Comic Review: EERIE SERIES Pat the Werewolf

At a convention from last year we had the pleasure of meeting punny mathematician Jason Deeble and was introduced to his webcomics series Monster Haiku. After chatting he was kind enough to give us a copy of his book or the EERIE SERIES. I know its been some time since I recieved it but this Halloween I finally got a chance to read the volume he gave me featuring comic strips of his character Pat the Werewolf.



His series is a very family friendly strip that easy to follow and straight to the point, often using play on words to emphasize the punchline. You can tell this just from the titles of his collections in the series "Pat the Werewolf", "Carpe Demon", "Rob the Zombie." He also pokes fun at typical monster tropes including werewolves having dog like qualities, zombies being stinky etc.

The series is amusing and you don't need to read the previous 1000 strips to know where you are as they are all self-contained. The cast itself is so familiar from the volumes of horror characters universal made familiar back in the 20-60s and have been a vital part of the film industry ever since, that these creatures are already familiar in our minds without any long introduction. The art and the humor actually feel like a spiritual heir to Bill Amend's "Foxtrot", a comic series that was daily from 1988-2006, its humorous that even the creators share a similar education and interest in mathematics and physics.

These lovable monsters Deeble presents us with might be a little to simple if you are looking for heady highbrow finishers but for kids and families its a no miss. A collection would make a great gift for anyone who was a die hard monster, or Foxtrot fan. In addition his store has many fun collectibles and merchandise including a rob the zombie hat!

SirGryphon is an artist for GKCOMICS where he toils and helps produce another comic series called MEANWHILE...

Parody & Radiation

Our one book, Meanwhile started because we all have a good sense for satire and parody. One day we were just sitting around having a few beers and discussing the real results from being bitten by something radioactive, or being exposed to serious radiation, or even getting struck by lightning around a series of chemicals. The results were amusing to hilarious, and I decided to draw up a few of the jokes we had made. Eventually these added up and we decided to share them as the book you now know as MEANWHILE...

The ideas continued, parodying other cliches and unwritten rules comics seem to be plagued with, but it eventually evolved into thinking about what certain characters would be like in different situations, including turning one of the seagulls from finding Nemo into an orange lantern. It was a perfect fit if I don't say so myself.

The name "Meanwhile..." was chosen, as these short strips would be interspersed between our more serious books, implying that these humorous tidbits were always going on in the background of our minds, even when we weren't directly considering them.

It was amazing how parody which started out as fun banter actually stretched our creative muscle and was very directly entertaining. People already knew the content from the mass media, so changing the context allowed them to understand the humor without having to stick with a story for ages. Some might consider it cheating because we are using someone elses premise to provide humor but humor can open people up to alternate ideas or complex ideas that are buried in the subject.

For example, poking fun at how a hero would more likely die from radiation, then successfully mutate also opens up the question of what would the probability be that someone could successfully mutate from radiation into an alternate species?

What would their abilities be?
Would they be able to procreate?

Perhaps our visions of superheroes isn't so unlikely after all, just very improbable, and that's what makes the situations humorous, or capture our imaginations, because we know that there is that slim potential.

I guess there is truth in humor, even when it is not purposeful.