The Ghastly Ones & Other Fiendish Frolics (1995, Manic D Press)
Writing & Art: Richard Sala
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Richard Sala spoofs children's picture books in an anthology collecting four horror-themed short items. (Three are narratives constructed using verse and drawings while the fourth one is a series of couplets paired with portraits of murderers and monsters.)
"The Ghastly Ones & Other Fiendish Frolics" was written and illustrated by Sala during a period when he reportedly had grown frustrated with working in comics. It stands a unique entry in his body of work, and shows off his playful side more strongly than his other efforts. It's also a quick read; each page of text has at most a couple of paragraphs, and they are generally followed by a full page illustration.
The book leads off with "The Ghastly Ones", in which a creepy fan of serial killers goes to interview an arrogant detective who hunts them and other monsters. The verses describe 20 serial killers, their preferred victims and sometimes their methods, as well as their fate. An illustration of the killers posing with victims, or otherwise showing their evil natures, is included with each. One of the killers is still on the loose, and he appears at the very end of the narrative to bring it to a grimly amusing, entirely fitting close.
The second included tale, "The Morbid Musings of Malcolm deMulch", is the briefest of them, consisting of just six pages. It feels very much like a dark Dr. Seuss book, or something from Edward Gorey, with each page containing a drawing and a rhyme with Malcolm wondering about how and when he will die. It was originally intended for an anthology where it was to have been a single page comic story. Sala reworked it slightly and turned each panel into an individual page for the inclusion in this volume. (You can see the original version of the story at the bottom of this post. Click on it to enlarge it.)
Next up is "The Skulkers". Like "The Ghastly Ones", it's a catalogue of murderers and monsters, but it has no narrative framework. Instead, readers are treated to literal portraits of 10 killers, with each subject revealing a little bit about him- or herself in a couplet. Like the other sections in the book, it's equal parts cute, amusing, and disturbing. On the downside, Richard Sala engages in his love of drawing grotesquely misshapen noses; this is admittedly a personal issue, but it's my least favorite aspect of his art and he provides a concentrated dose of it here.
Closing out the book is "Beware! Beware!", another perfect spoof of an early reader book. In it, an elderly woman is warning a child about all the homicidal maniacs that are lurking outside the safety of their home. The illustrations and the rhythm and repetitiveness of the writing captures the feel of an early reader book designed to both amuse and educate... but it's bizarre and twisted throughout. It also has an excellent, evil-chuckle-worthy ending, so it makes it the perfect capper for this unusual book.
If you enjoy darkly humorous works and fine illustrations, I think you'll get a kick out of "The Ghastly Ones"... and I think you'll be even more amused if you've ever read books aloud to little kids while they followed along.
The Original Morbid Musings of Malcolm deMulch
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