I am halfway through (there’s around 300 pages) John Stanley’s (Little Lulu comics ) graphic novel/comic Melvin Monster. My first thought was, “Those are some old fashioned illustrations! Like something you’d see in MAD Magazine or an “adult magazine” that I wasn’t allowed to look at as a kid, but found my uncle’s copies of anyway. You know, magazines like MAD, or adult comics, but not, “Adult” magazines. (The publisher description says: it draws its direct inspiration from the 1960s monster craze and the work of cartoonist Charles Addams and its television adaptation The Addams Family as well as The Munsters, however, Melvin Monster is all its own with Stanley’s superior cartooning skills, melding pop colors, expressive lines, and funny jokes on full display.)
Then I read a bit more and learned that yes, this is a collection of the 1960s original cartoons/comics. Marketed towards adult, this is not really for teens, but in this day and age, what happens is pretty mild compared to the edginess it would have been in the original era. If you like that “Daddy (or Baddy in this case) does NOT know best” and “Mummy” is a bit too wrapped up in being a good wife/mummy and a smidgen clueless, then this is it. You just need to wait until mid-October 2023 for the collection. But I will say if you do not like “old school parenting” (Baddy tries to spank Melvin; pulls a “if you do that again, I’ll give you four stars to look at” threats), then don’t.
Yet, if you like a monster like Melvin who is a bad monster, I mean he is a good monster, I mean… he is a GOOD monster which means he is a disappointment to his parents. He wants to go to school, he does not want to throw rocks at his neighbors windows, and can be a bit too eager to please, then go for it, please. The dress, mannerisms, language is all 1950-1960s as that is where it came from. Things look a little mature Casper the Friendly Ghost, and has a witch that is a mix of a Bewitched and Broomhilda. The alligator/crocodile pet of Melvin’s family tries to take a cue from Peter Pan/Captain Hook (only it doesn’t want just the hand). There is a hairy ape arm/thing that is the Addams Family on drugs. The cover looks like it has been modernized, but the internal art is the original work. (I read this via an online reader copy so, I am not sure what the final result will be).
Things are not cute or cuddly, even though Melvin is a pointy headed kid, with chubby cheeks (and not just on his face) and a can-do attitude (who sometimes is not as dumb as he seems. But then again…)