New from Scout Comics, The Adventures of Byron is likely to keep your brainpan hopping around in August!
Issue #1, promising “Jolting Tales of Action, Suspense and the Un-Expected”, is written and illustrated by Chris Hamer.
It’s wacky and wonderful, swerving from large black and white art panels (showing the the human side) to full colour (Monsterly coloured in greens, purples, and oranges by Noel Saabye) in the monster world. You see, Byron, Oswald, and Paxton are three little monsters with different personalities. As they steal socks from the human world for their collection, they rely on each other no matter what hair-brained idea each may have.
A skull-headed narrator, Bartheleme, wearing suit and tie, is our narrator. He seems to exude Cajun or Louisiana charm, in “Something is Afoot”.
The drawings are wonderfully akimbo, the monsters expressive and awkward and the word balloons eccentric. The dialogue lettering pokes outside the balloons, the font size varies by whim and by whimsy. It’s all in fun, and it somehow works. The characters are charming, and there’s an added bonus in this issue: Hamer has invented simulated 1970’s ads that appear through the book. These full-page ads resemble the ads we used to see in comics in days gone by, but they’re complete fiction.
Scout Comics, The Adventures of Byron #1, $3.99 for 29 pages of content. Assume Teen rating
Newsdesk