Grimm Tales of Terror 5

A secret waits in the attic of an old home, and a twelve-year-old is both intrigued and terrified of what he might find if he goes upstairs.

This issue on the plight of an attention starved child, living with his waspish parents.  The cliché elongated dinner table is present and located in a large open dining room, all classic elements of the cold, uncaring family.  However, the boy isn’t a spoiled brat or anything, quite the opposite actually.  All he wants is someone to pay attention to him, so he turns to a toy cowboy for solace.  But because this is called Grimm Tales of Terror and not “Happy Ending Stories” things take a turn for the worse. 

Not a lot can really be commented on in this issue, lest I give away the ending and then what would be the point?  What I can say is that the story wasn’t too bad, but I felt that this has been the weakest in the series so far.  Because they were trying to fit a story within a story, which worked for some past issues, it felt rushed and it was over before you could really get a grasp for what the characters were trying to convey.  The climax itself skipped over some important details, so it just wasn’t as impactful as Meredith Finch had intended.  I mean, I read it feeling more confused and annoyed than shocked (in fact, I’m still not sure I even got what it meant).  If you have to extend the story by a page or two in order to fill in those extra tidbits then by all means, sacrifice a few of those ads, the reader will be much better off for it.  Aside from all of that, the story was a decent read.  If you’ve liked the series so far, at the very least snag this one to fill in the gap between 4 and 6.

With this latest iteration into the Grimm Tales of Terror series, it tried to do too much at once and in turn fell short of a good story.  Joel Ojeda did a great job with the linework, so the book has that going for it.  If you’re a newcomer to the series, I would recommend grabbing one of the previous issues before grabbing this one.  They will definitely provide a much better view of the series than this issue will.  Here’s hoping the next issue will help the series step up its game.  For more info on where to find this issue, visit the Zenescope website, or the Zenescope Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.