REVIEW: "Lack of communication"

A little communication

to tell you to open this in

a new folder to enlarge it

and thus be able to

read it.

Here ! It's the third strip related to the Haunted Mansion Holidays (you will remember that the previous ones were "It's that time of the year again…" and "Holiday Spirit"), and once more Kelly delights in showing the Hitchhiking Ghosts as stand-ins for the Haunted Mansion fans's reactions to the HMH. 

Phineas, the plump, suitcase-bearing one, is included as the "Nightmare Before Christmas fanboy" who is delighted to have a chance to meet his heroes in the attraction. His youthful glee is pretty funny to look at.

Ezra is not really a "fan" reaction, though you could make a point that he might represent the fans who think that the overlay is pretty in itself even though they don't know much about The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is more in-character with an idea Kelly had about him even though she didn't really develop it in the comics themselves, which was that Ezra would be a vain womanizer.

Gus is just the blasé Haunted Mansion fan who doesn't care in the slightest and just waits 'til the overlay is over.

About the colorization, you will notice that even though it's not as marked as it was back then, Kelly stuck to the color schemes she introduced in "It's that time of the year again…": greenish for Gus, bluish for Ezra, purplish for Phineas. It's a nice and welcome touch.

Oh, and of course, the facial expressions are very good, as usual, especially on Phineas and Ezra. This strip is good, like most of Kelly's. Makes me sad that we're getting close to the end of the series…

REVIEW: "Origins"

Enjoying this “original” piece as it deserves requires

clicking on it to enlarge it.

This is a funny little scene of the Hitchhiking Ghosts meeting their concept-art counterparts, hence the title; there is no explanation given, though time travel is probably involved. At any rate, it is a fun occasion to compare the originals with the current models. The strip is mostly based on a specific Marc Davis concept-art for the trio:

The whole strip is something like "Brides of the Mansion", and contains similar mythology gags. The Casper-like Ezra of the first concept arts is deemed ridiculous by most fans of the "skeleton" Ezra, hence Ezra's snarky comment to his concept-art equivalent. Similarly, an unwelcome change in recent design was the loss of Phineas's coat, which most fans think was a bad idea (hence Phineas asking his old counterpart for a spare one). 

It can also be noted that Gus is the only one of the ghosts not to talk in this piece… A nod to "Prisoner's Escape", I wonder ? Perhaps it all comes from the fact that Gus doesn't have a mouth at all in the original Marc Davis concept-art.

Well, at any rate, an interesting nod to the characters' origin, with good art as always and some nice mythology gags. 

REVIEW: "It's that time of the year again…"

Ho Ho Ho ! Merry Christmas ! To get your present (an enlargement

of this picture to allow you to see all its details), all you've got to do

is click on it !

Like "Brides of the Mansion", this is more an illustration than it is a strip, but I suppose it can still be considered part of the series. It is an allusion to the Haunted Mansion Holidays, a seasonal overlay of the Haunted Mansion where various props and characters from the famous movie “Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas” are added (under the backstory that the citizens of Halloween Town, while spreading their Halloween/Christmas hybrid, discovered the Haunted Mansion, and were surprised to see that the ghosts liked their version of the holiday, settling to come back each year after that for Christmas). 

This overlay is disliked by many a Haunted Mansion fan for its disrespect of the regular attraction, or because the fans flat out dislike Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. (I am one of those). The idea is thus that the fans are not the only ones to be bothered by the Halloween characters's arrival: so would the ghosts be. As often, the concept is very good.

When it comes to the execution, it is equally admirable, from the expressions and poses of all three Hitchhiking Ghosts to the colorization (you know, the one I promised you last time). An obvious effort was put in it here; the faint glow around the character, the shading on their clothes, or the fact that she decided to give each Hitchhiking ghost a personal color  are evidence of that.

A very nice Christmas present indeed, with a fun concept and a flawless execution. 

REVIEW: "Prisoner's Escape"

Quick! Escape the lack of details by

clicking to enlarge this picture !

Like Brides of the Mansion, this strip requires some insight about the “real” Haunted Mansion to get where the meat of the gag lies (even though the expressions are good): the character of Gus the Prisoner appears two times (first in the "Executioner" tableau, and then in the "Hitchhiking Ghosts" tableau), ten second appart. This gag is trying to imagine why Gus leaves the first tableau so fast to join the second one. 

A very interesting characteristic of this strip is that it is entirely mute, which suits Kelly's expressive style very well (you can easily get Gus's reasoning without any dialogue). 

However, I do have a complaint about this gag, well-executed (*chuckle*) though it may be: it is unlikely that the Executioner was really planning to behead Gus, nor is it likely that the Beheaded Knight just got beheaded; the three of them are supposed to have been ghosts since a long time, and beheading seems to have been why the Beheaded Knight died in the first place. Of course you could interpret it as Gus being uselessly paranoiac, but it's not all that obvious.

Still, this strip is an enjoyable read. Also, rejoice: this was the last black-and-white strip, after that we switch to color permanently.