Webtoon brings you an underrated fantasy webcomic about a paranormal investigator who is a skeleton wearing a hat in The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn.

(https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/the-strange-tales-of-oscar-zahn/list?title_no=685)

So I never thought I’d come across another mystery/horror webcomic in a form of a dark fantasy genre about a dead investigator. But am I missing something here? What’s the big idea of having a fantasy genre comic where all of this story is about mystery and horror stuff going on? I didn’t expect something like this, an underrated webcomic that almost looked like another Tim Burton movie like Nightmare before Christmas or Beetlejuice, but this webtoon comes on a different approach. This webtoon was digitally published from 2016 to 2019, and it was created by Tri Vuong, according to his bio, he is grateful for the existence of bicycles, dogs, and instant noodles, you know, the usual stuff that you people enjoy in real life. However this webcomic is his first but hopefully not his last, and since I got recommended to read this webtoon from someone on Twitter, I thought that this is a change of scenery, so let’s get to it.

When I got to look at this evil-looking bastard on my phone to check out this webtoon, what I see is a skull without his mouth, and for some reason, the skeleton is some sort of ghost because his head is floating in the air while wearing his suit and a hat which is very deep. The background shows an abandoned mansion that looked exactly like the mansion from the Beetlejuice movie poster for some reason. You see that, right, or maybe I’m just having deja vu? Anyway, there’s not much more to say, all I have to say is that you’re reading another spoof of Beetlejuice in a form of a dead investigator. However I don’t know much of that story, but I’m gonna give you the short version of this review because this comic is very cryptic as Dani Wytte figuring out how to reverse the shrink spell to get Nico back to normal. NO PUN INTENDED.

The story starts when Oscar meets up with an elderly woman who is on his way to the mansion, telling her where’s the person who lived there for a long time. The main character, Oscar is a lost soul who only has his skull to share impressions with the old woman, and other dead creatures. Before he started his investigation at the mansion, he gets his gear with some detection radar, while Oscar is wearing his headphones on his skull as if he has ears, but he’s already dead. There’s so much paranormal going on with this comic, there’s this part when he found a big baby monster who attacked Oscar, and sooner and later, Oscar’s skull just morphed himself into a glowy ghost squid out of nowhere, which is very weird, to begin with out of the blue. Could you imagine, if a ghost just lose himself and summon a demon from Satan’s hell hole just to threaten a baby? But then something else happened and suddenly Oscar touched the baby’s heart just to discover what was suffering him without the love of his parents, and he lets the baby’s soul goes free.

So the plot is that Oscar Zahn goes on every investigation on some other supernatural mysteries along the way, like the baby to set the soul free, however, when he stumbles a mysterious object around, the next panels show a backstory of the characters, like the hunter who shot and killed 25 deer with a riffle, became a soldier while he’s being chased by a tank with an English man who happens to be Oscar himself when he was alive. Or how about that part when Oscar boards the ship to go on an under-the-sea adventure with some juggernauts who looked like the cyclops from the SpongeBob movie. It’s a mishmash journey for the dead investigator to find the cause of those who died and lived as a ghost, get a lot of background stories and set their souls free like he’s death himself.

The story can be very addicting to know that you’re reading a dark fantasy and mystery story about a living skull who ventures around the world to investigate some victims who died and help them to guide their lost souls to heaven. That is very much like when a soul is lost and started to curse around the world with some supernatural powers that made people terrified. It’s a good webcomic, other than the fact this is more of an indie comic material than a webtoon material. The art is most likely how any other indie comic artists create, except the design of Oscar as a skeleton is all invisible in that he only had his skull and is dressed in a suit for work, while the human version of Oscar is nothing more like some Englishman who looked like Luigi without his L hat carrying with his detection gear which is referenced as the ghost vacuum from Luigi’s Mansion. There are only 100 episodes in this webcomic with less than 20 panels, this is actually the shortest webtoon series that I’ve ever read. But you know what, there’s a slight bit of chance that this comic would be a hidden gem because it’s so rare that this comic is almost like Beetlejuice in your Pjs, up your ass. Well anyway, if you’re interested in a dark fantasy and mystery webcomic about a dead investigator with his adventure to solve some other dead people’s problems then this Webtoon is for you to check out.

By Kevin Bermeo

I'm a New Yorker Artist, and I traveled a lot. I enjoy making comics, illustrations, paintings, and digital art. Besides drawing, I'm also a writer, I used to be a Gamer, and I love adventures, food, and dragons.