Sarah did some scribbling...

 

In addition to the always-amusing Sarah's Scriibles, Sarah Andersen has brought us the excellent Halloweenish strip "Fangs". It's the story of true love between a vampire and a werewolf, and here's my review of a book collecting most (if not all) of them.

Sunday Scribbles from Sarah

 

Sunday Comics from Sarah Andersen

Here are some of Sarah's Scribbles in keeping with the Halloween Season!

A haunting thought...

 ... on this last day before Halloween 2021.

For more fun cartoons from Sarah Andersen, visit her website. You can also get collections of her cartoons in book-form, with which to impress your friends (or just to have them in a more permanent form and to support her work with some royalties off the book-sales)!

Also, for something different from Andersen, you want to check out the very excellent book "Fangs"--which is a chronicle of the romance between a werewolf and a vampire. You can read my review of it here. 

Some scribbles from Sarah

 A couple strips from Sarah Andersen about September (since we're mast the halfway mark... and closer to Halloween than not).

If those made you smile, you should consider getting some the collections of "Sarah's Scribbles", or one of her 2022 calendars or day-planners, so you can start each day with a little cartoon commentary and weird, often geekish, thoughts.

An even better book to grab is "Fangs". It's in a different style than "Sarah's Scribbles", but it's a perfect warm-up for Halloween, since it's about a vampire and a werewolf who fall in love with each other. You can read my review of it here.

Welcome to 2021!

A new year has arrived. We here at Shades of Gray hope that all our readers and visitors are happy and healthy, and we hope to continue to bring you lots of old stuff that may be new to you.

And while we are expecting there to be a full year ahead of us, Janet Leigh is not so optimistic. She's excited a new year is here... but she's going to take it one day (two at most) at a time...

'Fangs' is a must-read

Fangs (Andrews McMeel. 2020)

Story and Art: Sarah Andersen

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

With "Fangs", Sarah Andersen solidifies her place among the modern masters of the comic strip format. She tells the tale of a unusual romance between Jimmy and Elsie, who just happen to be a werewolf and a vampire, through 96 pages of stand-alone strips and illustrations, some of which add up to multi-page arcs, but all of which stand perfectly fine on their own.

Andersen is known to most for her long-running "Sarah's Scribbles" strip, and those readers may be surprised by the very different art- and storytelling style in "Fangs". Instead of the scratchy, bug-eyed, squat cartoon characters from Andersen's other series, this strip features smooth lines and handsomely drawn people and animals; and instead of cutting, self-deprecating observational humor, we instead get situational- and relationship-based jokes and comic situations arising from characters that conform to the pop-culture concepts of werewolves and vampires falling in love and making a life together.

In addition to the attractive art, "Fangs" succeeds because Jimmy and Elsie are both very likable characters. They are so charming and cute that after the opening series of strips showing how they met, you will spend the rest of the book enjoying their sweet and sometimes awkward romance and rooting for them to overcome obstacles and be happy together.

But this is still a book about "monsters" in love, so some of the humor gets dark and there's an occasional dangerous edge  visible in  how the lovers are portrayed. This is especially true of Elsie-- although she is now "vegan" and relies on bloodbanks instead of hunting humans for her sustenance, there are several episodes where you have the sense that she could easily "fall of the wagon". Meanwhile, there's a sense that Jimmy is something of a hippy among werewolves...

Not all the gags in fangs come off effectively, among these are a few that would be perfect if animated but fall flat in the comic strip format, but each strip is cute, funny, touching, and always entertaining. The single page illustrations scattered throughout the book are also very well crafted and add value instead of feeling like filler by moments scenes that either shed light on some aspect of Elsie or Jimmy's personality or on their relationship. The drawing of Jimmy meditating and the one of Elsie getting 

Another bit of "added value" is the physical quality of the book. It's a pretty little hardcover that's deep deep red in color with a simple drawing of Elsie on the cover. It looks more like a collection of poetry or a diary than a collection of comic strips. This means you can get get away with reading it almost anywhere, and you won't have to worry about people looking down their noses at you. And you should read it. Order your copy now!

Coming Soon: 'Fangs' by Sarah Andersen

Cartoonist and writer Sarah Andersen is best known for her zany "Sarah's Scribbles" strips, which detail a nerdy, introverted young woman trying to make her way through life. However, she has also created "Fangs", a series which is equal parts silly, sweet, and sexy... as well as even a little spooky at times.

"Fangs" tells the story of a vampire and a werewolf who meet and fall in love. It chronicles the ups and downs of their relationship, as they navigate the difficulties of being both the perfect fit for each other, but also very different individuals.

The pacing of the book is among the many reasons I think this is a great piece of work. The sample pages I read felt like the best newspaper strips of the old days, in the sense that each page is a tiny story unto itself that ends with a gag or a smile-inducing touching moment but they all add up to a larger story that unfolds as you read them in order. (This is not surprising, I suppose, since "Fangs" began life as a web-series back in 2019... so Andersen is just solidifying her place among the masters of the comic strip format.)

"Fangs" will be released in hardcover in September of 2020 through Andrews/McMeel Publishing. You can click here to read a little more about it. (Me, I've already pre-ordered by copy from Amazon, so you can expect a full review in these parts when the Halloween Season rolls around.)

Happy Halloween!