The Thrilling Adventure Hour #1 (of 4) Review
Written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
Illustrated by M.J. Erickson
Colours by Brittany Peer
Reviewed by Lorna Maltman (maltmanlorna@gmail.com)
Have you been in a situation where someone is constantly trying to be funny, sometimes they are, but the constant barrage makes you feel a bit tired of the whole endeavour. Sadly, that is how I felt after reading this comic.
Frank and Sadie Doyle are of high society and they see ghosts, one evening whilst entertaining another couple they are implored to help a man with his haunted house. This is a fine set up and could be entertaining, but the Doyles are non-stop exposition and forced humour attempts, such as when a character refuses to drink a drink Mr Doyle remarks ‘but you must. It’s why they invented them’. This humour may work better for other, but it was overall lacklustre and did nothing to endear them to me or make me want to read more of them, as I ended up rolling my eyes at most of their remarks. The characters at this moment do not show much depth and I can see why this would work in theatre, but what be tongue and cheek there comes off as shallow in this comic. There is a side story of a trench-coated detective following the man with the haunted house and again this could have been intriguing, but the dialogue just fell a little flat.
Erickson’s art is charming and whimsical with some good lines and expressions. However, the background is often one block of colour and there are plenty of parts where the art is just average or plain with minimalist detail, it is not bad but nothing mind-blowing.
Verdict: Pass.
This was, in my opinion, a below average and maybe average at best comic, there was nothing that made you actually want to read anymore, so it is an easy pass on this comic.
