ESSENTIAL // 3.20.03

SCARY GODMOTHER: GHOUL'S OUT FOR SUMMER
By Rachel Swift

SCARY GODMOTHER: GHOUL'S OUT FOR SUMMER
Jill Thompson
128 pages, color
US $14.95
Sirius Entertainment
STAR16258
ISBN 1579890520

Modern children's stories have a much gentler rap than they deserve. It's common knowledge that the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm are not very pretty, but we tend to assume that Disney movies and Saturday morning cartoons, if not insipid, are fairly innocuous.

From an adult's perspective they are innocuous. Adults immediately recognize the formulas and conventions behind these stories, so there are no surprises. We're all grown up, and we've seen enough of this type of programming to know that the Cinderella gets her prince and no one is going to kill the Power Rangers. We are not stirred by the posturing of tired stock characters, so we don't expend much emotional energy over Gargamel's attack on the Smurfs, or over Tom and Jerry ritualistically trying to slaughter each other for half an hour every afternoon. We know that there are certain rules children's programs have to follow.

It's easy to forget that children don't know that. Young children are seeing these cultural clichés for the first time, and the drama of the situation is very real to them. A child is riveted by cartoons because for her, the Smurfs are really in mortal danger, and Sleeping Beauty might not wake up. As we get older, we tend to forget the way we used to respond to fairy-tales.

That is, until Jill Thomson's SCARY GODMOTHER comics make us remember.

SCARY GODMOTHER: GHOUL'S OUT FOR SUMMER looks and feels like a children's story. The illustrations are fanciful and adorable, the characters are strange and imaginary creatures, and the plot is filled with formulas and clichés associated with fairy tales and kids cartoons. However, there is substance to this fairy tale. The drama is subtle and unexpected, the wit is fast and sharp, and characters are charming, complex and unusual-undeniably adult. It is easy to identify with Thompson's characters despite the omnipresent trappings of children's stories. Impossible not to be are concerned for them when the plot twists and leaves them in situations full of exaggerated, cartoony danger and stylized violence. Because the reader takes the characters seriously, it is impossible to ignore the drama, darkness, and perversity of these familiar scenarios. Thompson has crafted a fairy tale that doesn't let the sophisticated, grown-up reader off the hook emotionally. The reader encounters these stories with the innocence of a child and the emotional maturity of an adult.

For the most part, these unsettling undercurrents are overwhelmed by truly delightful packaging. Thompson flawlessly weaves grown-up themes into a tightly constructed fairy tale reality. Her vampires, monsters, humans and witches are complex, believable and endearing. The character design is superb, combining cartoon cuteness with human relatability. The supernatural creatures are fantastic and bizarre without alienating the reader. The human characters look like cartoon images of real people, simultaneously iconic and realistic. Thompson's art is vivid and dynamic. Although the subject matter is often fantastic, it is always drawn with great attention to detail. Her writing is witty and personable, her dialogue smart and sophisticated. The story is peppered with visual gags, clever puns, and downright silliness-in addition to everything else, GHOUL'S OUT FOR SUMMER is one hell of a slapstick comedy. The plot is dynamic and fast-paced, but never confusing. Thompson obviously had a terrific time creating this comic, and it is a joy to read.

GHOUL'S OUT FOR SUMMER takes place over summer vacation, and follows Scary Godmother and her friends on their respective summer holidays. For most of the book, the focus of the story switches between the characters' occasionally overlapping stories.

Their adventures constantly pair the realistic with the incredible, and Thompson gets plenty of comic mileage out of these incongruities. Hannah Marie, an adorable little girl (the only protagonist not of mystical origin), is bullied by the other kids at sleep-away-camp. Fortunately her sea monster friend Aluisious, who is vacationing in the camp lake, helps clear her reputation. Scary Godmother herself is attending a conference at her unconventional alma mater. On her way to the conference, a jealous classmate kidnaps her, drugs her with fairy cakes, and replaces her at the conference. Young vampire Orson is sent off to ultra-conservative vampire summer school after his traditional-minded father blames a lousy report card on his liberal mother. Unbeknownst to Orson's parents, the school is a front for a slave labor operation, and Orson is imprisoned, enslaved and abused under constant threat of death. Bug-A-Boo, a monster who enjoys his career scaring children from under their beds, goes sightseeing with his parents, who want him to be a more successful, high-profile monster. Only Mr. Pettibone, resident skeleton-in-the-closet, has a relaxing summer, bleaching under the desert sun.

There is a happy ending, of course. Thompson crafts a clever conclusion in which the truly evil villains are punished, the basically-good-but-misguided villains are rehabilitated, and everything turns out alright in the end. However, the ending is only superficially satisfying. The stories have hidden barbs that remain troubling.

Hannah is vindicated in the eyes of her peers because she has a sea monster willing to help her out. That's fine for Hannah, but the reader is left with a very realistic image of childhood cruelty and an utterly fanciful resolution. Scary Godmother's captivity is related as an exaggerated, slapstick cartoon-but the character herself is written like a real person. I found myself simultaneously enjoying outrageous comedy, and musing that outrageous comedy looks an awful lot like shocking violence. Orson's story is even more disturbing: one child is killed and another is maimed before he and Hannah rescue his fellow students. And, although Orson makes it clear to his friends that no one is to eat Hannah, Thompson makes it clear to the reader that Orson himself has no compunctions against killing little girls who are not his friends. Even Bug-A-Boo, the long-suffering underemployed monster, shows us a flash of steel when Thompson draws him waiting nonchalantly under the bed of a petrified child.

Scary Godmother is not quite a witch, and not quite a fairy godmother. She is a warm, witty, and fun-loving character, and she dotes on Hannah. She also hangs around with monsters that are not always nice, and frightens children for a living. Thompson's Scary Godmother comics are funny, pleasant, and adorable, but everywhere are hints of the frightening, the unsettling, and the ugly. Scary Godmother is a comic about childhood, but not the idealized childhood we remember. Here there be monsters. (No, seriously!)

SCARY GODMOTHER is one of the most original, intelligent comics I've ever seen. It is tightly written, beautifully drawn, and delightfully unconventional, combining fairy-tale adventure with quirky humor, fantastic art, and clever dialogue. And it's no darker than your typical Saturday morning cartoon.