The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Drop Dead Monstrous

by Chloe Citrine, Faye Yong, Marubelle S, Selina Dean, Morag Lewis, Laura Watton and Sonia Leong.

Sweatdrop Studios

Drop Dead Monstrous is an anthology put out by Sweatdrop Studios and suffers from all the same problems as every other anthology does. It’s patchy, all the strips are punchy, truncated things and it has the feel of the artists just throwing their odd little rejected stories onto the anthology pile. Okay, maybe a little harsh, but you know what I mean.

Drop Dead Monstrous is a collection of 7 stories all hung on the central concept of Monsters. From interesting takes on Death’s Apprentice to Sci-Fi Zombies, Vampires and on to plain simple everyday monsters around us everyday. Everything in the book is alright, but some strips; Last Embrace, Flesh & Blood, Cold Blood are just too light, too rough or just too quick to capture my interest.

Sonia Leong’s angular and interesting artwork on Model Behaviour accompanies possibly the best story of the piece, choosing to deal with the everyday monster created through all too human egotism and selfishness. It’s the most stylised art, but in a world of fashion models it works perfectly and the story of a doctor’s conversation with a fashion model is great for the anthology. Leong manages to take her limited page count and tell a story full of characterisation, emotion and surprise. It’s a good lesson in how to do it right.

(Sonia Leong’s Model Behaviour from Drop Dead Monstrous.)

Likewise Chloe Citrine’s Death’s Apprentice works well, telling a quaint tale of Death and her apprentice exploring their purpose in the scheme of things. Again, a nice touch of characterisation and sedate storytelling.

At the other end of the spectrum Selina Dean’s Kappa Maki looks more like a Mario Brothers game but just about gets away with it by telling it’s silly tale of Cucumber monsters menacing Kappa creatures. For a story that obviously came from a gag about how one type of sushi got it’s name it’s surprisingly good. And on a similarly light theme, Laura Watton’s Body Parts is a funny and quirky little tale of a Zombie stripper. Completely throwaway, but entertainingly so and the art reminded me of Wendy Pini (Elfquest), which always helps.

(Laura Watton’s Body Parts. Zombie strippers for that particularly small niche market.)

Drop Dead Monstrous isn’t on the Sweatdrop Studios website for some reason but information on all of the artists is. Should you fancy a Monstrous anthology, just get in touch via the website or see them at comic shows for details.

Richard Bruton often feels like he himself is an anthology collection, but one missing an index…