Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures - a series of Oni Press comics

While at a small, local comic book convention here in Florida last month, I was combing through some $1 comic boxes and came across a two book series called Alison Dare and the Heart of the Maiden.  The words "Alison Dare" were stylized similar to those of "Indiana Jones," and the covers seemed to indicate the title character is a young girl in a boarding school with two female friends who are sleuthing out a mystery.  Hmmm, was there ever any doubt that I was going to pick up these two issues?  Of course, once I got them home, I had to go online to see what I could find out about the series and its creators.  Well, it turns out this was actually the third series published about this character - first, there was the one-shot Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures, followed by the three-issue The Return of Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures, which was then followed by the two-issue series I bought. So, being the completist that I am, I quickly found an auction on eBay that was selling the one-shot along with the three-issue "return" series, and I snagged it.  All three series were written by J. Torres with art by J. Bone, and all three were published by Oni Press.

Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures was published back in 2000 (over twenty years ago - good gosh!).  This first one-shot features seven short-stories, ranging in length from 2-pages all the way up to 12-pages. Rather than giving us some long-winded "origin" story of sorts, Torres and Bone provide readers with a better introduction to our gifted little adventurer - having her read to her fellow classmates at St. Joan's Academy for Girls her report on what she did over summer vacation.  What starts off with a bit of uncertainty turns into a fantastic tale of Egyptian jewels, curses, and returned-from-the-dead mummies when her fellow students (all of whom know that Alison's mother is a famed archeologist) begin guessing at what exciting adventures she shared with her mom over the summer!  Of course, Alison's best friends Wendy and Dot clearly know the truth ... which gets quickly revealed in the second story (which, in four pages, reveals what REALLY happened while Alison was in Egypt with her mother). From there, readers get introduced to Alison's father, who is also a super hero known as The Blue Scarab (hmmm, sounds very similar to DC's Blue Beetle...), followed by a glimpse into Dr. Alice Dare's office at the Museum of History.  The remaining three stories feature Alison's father trying to correct a mistake he made; the assistants to Dr. Dare discovering the mayhem Alison has been up to; and a final 2-page tale that basically circles us back to what occurred the night before the events at the beginning of this issue!  

The Return of Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures was published less than a year later in Spring 2001, and instead of being a one-shot anthology, this time around, it was a three-issue mini-series, with each issue featuring a different tale of Alison's adventures (although, like with the stories in the first issue, there are connections and continuity between the tales).  The first issue features "The Arabian Knights," in which our bored little Alison is with her mother on an expedition in the expansive Sultanate of Shahrazad, within the region of Es-Sindibad, just outside the ancient city of Ala-Ed-Din (and if you can't guess where this is going, go check out that certain Disney film with a genie in a bottle...).  Alison has three wishes, but this genie loves to play games with the wishes that are made!  Issue two gives us "The Secret of the Blue Scarab," in which the Blue Scarab is reportedly killed by the evil villain Auntie Freeze (yes, that's really her name - geesh, this is a fun comic, enjoy it!) and Alison's friends are concerned that she does not appear to be taking her father's death seriously - until she tells them his origin and how he and her mother met, and then it all makes sense!  The final issue tells the story of "The Mummy Child," which again shares a bit of the past, this time centering around Alison's mother and the time Baron von Baron (yeah, yeah, just accept it and move on) stole an ancient treasure from her - and now he's back to steal another!  Unless, of course, Alison has something to say about that...

Alison Dare and the Heart of the Maiden is the final mini-series, this time featuring a full-length, two-issue story involving a mysterious new nun at the school, a statute behind which the other nuns seem to disappear, and a secret treasure map to a priceless treasure!  The only clue is a cryptic message: "To look upon the face of the Maiden is to find the way to her heart."  This story is probably my favorite of all of them, as it features a well-written mystery and allows Alison Dare to truly shine with her sleuthing skills.  Wendy and Dot feel more like the Bess and George sidekicks to Alison's Nancy Drew in this tale, and the Groundhog Day affect of the amnesia gas that the nuns administer to the girls every time they get too involved with the mysterious goings-on at the school is rather fun to watch.  This story has ninjas, evil bad guys, secret plots, historical treasures, and disguised heroes - it's a fantastic little mystery that is truly fun to read!

The creators of these books are names that seemed familiar to me, but I just could not place them.  "J. Torres" (the author) is Joseph Torres, did a rather lengthy stint on the Teen Titans Go series from DC Comics, as well as some issues of the animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for DC among a number of other independent titles of his own.  J. Bone (the artist) also did some work for DC Comics, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series, along with some issues of the 2008 Super Friends series, and the one I remember him from, The Spirit series published by DC.  Both of these creators are extremely talents, so it's no surprise that these Alison Dare comics are such a true gem!

RATING:  10 pairs of blue suede sandals out of 10 for keeping the fun in comics and creating a precocious little adventurer who should have more stories shared with her fans!