Broken Frontier

"We’ve been dying to have you."

Just in time for the Eve of All Hallows, comes Slave Labor’s new comic, The Haunted Mansion. It’s the first of a new line of comics based on Disney properties aimed at a teen audience. Based on the popular theme attraction (that comes with a maniacal set of fans, myself included) at the Disney theme parks, The Haunted Mansion has the potential to be one of the spookiest comics based on anything from the magical world of ...scratch that...the house of the mouse.

The book itself is in anthology format, short stories by various creators of the post-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac generation. The cover, by Roman Dirge, takes the sweetly haunting and doomed young bride familiar to fans of the ride and paints her as a horrifying skeleton, scraggly and haggard. As a first clue of what lies inside the book it’s a pretty good indication.

Six tales lay within. Eric Jones starts with a nice, but not quite satisfying introduction to the haunts of Gracey Manor, as a young ghost arrives to take the last spot in the home. Jones uses the narration familiar to many fans of the ride, though it never quite comes to life, pun not intended.

The second tale, by John "Bean" Hastings establishes more of the mythology of the manor, showcasing the greedy architects who created the blueprints for the deadly abode. It’s a little more wordy than necessary, but it lays a foundation.

Roman Dirge scribbled a short funny about the various spectral pets who’ve been locked outside the manse, and Black Olive brings an odd bit about a medium who’s lost her head. The dialogues for both stories feels a bit out of place, amusing enough on their own, but inappropriate to the one of the great achievements Disney imagineering. The fifth short, by D.W. Frydendall doesn’t have much story to it. Essentially, the human caretaker (?!?) of the mansion is fired and replaced by a greedy treasure seeker. It doesn’t bear much mention.

Rounding out the book is the first of a multi-part series centering on William Gracey, owner of the Haunted Mansion, and narrator of the book. This is perhaps the saving grace of the entire book, written by Dan Vado and illustrated by Mike Moss & Brian Belew. This is the only story of the set that aimed to rise above the slightly amusing, and to create a living and breathing world (well, not living, and really not breathing either) for our favorite ghosts to inhabit.

The Haunted Mansion is a bit of a hodge-podge. The only unifying factor of any of the very short and almost inconsequential stories is the reference to the Disney attraction, and without distinct knowledge of the ride, even those don’t stand out quite so much. The stories only share the merest hint of a topic, that they all take place in Gracey Manor. You’d think that would tie it all together, like the perfect piece of furniture for a haunted living room, but the tales are so mismatched that they fall far short of the original masterfully imagined experience. The book needs a bit more of a firm editorial vision, something that grows beyond the attraction, to make it worth returning for another ride.