The Monsters of Jimmy Crumb

Everything changed when eight-year-old Jimmy Crumb's childhood was stolen from him. Now Jimmy can't throw a baseball, but he understands the rules of the urban legend monsters exquisitely and can make them murder for him. He has a hard time with math, but he can draw you a map of the regions of hell.

Jimmy uses these skills to brutally exact revenge while pretending there's still a normal child inside him. Only his friends, teachers, and the police are starting to catch on. Starting to realize Jimmy might be a monster himself.

It will be up to Jimmy whether he can cling to what's left of his humanity or if he becomes one of the very urban legends he's been using.

So, can’t say I was a big fan of this one.  Right from the get-go the dialogue becomes a chore to even get through.  I realize it was all a ploy by Jimmy to come off as being a normal kid, but even when the dialogue is forced on purpose, the reader still needs to make their way through it and it’s just not fun.  The story itself is pretty much just an occult version of The Punisher, just swap Frank Castle out for Jimmy Crumb and guns for demons and there you have it.  The worst part of it all was the fact that characters could just say first names, they had to say the entire name which got excessively tedious when it came to Hayley Donomachavitch.  Practically every time another character spoke to her, they had to say her full name.  If you wanted to do that to drive a point home when speaking to the character, that’s one thing, but to reiterate the name, if nothing else, to showcase how ridiculous the name is, it becomes a turn-off.  When the reader gets turned-off, it’s less likely that they’ll keep with the story.  There needs to be a better balance when using one or both names.  The artwork was decent, but nothing really all that eye-catching.  For a horror-type story, the art just seemed rather flat and bland.  If you’re going to have demons/monsters going on a murder spree, you really want the images to stand out and really capture the bloodshed.  I suppose if you’re into the horror genre, then you might get a kick out of this one, but then again many people may have a hard time just getting through the first few pages (at least I did).

They must have done something right as this book got funded through Kickstarter. Overall, I felt like the story wasn’t original enough to really hold my interest and that the subject matter was a little too dark for my liking. If you’re looking for something to disturb you in a way that only horror can, then this is definitely the book for you. For more info on where to find this book, visit The Monsters of Jimmy Crumb 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.