Goosebumps: Monsters At Midnight #1 –
IDW Publishing
Written by Jeremy Lambert
Art by Chris Fenoglio
Letters by Christa Miesner
Horror movies have seen quite the increase in popularity over the last year. Aside from major superhero movies, they have enjoyed the most long term success at the box office. Think back to how that all started for you. What was your first introduction into the horror genre? For a certain age group, it was the Goosebumps books and/or the tv series. R.L. Stine introduced a whole generation of kids and young adults to the scary side of entertainment. Now, IDW is giving us the best of both worlds with Goosebumps comics. Let’s find out about the Monsters At Midnight.
The story centers around two kids, Mia and Ginny, who are spending the summer with their grandmother. For some, that’s scary enough right there. The only thing these kids are dying of right now is boredom, until they come across something while they are headed back to the house. Ginny is a little more adventurous, but it’s not until later that they find themselves in an old bookstore without grandma. When one of them ventures off, they both find themselves in a world that should seem very familiar to faithful Goosebumps fans. What we are left with is only to wonder exactly what horrors await them, and how (or if) they may be able to escape.
Halloween is supposed to be scary, but it’s also supposed to be fun. That’s what it felt like reading this book. Did it scare me as an adult? Absolutely not. Would that have been different if I were a kid? Probably. To me that is carrying on the tradition that Goosebumps started nearly 25 years ago. Jeremy Lambert had a very tough task, especially carrying the mantle of a title that had been made famous by an icon. Lambert does very well at that, and gave us a lot of background to be invested in these two characters. I also loved that there wasn’t a lot of fan service in this issue. It would have been easy to have a ton of easter eggs, and there were a few, but this felt like it’s own story. Fenoglio’s art was alive and fun, especially in the last few pages when they cross over. I think this is a good first step in introducing a whole new generation to why their parents, or older siblings, loved Goosebumps so much.
RATING: PULL / BUY