Review: Monster Parade

Monster Parade #1
Written and Drawn by Ben Catmull
Published by Fantagraphics Books. $3.95 USD

There's a short but funny Comics Reporter interview with Catmull that tells you just what the book is about, but basically it's just Catmull doing creepy stories in a number of styles, with washes or two color process, and the stories are framed by a series of interludes of bizarre things happening in the rain. That interlude had a bit of a Renee French feel to it in the design of the creature, and Catmull has a lot of ominous power in that brush and knows when not to provide any narrative distraction. "Monster Express" is the first proper story in this issue, in a simpler style not unlike some Paul Horneschemeier, and involves a grumpy older man sharing a train compartment with a walleyed nitwit who the man finds so exasperating he decides to take his chances outside the compartment, in spite of the warnings of a monster eating other passengers. It ends as it has to end, but the charm is in the humorous premise and building comedic tension. "Civilization Studies Illustrated" is where Catmull will repeatedly get hit with the idea that he's heavily influenced by Edward Gorey, but at least in the other stories there are many other influences. "Civilization" takes place in a quaint seaport town in an unnamed (well, it's a bunch of nonsense symbols) country, and we see how everthing revolves around the seafood caught off its shores, all of which is quite strange and unappetizing. This leads into other odd phenomena occurring in the town, from stampedes of bears to giant man-eating apes to other grotesque flora and fauna that are commonplace here. While the previous story proves Catmull can write a compelling story, this one shows his skills as an illustrator with a dark, fecund imagination. Many years from now, this and its following issues will be collected in one big book, but it's better not to wait. Get this cool, moody, unpretentious monsterartcomic now.