R.L. Stine, Nichole Matthews and Kelly Matthews adapted Just Beyond #1 The Scare School into a graphic novel format. Or I am assuming it was a novel first, then a graphic novel. However, regardless of which came first (or didn’t come out) this is an old school RL Stine story. The theme is classic: We start with a couple of kids in “unusual clothing” (cue the “not from our world”) and how they are being chased by a robotic monster. We then see who lives in this world and how they will affect things in ways they couldn’t have imagined. This unfolds on the pages in a slow to medium pace, with some faster elements tossed in.
With a little modern twist and turn here and there, but traditional mystery and science fiction come to life in typical comic/graphic novel bold images. There is a fun twist ending, that you may or may not see coming (I admit, I didn’t see it coming). It is for the typical kid who likes a few spooks but not over the top. Modern me, or adult me, was not “OMG best book ever!” But I know as a kid (aged oh, eight to 10) would have enjoyed this in a novel format. I probably wouldn’t have liked the graphic novel form, but I do enjoy the images now as they help flesh out the monster, gives you a few clues to what might be happening with a couple of the characters and actually lets you see things are not as “serious” as they could be if you must imagine on your own.
Overall, things were enjoyable, but I don’t think I will go on to others (though I realized I have read Just Beyond: Monstrosity). And with the edition I had (though, I am not sure if there were other editions, but to be on the safe side, I’ll mention that this might not happen with an edition you find) there was a sneak peek into another story in the series and a sneak peek at another graphic novel that might be of interest to the reader.