Mad Night - a Judy Drood Graphic Novel

Okay, without a doubt, this graphic novel has to be the absolute strangest thing I have ever read!  Not kidding!  I wasn't really sure what to expect when I bought it, but the fact that it was a mystery with a young female protagonist solving a crime, and it was done in a graphic novel format - well, let's face it, it was crying out for me to buy it.  So, I did.  I mean, after all, the questions in the synopsis would definitely hook any mystery fan:

WHO is behind the bizarre murders taking place on the otherwise tranquil campus of Lone Mountain College?

WHAT is the sinister secret guarded by members of the science faculty?

HOW is the creepy campus security guard involved?

WHERE did Aunt Azalea's gang of girl pirates come from?

WHY has the sadistic "Black Provost," dead for over a hundred years, been seen prowling the halls of the Anthropology Department?

WHEN will Judy Drood, girl detective and all-around loose cannon (along with her reluctant companion, Kasper Keene) uncover the horrible truth about the campus clock tower?

[from the back cover of the graphic novel, Mad Night, by Richard Sala]

Mad Night, a graphic novel by Richard Sala (writer AND artist), asks all the right questions to draw any mystery fan into the story.  And from the first few pages, when a shadowy figure murders a young girl in the college library and sneaks away without anyone seeing, you know this is going to be creepy.  But there is no way in the world you could ever guess exactly how creepy!  First, there's the mysterious "Knut" who turns over a camera to the hooded girl Portia.  At the same time, nerdy Kasper is given a camera by his friend Viola, who "borrowed" it from their mutual friend (one who Kasper is desperately trying to stay away from!).  As luck would have it, Knut, with his camera, knocks Kasper over as he tries to get away - but he doesn't get far before shadowy hands knock him down, take him to an unknown location and brutally kill him by putting a spiked mask on his face - then hammering it down!!

 

Yup, I told you it was going to get creepier.

 

Then there's the mysterious little man who approaches Kasper, wanting to hire him to take a very important photograph.  And there's the college girls dressed in pirate gear that are watching his every move.  Oh, and there's the puppet old woman (yes, you read that right - a puppet woman!) who is directing the pirate girls' actions.  And the faculty with names like Dr. Penumbra and Dr. Rhomus and Dr. Larva ... who seem to have a very secret agenda going on.  And, at long last, on page 31 in Chapter 2, we FINALLY get introduced to our star crime-solving detective, Judy Drood - whose very first lines, both off panel and on panel, are filled with such horrific expletives that Sala had to use symbols instead of words!  This girl detective definitely ain't Nancy Drew!

 

A few more murders really gets the story going, and before you know it, you are completely lost in this crazy tale of killers extracting something from his victims ... a black-cloaked provost who is killing people with a pitchfork ... a puppet woman who is hypnotizing the girls on campus to join her pirate gang ... a weird teacher who was supposed to be on sabbatical who Judy collides with and comes out of it with a scorpion pin ... oh, and let's not forget the young boy at the local school who is causing so much problems, biting people, running off (and who, it turns out, is not exactly what he seems to be) ... and the campus security guard who seems to be doing less to protect the students and more to cover up what is really going on.  

 

With a little over 200 pages of this madcap murder and mayhem and just plain ol' craziness, you'd think by the time you finish the story, you would be wondering what the heck just happened. But, believe it or not, there is a connection to all this madness.  Poor Kasper gets unwittingly sucked into it all, and Judy Drood drags him in to help her uncover who is killing all of these students, and even some of the professors, and just what does the mysterious Massimo Ibex have to do with any of it?  Well, by the conclusion, you'll have that answer and everything will make sense (even if it is all a bit "out there").

 

Sala's art is ... well, for lack of a better term ... unique.  I'm not sure if he purposely drew the book the way he did to fit the story, or if this style is just the way he draws.  No one looks quite human, although Judy, Kasper, and some of the students do come close.  The professors, the security guard, and the others all are misshapen look about as far from human as you can get.  This is not your typical "realistic" comic book art that artists such as Perez, Jimenez, Ordway, Ross, or any of the other big names might draw.  However, the further you read into the story, the more you begin to realize the art perfectly matches the oddness of the story and the characters therein.  (I admit, it took me quite a while to get past the cover art before I finally bought the book and gave it a try.)

 

One last comment - the names "Judy Drood" and "Kasper Keene" make me wonder if the author is taking a little stab at some of the children's mystery series that have been published over the years.  "Judy Drood" could be a combination of Judy Bolton and Nancy Drew (variation on "Drew") and "Kasper Keene" could be taken directly from the author of the Nancy Drew series, Carolyn "Keene."  It could be coincidental, but somehow I have to wonder...

 

RATING:  8 planks to avoid out of 10 for proving that quirky, odd, crazy, zany, horrific, and spooky can all be wrapped into one rather enjoyable story!