It’s been a while hasn’t it? Been busy working at a naturist community for the summer. I’m about a month from travelling again (if you like to read about it, check out my Substack.) That doesn’t mean I haven’t had a chance to read some great comics. I want to begin with the amazing Jessica Maison. Jessica has developed a really cool concept called Mary Shelley’s School ForMonsters. I enjoyed the first read and was eager and excited to dive into the sequel. Was it as good as the first?
Let’s find out.
The Book
Mary Shelley’s School For Monsters: The Killing Stone
Written by Jessica Maison
Art and Covers by Anna Wieszczyk
Letters and Design Matt Kratzer
Publisher Wicked Tree Press
The Killing Stone is the sequel to Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters, in which Mary Shelley is split into two souls. One of them is the writer we know and love, the other is a girl named Shel, who opened the Necronomicon and is now at a school of monsters, and she has to confront Dr. M.
The book opens with Mary Shelley and her friends, Mae, a nine-tailed fox, and Frank, as in Frankenstein, finally going after Dr. M. With the help of Mae, Shel succeeds, but at the cost of her friend Mae being imprisoned inside the stone with Dr. M for years and years and years. The story picks up years later, in which Shel and Frankenstein are teaching students in the school how to defend themselves. Shel is filled with a lot of rage, and it comes at the worst time as this is the time where Dr M. And Mae are freed, and Mae has a lot of pent up rage and hostility as Dr. M has whispered into her ear that her friends had abandoned her. After decades, she believes him.
This is a story that deals an awful lot with vendettas. Shel is wracked with guilt over what happened to Mae, as well as her feelings towards her other half. There’s anger over what happened there, and it ties together with the whole book.
This is a middle book in a trilogy, and as such there is a fine balance between keeping things for the next volume and moving the story along. Maison overall does a fine job of it, but I would have liked more interaction between Mae and Shel. There’s some legitimate anger and regret in both of them, and I feel like I would love to see more of that. That said, the characters in the story are brought to life. Shel is going through a great internal struggle, and I adore Frank, Jac,k and the rest of the cast of the story. Maison’s world is incredibly fun, engaging, and a little bit horrific. The best kind of fairy tales, and Maison is crafting a fun piece.
Anna Wieszczyk is an incredible illustrator. Her choice of colours is inspired. Mae’s rage being a sickly green, the eerie greys at the trap that was set for Shel, the flames surrounding Jack. There is a considerable effort to make each part of the world stand out and sound off, and I love that attention to detail. A lot of the tone of the story comes to these illustrations and hats off to Anna for making the story sing with her pictures.
All in all this is a fun second book of the series. I can’t wait for the finale. Take a read, you’ll appreciate it.
The Business
My time at Bare Oaks is coming to an end. I’l be going back on the road starting with working on a movie. Naked Alien Massacre is sshaping upto be an incredible adventure to be a part of. After that, I’ll be backpacking through South America. You can follow the journey’s I am on with my substack. Joshua Pantalleresco dot substack dot com. Take a look if you’d like to contribute.
We go from a great Kickstarter book to a great book in bookstores. One of my favourite authors did a comic, and I look forward to sharing it with you next time. Stay inspired out there.
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