Scary Godmother

Following closely on the release of Evan Dorkin's and Jill Thompson's Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, Dark Horse Comics released more Jill Thompson work in the same deluxe hardcover format. The original Scary Godmother comics were published by the now-defunct Sirius Publishing, and hence have been out of print for a long time. Thankfully, this omission has been rectified by the good folk of Dark Horse Comics. This 192-page hardcover collection reprints Scary Godmother, The Revenge of Jimmy, The Mystery Date and The Boo Flu from the original comics, with concept art gallery and a new cover by Jill Thompson.

I regret to say that I had never read Scary Godmother until getting my hands on this beautiful volume which was released in October 2010, just in time for the Halloween season. Unfortunately, it appeared that no copies made it to Singapore and I had to rely on my local comic shop to re-order this for me.

While many creators were pushing out gory and frightful horror for Halloween, Jill Thompson goes the opposite route with her all-ages delightfully quirky characters and stories. Coupled with her masterfully painted artwork, Scary Godmother is a joy to flip through for both adults and children. Highly recommended... though fellow countrymen here in Singapore may have to obtain their copies from overseas or speak to the friendly folk at the local comic shop.


Front cover


Rear cover (with lots of fellow comics professionals and professional wrestlers singing the book's praises)

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites

Earlier this year, Dark Horse Comics published a hardcover collection you wouldn't want to miss - Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's Beasts of Burden which collect the first story from the pages of "The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings", other early stories as well as the hit four-issue comic series "Beasts of Burden".

Set in the average neighbourhood of Burden Hill (hence the title), filled with green lawns and white picket fences, a team of dogs and one cat are paranormal investigators determined to keep their community safe from witches, zombie dogs and even demonic cannibal frogs.

What endears me to the characters, beyond the fact that they are cute furry creatures, is the fact that at the end of it all, they are still pets who sniff each other's behind and rush back before their owners get home. Evan Dorkin's script is filled with equal parts mystery, adventure, horror and humour while Jill Thompson's beautiful paintings never fail to allow the animals to emote.

This comic captures the heart and haunts your dreams...highly recommended!

Fractured Fables

I first encountered Fractured Fables with a preview in Previews (the monthly order catalog by comic distributors Diamond Comics). This was followed by a Free Comic Book Day freebie comic earlier this year containing selected stories from the final release hardcover anthology in the months leading up to its release.

Fractured Fables features twisted versions or parodies of well-known fables or fairy tales by some of the top talent working in comics today - Michael & Laura Allred, Peter David, Terry Moore, Bryan Talbot, Jill Thompson, Whilce Portacio, Shannon Wheeler and Jim Valentino just to name a few. It was published under the Image Comics banner by Jim Valentino's Shadowline Comics. Needless to say, I had been looking forward to the hardcover release just to run my eyes over comics by some of my favourite creators. I was able to score my copy from Kinokuniya during their members' sale and rushed home to read it. That was when a glance through the contents page revealed another familiar name in addition to some of the comics creators mentioned earlier - Nikki Dy-Liacco.

I had met Nikki through my work when we were organising a seminar at my workplace last year. I was not aware she was a published writer and seeing her name in a comic book was a nice surprise. We met again last week for another seminar we organised and Nikki gamely autographed my copy of Fractured Fables.

Nikki related how she had first collaborated with May Ann Licudine, the artist who illustrated her story "The Fox and the Cat" in Fractured Fables. She had won a story-writing contest with "The Yellow Paperclip With Bright Purple Spots", which was the story for an illustration contest that May Ann Licudine won. The resultant illustrated story was published and released as a children's book only in their native Philippines. Nikki was kind enough to present me with an autographed complimentary copy the following day. Thank you, Nikki!

Do pick up Fractured Fables and drop a note to Nikki to tell her how much you enjoyed it. Tell her Peow sent you. ;)


Fractured Fables (Michael Allred cover art)


Two page spread from "The Fox and the Cat" by Nikki Dy-Liacco and May Add Licudine




Nikki signing my Fractured Fables



Nikki's autograph in Fractured Fables


FCBD edition of Fractured Fables