Stack Overflow: We’ve Got Spirit(s)!
Happy October, everyone!
Usually when October rolls around, I realize that I should have been prepping a list of spooky books ahead of time, instead of starting to read them in October (especially because October is also the month when I do my drawing-a-day project, so I’ve already got more than usual on my mind). Well, this year I got a head start on reading, and in the past two weeks or so I’ve read dozens of comics that I thought might fit: ghost stories, monsters, witches, and more. Of course, now I find myself in the position of having too many books and not enough time to write them all up.
But let’s dig in and see how far we get. Let’s start with some ghost stories!
Ghost Town by Eric Colossal
Lily Cole just finished elementary school, but she’s not too excited about middle school — she’s been accepted to a prestigious science academy, but that means her family will have to move away from Crater, the little seaside town where she grew up. Sure, everything seems to be falling apart in Crater, but it’s familiar and it’s where all her friends are.
But then the kids follow a foul ball into a weird abandoned mansion, and they discover a ghost! Not only that, but they find tools to hunt and trap ghosts, and that becomes their summer project. One of the ghosts seems to be giving them guidance and help — what is it trying to accomplish?
This book is for middle-grade readers — not too scary and often silly: the kids figure out that the way they can see a ghost’s past is by “drinking” the ghosts from the bottles they use to trap them. The overarching mystery will keep you guessing, and of course Lily ultimately does learn some important lessons about trying new things and the dangers of holding on too tightly to the familiar.
Archives of the Unexplained: Unwanted Guests written by Steve Foxe, illustrated by Naomi Franquiz
Archives of the Unexplained is a comic book series based on real-life mysteries, but with a fictional framing story. This one includes two tales of haunted houses.
The framing story features two kids, Minnie and Jackson, who have just moved into a new house. Minnie, the little sister, is a bit of a goblin and loves to spook her older brother Jackson. When they go to the local playground, they run into Theo, who tells them two stories: the Guyra ghost house in Australia, and the Atlanta blood house. The Guyra house involved loud thumps and various rocks being thrown at it from unseen sources, and attracted various mediums and ghost hunters during its day. The house in Atlanta had an incident where the entire interior was splattered with human blood, but nobody could figure out the source.
Theo tells both stories with relish, enjoying the way the kids squirm, while also telling them some stories about their new home. It’s the sort of spooky story you’d tell around a campfire — not too long but with just enough details that you can freak yourself out if you’re inclined. There’s a bibliography at the back providing a few links about each of the real-life cases.
Small Town Spirits written by Zack Keller, illustrated by Gabriele Bagnoli
This small, unnamed town celebrates Halloween in a traditional way, with a week-long festival honoring the spirits of Ireland’s heroes (and, inexplicably, a cow). Each year, they throw a big party on the first night to kick off the week, and the spirits are welcomed through an enchanted portal. In the morning, they return to their own dimension, and the villagers participate in feats of strength and skill and arts.
Inevitably, the big trophy goes to the O’Dells: the father is the mayor of the town, and the two kids are talented and brilliant. The “second-fiddle Flanagans,” on the other hand, are a bunch of misfits: the dad is a wimp, the mom has the worst luck in the world, the sister is a klutz, and Padraig — well, he’s a bit of a trouble-maker, and also the narrator of the story. He’s tired of being the butt of all the jokes, of getting picked on by Junior O’Dell, so this year he decides to take matters into his own hands. He steals the stone knot that opens the portal, trapping the spirits in the mortal realm, unable to give their blessings to the village on their way out.
While the village is trying to find the missing knot, Pad recruits (through the use of some trickery) the spirit of King Lugh to help train his family. King Lugh puts the family through a rigorous exercise regimen and even shows them how to turn their weaknesses to their advantage. Everything is going according to plan … until the monsters show up. Then the villagers must learn to work together — even the Flanagans and the O’Dells — to save their town, and eventually the two families learn that there are more important things than winning contests.
This one was a lot of fun — there’s a fish-out-of-water aspect when all the spirits find themselves stuck in the modern world beyond just the one-night party, and the illustrations are vibrant and lively. True, the “we all learned a valuable lesson” ending isn’t entirely unexpected, but it’s still well-told.
Call Me Iggy written by Jorge Aguirre, illustrated by Rafael Rosado
Ignacio Garcia is a high schooler in Columbus, Ohio, and despite being Colombian he doesn’t really speak Spanish and he doesn’t have much of a connection to Colombia, either. His dad never went back after leaving for the US for school. But now he has a reason to learn Spanish — to impress his classmate Kristi Crawford.
