dan Boultwood, aka the artist in the super awesome spin-off story Chu, from the universe of John Layman’s Chew. Literally, the moment I saw the first panel, I was like, “Hmm, that looks like a Chew book”, so color me surprised to see that it in fact was drawn by the guy that illustrated Chu, which by the way I have and read and now sits contentedly in my collection of comics. This is just such good art, for me, it feels like it combines Jean-Francois Beaulieu coloring from “I Hate Fairyland” with a more stylistic brushwork and superb shape-heavy character design. Their style is just so good, and then you have a story that is super fun and features a ton of fun action panels, with some really neat word balloons whose tails remain bubbly instead of tapering into sharp ends and you have a really cool 6-page story about a world war II robot that travels through time. That’s simply awesome.

All in all, this is a great book, and I enjoyed all of it. I did notice that most of the stories were either fully colored by the same artists or one artist also did the lettering, and whilst it works for many cases. I did notice a couple of instances where the bold words were a little too big for the rest of the sentence and would compete in terms of legibility with the rest of the letters. Other than that, it was a phenomenal book, and I can’t suggest it enough. Even though it is marketed mostly to young children, it is still a great read and visually quite fun. I also don’t feel like it talks down to its readers, and instead just does a wonderful job at presenting interesting and highly entertaining stories to whoever reads it. Oh, in case you didn’t know, which of course I didn’t till now. Rebellion also publishes 2000 AD which is another collection of stories, and I think it’s really cool to see this kind of stuff together in one book. I do want to read certain stories much more than others, but I do think that this anthology works very well because it features several short stories that are simply one or 3 pages long, and it is very satisfactory to be able to read a couple of short stories together one right after the other, without having to know that if I want to see what happens next I’ll have to buy another issue for the next 6 pages. I guess that’s my only major complaint, that I wish I was able to read more Steel Commando, and Witch and Warlock stuff instead of just these little sneak peeks, but hey if I hadn’t seen the sneak peeks I wouldn’t have even know they existed so that’s something to consider.

To close this all off, I’d also like to say that I am a huge fan of the activities inside this book and whilst I cringe at the idea of messing up a comic with a pen, I think that for children this is a very fun thing to add that will give them more value for their book. I also really like that they are holding a contest to get some new monsters drawn up and added to the book by their readers, I think that’s awesome and very 90’s. Oh and that Rat Fink-style Frankie Stein portrait looks great and I love it when books are introduced by characters inside the actual comic, I think that’s very fun.

Highest of praises to this book, let’s get some more going!

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by: Stacey Whittle, Alec Worley, Chris Garbutt, John Lucas, Ned Hartley, Dave Bulmer, Derek Fridolfs, Simon Furman & The Feek

Art by: Brett Parson, Karl Dixon, Dan Boultwood, Abigail Bulmer, Rebecca Morse, PJ Holden & Steve Roberts

Coloring by: Barbara Nosenzo, Hadrien Yannou, & John Paul-Bove

Lettering by: H.A. O’Millar, Leila Jess, Ozwaldo Sanchez, SquaqeZz & Harvey Caldarone

Cover art by: Abigail Bulmer

Published by Rebellion

In Shops: Sep 06, 2023

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”