Writers/Artists: Gabriel Hernandez, Greg Ruth and Scott Morse
Company: Scholastic Graphix

I never read any of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books for pre-teens, but I was managing a Toys ‘R’ Us back when every kid did. I figured the books for formulaic, disposable fare, even if it was nice to see kids reading anything, so I approached Scholastic’s new series of Goosebumps comic adaptations with a touch of skepticism. Sure, I expected them to look good, with cartoonists like Greg Ruth (Freaks of the Heartland) and Scott Morse (Spaghetti Western) onboard, but I hardly expected the horror fan in me to find anything worthwhile.

But there I was grinnin’ when I set the first volume down. It adapts three of Stine’s books, each one given about 40 pages to be translated by a single, talented cartoonist. Art’s black and white, which may be a turn off to some kids, but which brought a certain gravity that I liked.

The first of the three adaptations comes courtesy of the one cartoonist I wasn’t familiar with – Gabriel Hernandez – and it actually proved to be my favorite. “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp” follows a family that’s just moved to a new house in Florida. Mom and Dad are running some experiments on a group of South American deer to see if they can acclimate to Florida’s swamplands, but when son Grady takes in a wolf-like stray dog as a pet, the old hermit of the swamp chases maniacally after Grady and friends, and one of the deer ends up mauled(!)…I realized Stine’s kiddie stories had some teeth to ‘em.

Hernandez’s rough-hewn, grey-toned art is perfect for setting the swampy mood of a story like this, and if his werewolf imagery reminds me overmuch of Mike Mignola’s work in “The Wolves of Saint August”, I’m inclined to be forgiving. Readers who enjoyed Tony Moore’s early work on The Walking Dead will ease right into his style, which is miles away from the clean-line, Scooby Doo style I was fearing. What’s more, his pacing creates a genuinely eerie atmosphere that knows when to hold a moment, when to tighten up the panels, and when to go for the release of a good, horrific splash page. The ending’s a winner, too, resolving the mystery in a manner both grim and exhilarating. I’m honestly a little shocked that it would happen in a story for kids, so kudos to original author Stine.

Next up’s “The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight”, adapted by Greg Ruth. Ruth’s painterly art is the most realistic of the book, and it grounds the story well. Like “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp”, a mystery’s at work here as two kids visit their grandparents’ farm for the summer. What’s the story with the mentally unbalanced farmhand who talks almost religiously about his “superstition book”? Why are Grandma and Grandpa so sullen? And is the farmhand’s son the one who’s moving around the scarecrows, or is there something more sinister at work?

Ruth brings to the story a backwoods gloom reminiscent of Shyamalan’s Signs, and offers up some great, spooky moments. One that stuck with me occurs when a girl is trapped in a barn with scratching sounds coming from the walls all around her. Ruth suddenly cuts to a single panel showing an exterior shot of the barn, isolated in a wheat field and aaaaalmost innocuous…but for the fact that we’re wondering, “What the devil’s going on INSIDE?”, and Ruth’s fields of wheat have their own unsettling, visual writhing.

Quite the moment, and like the preceding story, “Scarecrow” gets a great capper.

Alas, the weakest piece comes from the excellent cartoonist, Scott Morse. In the wake of the first two stories, his lightweight cartooning (think Ren & Stimpy or Jeff Smith’s Bone ) just doesn’t have much of a creep-factor to it. The story – “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena” – isn’t notably inspired either: two California kids travelling with photographer-dad to Alaska on a wild goose chase for the Abominable Snowman. After the previous two dark stories, the monster stuff in this one was surprisingly weightless. Maybe that’s the fault of the original prose story, but I also kept thinking about how artists Ruth or Hernandez would’ve invested the icy wastes of Alaska with more menace.

Still, I close the cover of Goosebumps: Creepy Creatures with my initial cynicism dashed away. I can’t compare these adaptations to the books that spawned ‘em, but I can say that what I read was good comics. Kids will like the fact that the stories aren’t watered down and that they have kid protagonists who snipe and argue with each other like real kids do. Adults will be surprised to find the horror – while not of the gory variety – is actually superior to most horror fare in comics.

At a mere $8.99 for 136 pages of story, it’s a fine bargain. Bring on volume two.