And this is where the ghost comes into the story: while digging around in the basement, Iggy accidentally knocks over his grandfather’s urn, and suddenly his ghost appears! Iggy seems to be the only one who can see or hear his abuelito, who starts to give him advice in both Spanish and in love … except he’s awful at it. Instead, Iggy ends up getting tutored by another classmate, Marisol, in exchange for helping with her family’s janitorial jobs.
The book has a lot of humor in it, and Iggy does get a chance to know his abuelito better, since his dad never really talked about his experiences in Colombia. But there are also some serious themes woven throughout the book, too: the story takes place in the fall of 2016 around the time of the election, and Iggy’s family is divided about Trump and his campaign promises. Iggy’s popular big brother is all in for MAGA and his dad just thinks Trump is more interesting; Iggy and his mom are a bit more skeptical. When Trump is elected, though, Iggy also sees the way that it affects Marisol’s family, who are undocumented.
Ultimately it’s a touching story about connecting with your roots and figuring out who you are, with an amusing dead grandfather along for the ride. Fun fact: Aguirre and Rosado are also the team behind the Chronicles of Claudette series — I reviewed the first book, Giants Beware!, over a decade ago. That series was for all ages and a bit more cartoony, while Call Me Iggy is more for high school age kids, and (other than the ghost) is a bit more grounded in reality.
Talking to My Father’s Ghost by Alex Krokus
Alex Krokus makes comics about his life, depicting himself and his friends and family as various animals or blobby humanoids. (He and his mom are raccoons but his dad is an owl and his brother is a … bear?) His book Loud & Smart & in Color is a collection of four-panel strips, some that seem autobiographical and some that are more commentary on the absurdities of the world.
Talking to My Father’s Ghost is still made up of strips — usually in a 6-panel format, though occasionally a strip will span several pages instead of just one — but the big difference is that all of these center around his deceased father, who appears as a ghost. (Picture an owl wearing a polo shirt, with the little ghostly tail trailing from the bottom.) The strips are little vignettes: the family in the hospital as his dad is dying, the funeral (when the ghost appears to Alex), and then just life as it goes on and how you deal with it. But throughout it all, Alex’s dad is often hovering nearby, giving commentary that nobody else can hear.
His dad had some land out in Arizona out in the desert that he’d inherited, so Alex and his brother decide to take a trip out to see it before their mom sells it off. The trip is riddled with difficulties, but the two (three?) of them still have a good time with it.
The subtitle of the book is “an almost true story.” I think probably a lot of the things that happen in the story actually happened; whether Alex actually saw his dad’s ghost or if he used these strips as a way of processing his dad’s death is probably not so important, but I really loved the way that he portrayed his dad. It feels like he knew his dad well enough to give him words to say, and he’s mostly just a regular guy who loved his family and had his share of faults. Instead of being morbid, it just felt really natural for Alex to be talking to his dad, and I really enjoyed the book.
The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue by Jerzy Drozd
Dr. Baer (who is, in fact, a bear wearing a suit and tie) is a collector of cursed objects. While he doesn’t go on adventures himself — or even leave his house — he takes in magical items from adventurers, where he is able to release the spirits inside them and give them sanctuary in his manor. But Gallus Lugubrious, a sorcerer chicken, has always been after a powerful artifact in Dr. Baer’s collection, and when he manages to break in, the spirits are all set loose into the world. Dr. Baer finally sets out to retrieve the artifact, with the help of inexperienced adventurers Pickles the pig and Taft the tortoise, as well as a group of four magical wisps that were freed from the statue when it was stolen.
As this small group travels across strange lands, tracking down the pieces of the statue, they encounter various objects and the spirits that haunt them. Dr. Baer thought he knew all their stories from his research, but he soon discovers that his book learning may not have been accurate. Learning the true stories of the spirits is crucial to reclaiming the statue and defeating Lugubrious.
This graphic novel is a big one: it’s a large format book, and over 230 pages long. The illustrations are fantastic and colorful. Dr. Baer looks like a teddy bear — he has no fingers or toes that you can see, and his facial expression never seems to change. Pickles, on the other hand, is extremely expressive and very enthusiastic. It’s a really charming book, recommended for middle grade readers and up. There’s a new story, The Case of the Mummy Express, currently being posted on Drozd’s website, so I hope that eventually gets a full book treatment in the future!
