BOOM! Box 2021
Created & Written by Bowen McCurdy & Kaitlyn Musto
Illustrated by Bowen McCurdy
Lettered by Jim Campbell
* The Specter Inspectors dive deeper into the history of the most haunted town in America by agreeing to be locked-in overnight in the museum.
* Let's be honest, it wasn't their best idea.
* Now it's just the gang and the ghosts... in an old house that doesn't give up its secrets easily.
* But who are the mysterious watchers who've been tailing the gang... and what's their connection to Astrid?
This is one of my new obsessions and that’s mainly because I love watching the paranormal reality shows on the Trvl Channel. That this is more a group of teenagers fills a niche that we don’t see anywhere else and as diverse as the characters are and how the couples seem to fit with each other so well, okay so I’m hoping it’s girls and boys respectively, it just has this very contemporary feel to it. It is being written extremely well and there’s smart dialogue and the fact that they really aren’t all that much believers before coming to this place and just want to have a show all their own, see instant celebrity, just adds to fun that we see here.
I am loving every moment of how this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. That we see the team get separated into pairs that may or may not be what you are expecting is just another added layer to the storytelling that has this huge appeal. The character development here is fabulous and as we see the dialogue alongside how they act and react to one another as well as the situations and circumstances they encounter really do flesh them out and give them depth to their personalities. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re being given clues amidst all the personal drama that if they pay attention the kids will be able to get to the bottom of this.
How we see this being structured as well as how the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and evolve with the story is exceptionally well rendered. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward shows some great writing chops as well.
The interiors here are delightful. Yes they are all-ages in nature though I would say this is more like Teen + in nature due to the story itself. Still the linework that we see is great and how the varying weights are utilised to create the detail work is nice to see. Now I want, nay demand, to see more backgrounds being utilised. When we see them they really do wonders in fleshing out the moments and bringing us great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope tot he story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is also well rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is great to see.
That this is a teen book about ghost hunting and it doesn’t resemble the Scooby gang is in and of itself a feat and a half. I like that it does fit somewhere in between Scooby Doo and Ghost Adventures is exceptionally well done. Kudos to these folks for being able to take something familiar and create something totally unique out of it that can appeal to such a wide range audience, see all-ages. BOOM! Really does have their finger on the pulse of what’s hot today and they continue to showcase some stellar talent in the process.