Cold Cut Distribution's Feature Spotlight #33 - April 1998

Weirdsville

`Publisher:`	`Blindwolf Comics`
`Writers:`	`Three Mazzottas & A Franco`
`Artists:`	`Franco Aureliani & Waki Wycough`
`Cover Price:`	`$2.95`
`Frequency:`	`Bi-monthly`
`Issues Available:`	`5`

Storyline:

Moving to a new town is always frustrating when you're a kid. It's even worse when the town you move to is... well, weird.

Tommy and his mom have barely moved into Weirdling before he meets his first friend: a talking snake named Monty. At first put off by the fact that Monty's a snake, Tommy begins to take it in stride and finds that Monty's one of the least weird things about Weirdling. Soon the FBI has set up a field office to investigate reported UFO sightings, cows are mysteriously vanishing (and flying straight up into the air), and a couple of local yokels seem to be having lots of trouble just getting their mail.

Writing Review:

Wacky plotting that careens from weirdness to jokes and back again, Weirdsville is light reading for fun and humor. Occasionally unfocused, but that's not really a bad thing in what is basically a fun-for-all-ages X-Files comedy. Pop-culture references as obscure as character names from the "Dukes of Hazzard" get tossed into a mix of slapstick, mystery, humor, and weirdness that plays with your sense of story and results in satisfying light entertainment that will have you reading it again to get all the in-jokes.

All art ©1998 by Franco Aureliani

Art Review:

Basic black-and-white with not much attention paid to details like backgrounds, Weirdsville's art looks simple and iconic, yet still expressive. Characters' eyes are rendered as solid black discs, and Tommy's hair is shown as nothing but Calvin-and-Hobbes-style black spikes - yet the FBI agent is decked out in a serviceable black suit and Monty the snake shows a range of emotion unusual in a reptile. Must be the eyebrows...

As the series progresses and matures, more work on the overall ambience and panel layout would be helpful, but the simplistic "basic" look (especially on the primary-colored covers) should attract an audience for straightforward art.

Audience:

Have you seen "Eerie, Indiana" on Fox Saturday Mornings? Weirdsville is essentially "Eerie, Indiana" done in comic book form - it has the same sort of structure, similar sorts of plots, and will appeal to the same sort of audience. Look for 10-15 year old kids who enjoy Goosebumps and Eerie, and they'll snap up Weirdsville.

Adults looking for light sci-fi entertainment will also enjoy the wackiness in the book, as well as the many pop-culture references: lyrics to rock tunes, characters from TV shows, and more. Not to mention guest shots from Zomboy and Shi!

Try Weirdsville out with readers of Forty Winks, Gross Point, Boondoggle, Quicken Forbidden, Lost Stories, and Pakkins' Land, as well as readers of the Goosebumps books and the various spinoffs and lookalikes of that popular series. Fans of the "Eerie, Indiana" and "Goosebumps" TV shows as well as such recent films as "Casper" and "The Borrowers" will take a liking to Weirdsville too - so set some out and watch 'em Get Weird!

If you like Weirdsville, take a look at:

Cold Cut Distribution
220 N Main St. - Salinas, CA 93901 - (831) 751-7300

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