Action Lab Entertainment 2015
Story by Gayle Middleton
Written by DAve Dwonch
Illustrated by Amanda Coronado
Coloured by Bill Blankenship
Okay normally I’m not to go for cute like this to me it’s very much all ages aimed at girls perfect for a toy line cute and that’s not my style. However it’s books like that this that really do wonders in changing your mind because yes it’s cute but it’s engaging, imaginative and creative plus there’s this whole aspect to it that is charming.
We open up with a vampyre couple and the man tells the woman he loves her when bamf suddenly there’s a baby Vampyre. Apparently the Vampyre’s aren’t the only falling in love and creating babies because the werewolves and the zombies are doing it as well. On a side note it takes 777 years to raise a vamplet. So now there’s a problem with an ever growing population of babies being born and no one from the Gloom wanting to take care of them they will need to look elsewhere for some help.
Meet Destiny a young girl trying to find her way and she’s meeting with her Guidance Counselor. She likes to babysit her sister’s kid and claims she is good with kids but it’s off the mall to work in the food court selling corn dogs. So her narrative is kind of just like any kid who doesn’t fit in, doesn’t know where she belongs or where she’s going in life but her favorite store is the Knight and Pawn not quite a thrift store but akin to it. I’d say it’s filled with curiosities as well as some normal stuff.
It’s in the Knight and Pawn that Destiny finds an amulet and this is going to change her life forever. Alright so the interior artwork here is very manga inspired and I have no problem with that kind like Cardcaptor Sakura and the Mothman creature that was sent into our world to recruit help well he’s cute. Cyril is his name and then shrinks and flies off while Destiny thinks she’s eaten too many corn dogs but she does find the flyer he was carrying. It’s a job offering for the Nighcare Nursery.
Welcome to the Gloom Destiny where she meets a wide variety of characters when she arrives in Gloomvania. The final two page spread with Rasket the stinkless stinkbug is like this victorian setting that’s just super cute.
This is a nicely written wonderfully illustrated story. It’s a great escape from the norm and it isn’t too kiddie that adults wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. I can see the target audience clearly but I can also see this crossing over with the general comics readership should they be exposed to it. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover because Destiny’s story is just beginning and it’s worth joining her on it.