Shorts (The Creeps #1; Heaven's Equal Vol. 1: Welcome to Little China)
Shorts (17 October 2024)
The Creeps #1
Written and illustrated by: B. Wade
Blueswade Comics
$5.00
The Creeps #1
For those of a certain age, The Creeps feels awfully familiar.
Imagine you grew up on the same street as the Peanuts gang. You were neighbors with a family that had a giant Great Dane named Marmaduke, and it was not uncommon to see two vaguely similar orange cats around the neighborhood—one always loafing around, kicking a weird-looking dog, and mowing down pans of lasagna left and right; the other artfully flipping trashcans, beating up dogs, and conning the fishmonger out of his wares. Down the street was a little blonde kid and his stuffed tiger constantly playing in cardboard boxes or creating the most horrific snowmen in winter.
Now, picture two blocks over.
Effectively, the same neighborhood, but spookier somehow. Not, axe murder spooky, but not Anne of Green Gables either. Two wild families on either end of the street. Their mailboxes labeled "Munster" and "Addams," respectively. A little green maniacal alien and his derpy robot constantly scheme to take over the world, and a van outside a house reads "Mystery Machine". 
It's the block in between these two neighborhoods where The Creeps reside.
An inspired mashup of wholesome meets monstrous. The kids in The Creeps are about as scary as the aforementioned families and seem to be accepted (albeit not taken seriously) by the more mundane residents of the neighborhood.
sample page from The Creeps
As this is the first (and to date, only) issue that has been released, it's difficult to pin down individual characters, although a conversation with the creator did shed light on a couple of them. Of the characters on the cover, the young lady on the left (who does not make an appearance in this issue) is Melva Toast, the vampire-looking child is "Gotcha", and the tentacle with glasses is leaning towards Holli (how also doesn't appear in this issue). The tall young man with the green hue is unnamed at this time, but I'd be a little disappointed if his name weren't Eugene or something of that nature (I am tired of cobbled-together recycled humans being called Frank. Or Adam). 
What Wade has done is taken aspects of some of the most influential and greatest pop culture touchstones from the last 50 years and made them his own. Obvious callbacks include the Peanuts and Addams/Munsters mashups, but there's also shoutouts to Calvin & Hobbes, Invader Zim, Ed, Edd, & Eddy, Scooby-Doo, Pro Wrestling, Dungeons and Dragons, and Sesame Street. 
Where the series goes from here remains to be seen (*nudge* *cough* hint *cough*), but as an introduction to a series, you'd be hard pressed to find something more engaging, fun, and innocent than The Creeps. Besides, how can you not smile at "Potty Squid!"
Heaven’s Equal Vol. 1: Welcome to Little China
Written and illustrated by: Tycho Dwelis
ISBN: 978-1-94874-007-4
$24.99
Heaven’s Equal Vol. 1: Welcome to Little China
Literary canons vary from language to language, but often don’t see much adaptation outside of their native tongue. One exception to this is Journey to the West, often attributed to Wu Cheng’en in the 16th century. A fictionalized account of a Buddhist monk and his three protectors – Zhu Bajie (a human/pig hybrid), Sha Wujing (an Oni or Demon), and Sun Wukong (the Monkey King). The group travels to India to collect sutras (Buddhist scriptures), and the book documents their (mis)adventures. The most famous character from this story is, of course, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. He’s been the basis for many forms of entertainment, at home and abroad.
Sun Wukong has a full and developed history that could fill a book, but in order to save time, Sun Wukong gets really good at certain things, becomes hyper cocky, insults the High God (Chinese mythology is full of bureaucracy), makes an absolute ass of himself, is punished, and slowly learns humility and grace through helping others.
The concept of Sun Wukong has been examined in comic form many times – the characters of Son Goku from Dragonball and Luffy D. Monkey from One Piece are both interpretations of Sun Wukong, while the character of Chin-Kee from American Born Chinese is a direct analog.
Heaven’s Equal, by Tycho Dwelis, seeks to add another layer of interpretation to Sun Wukong – this time by focusing on Shawn, a young woman who gets a job in a Chinese Mexican Fusion fast food joint. It’s bad enough having to deal with entitled customers, but adding to Shawn’s grief is the fact that she’s trying to learn the ropes, her boss is just a little too laid back, a chance encounter almost gets her eaten by demons, and her trainer is none other than Sun Wukong, in all his bitchy, petulant glory. All Shawn wants to do is earn money for college, and instead, she gets tasked with saving the world.
This book came completely out of left field for me. I just happened upon it before I was leaving the local comic con, and it caught my eye. In my conversation with Dwelis, they were quick to point out that the entire series is online, but this was one of those instances where I needed to have a physical copy. To be honest, the first couple of pages felt rough – thick, blocky lines that feel like more like Mahfood doodles with a Sharpie™ Chisel-tip than polished work. However, as the story continues, it becomes apparent that this was an intentional choice. The lines become crisper, the characters more fluid, as if everything is coming into focus from a dream state or period of disassociation.
Another fascinating aspect is that the story starts out in black and white, and slowly introduces color (especially when supernatural elements appear). The color seeps in, first in small steps, until at one point, the reader is bathed in an almost full page of strong, bold colors. Even on subsequent readthroughs, the experience is just as intense as the first time. The last time I saw color used with such impact was P. Craig Russell’s adaptation of The Giver. Unfortunately, the book ends right after the color shows up, so I don’t know how the story progresses from there, yet. I haven’t had time to check out the story, but I’m looking forward to it.
Dwelis accomplishes something that many writers find difficult – make the reader lose track of how fast the story flows. This is an exceedingly fast read, but you don’t realize it until you run out of pages. Even on subsequent reads, the pace still surprises me – I don’t want it to end, but like all good things, it does. And it leaves you wanting more.
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