Melvin Monster Volumes One and Two: The John Stanley Library by John Stanley

(Drawn and Quarterly) (GUEST REVIEW by ROBERT DAYTON) Imagine the man behind most of those Little Lulu adventures doing his take on the monster revival! Neat-o! Fits in well with Mad Monster Party, Spike Jones In Stereo, the Addams Family, and the Munsters! Melvin Monster is a green-skinned, pointy-headed kid with a monster dad named Baddy and a Mom named Mummy who’s a-you guessed it! Melvin seems a little too nice for monster-hood much to his parents’ dismay! Collects just three issues a volume of Stanley’s mid-60s Dell Comics series. The hard cover design, though lovingly done and pleasant, is too austere and stiff for the loose-and-easy ‘read while eating ice cream’ style of John Stanley. I would have loved to have had the original covers reprinted and even used for the covers of these collection instead, especially considering how kids-friendly these comics still are after all these years. Light-hearted, slightly morbid ghoulish fun by a master of exceptional pacing who, like Carl Barks and Bob Bollings,  is highly revered in humour cartoon afficiondo  circles. I personally prefer Volume One over Volume Two. Volume Two features mostly shorter, more gag-oriented variations on characters and situations introduced in Volume One. That said I can’t wait for the third and final volume!