The Graveyard Club #1

BOOM! Studios; $9.99

Graves End is a weird town, geographically speaking, because the otherwise typical small town is surrounded by cemeteries. In fact, graveyards are so prevalent that the high school mascot is called the Graverobbers. In this boring little town, Parker, Patti, Caleb, Trip, and Rhonda have formed the Graveyard Club. When they were kids, it was the spot for games of hide and seek, and as teenagers, it’s where they go to make out and drink beer.

But, things change when a harmless joke sets off an increasingly more dangerous prank war between the Graveyard Club and the bullying duo of Officer Higgins and his son Billy-Roy. On top of that, the local bat population is behaving strangely, shrouded figures are appearing in the cemetery, and the violent energy around them is having an effect on members of the club.

The Graveyard Club is the latest young adult horror offering from genre master R.L. Stine. It has the hallmarks of a Fear Street book – coming of age meets horror – as the club and their nemeses escalate their retaliation against each other. The other strangeness points to a sinister, underlying threat that could have its own plans for the Graveyard Club.

For the art, Carola Borelli, and colorist Francesco Segala with assists by Gloria Martinelli, produced a dark and spooky cemetery and continued the motif into other areas of the town, whether it’s a living room or the locker room. The extra-large issue also contains an early art stages preview of the next issue, character sketches, and the first issue of Stine’s Stuff of Nightmares comic.

–Amanda Sheriff