REVIEW: Pip’s Monster House

At first blush I took this comic as something in the vein of Courage the Cowardly Dog. Normal people and their pet living in a place where some awfully abnormal things are going to be going on. This is partly true as it turns out.

The basic premise is that a married couple are moving into a house that is also inhabited by a load of creepy critters. Coming along with the happy couple is their French bulldog Pip. And this is where the shenanigans begin, because as one would expect, they dog is going to notice the strangeness long before the new homeowners do.

The comic builds on certain horror movie tropes for both laughs and foreshadowing as it progresses. We get nods to how the neighborhood might be slightly off, a warning from the town cook, rumors about the property and of course town authorities who dismiss any ideas that this little berg is anything but normal. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before but when creating a book rife with humor it’s fun to keep the tongue firmly in the cheek as it were. The characters here are more archetypes than anything with the new folks being likable but oblivious, the cook appropriately creepy and the local constable seems to be inspired by Mr Clean, pretty apt I thought for someone who wants to keep things neat and clean as far as town gossip goes.

The monsters are charmingly grotesque in appearance and yet their motivations were something of a surprise. Meanwhile Pip has the nature of many small dogs and that is to be an absolutely holy terror. Seems all small breeds have a Napoleon complex in spades and Pip is no exception.

When it comes to the art I again must refer to the likes of Courage. There is a simplification of shape and form the bespeaks of children’s books when it comes to the more mundane aspects of the story. Human faces are draw with a few simple lines but one is never at a loss for what their expression is conveying. As mentioned before the monsters are grotesque but not horrific in depiction. Lots of variety and imagination went into them. I particularly loved the colors. Done in a style of water color washes, this once again lends itself to the remembrance of the art of children’s books, making the story all the more whimsical but also intentionally jarring with things hit the fan in a big way.

I did notice a few inconsistencies along the way that I couldn’t determine within the context of the story or the art so I cannot decide if these elements were intentional or not. Seems I will have to wait for Issue 2 to provide me more clarity. Nothing that is a deal breaker mind you but I was left scratching my head wondering if it was a matter of a difference of perceptions between the humans and the dog.

As I’ve come to expect with this particular author, nothing is precisely what I expect it is going to be when I first see his latest project. He always manages to surprise me with his offerings which is not easy to do when one has been reading comics for 50 of my 56 years.

SCORE:
4.5 out of 5

Support the Kickstarter at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dwightlmacpherson/pips-monster-house-issue-1