You're walking through a creepy part of town when you find a new comic shop—Milo's Comics Dungeon. Dungeon is right. The place is dusty, dingy, and really dark. You can see the comics are awesome. But there’s something you can't see. Trouble. It’s waiting—for you.
If you choose to go downstairs watch out for Milo the Mutant. He's got big, bad plans for you. What? You say you'd rather stay upstairs? Not such a great idea—unless you want to battle the worst villains in the history of comics! Do you have what it takes to be a superhero?
The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!
Set Up
I'm going to go through the book a couple times, with a different character from the blog's past and end goal each time. Right, that's that set up. Game on!
Round 1: Exploration
Character select: Molly Molloy, from Revenge of the Living Dummy
We open in an after school comic club, run by the dullest kid in school (AKA the kind that doesn't exist in real life), Horace Grumbacher. Molly Molloy is obviously bored stiff, as we're shown some rip-off comics: Ballistic Bug (Spider Man), The Cellar of Scary Stories (House of Mystery), and the crown jewel of bootlegs: Super-Doer. No, we're not calling him that. Instead, he shall be The Amazing DR MANIAC! Horace droning on and on causes Molly Molloy to miss the bus, since that's the only real purpose of that scene.
Molly Molloy has to walk home, but she needs to take a shortcut, so she goes through a creepy street that's about as interesting as the concepts in the Alice in Wonderland remake. Suddenly, she comes across a comic shop and enters. I guess getting home in time for tea is no big deal. We discover that the Green Lantern villain, Major Disaster, now has his own book, according to one of the comics on the shelves. Then she spies a light between the bookcases and, succumbing to curiosity (good grief), squeezes through the bookcases. I guess after smashing a ventriloquist dummy's head through triple thick glass into a mind stealing shrunken head, you're pretty much accepting of anything. She notices a rack containing the first appearance of Ballistic Bug (honestly, just seems more like Ambush Bug than Spidey), and the first issue of
Molly Molloy decides to check out the rack (oo-er), and picks up The Amazing Dr Maniac comic. Suddenly, she gets sucked into the comic, and onto the street within. Oh boy. And there's a gigantic robot the size of a skyscraper. Must be Thursday. Never could get used to Thursdays. Molly Molloy tries to run, but she's trapped in the crowd. Typical chip day in the school canteen. Suddenly, she bumps into a guy called Wally (Kid Flash, I guess), who goes to her school. Kid Flash tells her how to travel from comic to comic: by yelling "Guest shot!" However, you can't use it too many times, or you'll become an ink blot or something. (Yeah, this series has a lot of gristly deaths). Kid Flash then vanishes into another comic. To get out, Molly Molloy must find a mad scientist. Luckily, both Ballistic Bug and The Amazing Dr Maniac have mad scientist villains. Logically, she chooses The Amazing Dr Maniac, and yells "Guest shot!"
She ends up in a different comic. Screw all the people being attacked by the robot, I guess. Suddenly, a brick falls off a nearby rooftop onto her head... but it feels like a feather landing on her. Yep, she's become Dr Maniac. And her first logical option is to find a steel bar to bend. Which she does. Then she melts it with her heat vision - oh, sorry, I meant magma vision.
Suddenly, a woman calls for help. Molly Maniac flies over, and sees a giant dinosaur attacking the city. It moans about how Dr Maniac's after it, and Dr Molloy realises that it's Kid Flash. She decides to fight the beast, but it quickly dodges her power punch (*sigh*). As Molly Maniac flies towards the Kid Flash-o-Saurus, it grabs a nearby steel girder and whacks her with it like a baseball bat, sending her flying. She's blinded by her cape wrapping around her as she plummets to the ground, but uses her x-ray vision to see... that she's about to crash into a building. She decides to fly away, but the only direction she can fly is up. So she does. She goes so high that she actually crashes into the moon and dies. Eh, I'd prefer to go that way too.
Extra life!
Instead of swerving away from the building, Molly Maniac decides to just crash through it. She's unharmed, thankfully, but I doubt that anyone inside is. She flies up and starts beating up the Kid-Flash-o-Saurus, though he states that he didn't want to be a monster; he was turned into one by Tex Loudsnore, Dr Maniac's (and therefore Molly Maniac's) nemesis. I think we all know he's being substituted by the Purle Rage. Molly Maniac tells Kid Flash to turn himself in to the cops, while she goes and sorts out the Purple Rage.
Molly Maniac arrives at The Purple Rage's skull-shaped hideout (where does he keep getting those?), and decides to knock down the big steel door blocking her path using her super-breath. Why she couldn't have just punched it down is anyone's guess. The Purple Rage has all sorts of defenses, but they don't even make a small cut in Molly Maniac as she strides down the hall, as Staying Alive probably plays in the background. She comes to another door, and this time punches it down.
On the other side is The Purple Rage, doing science stuff. He doesn't know how she found him (maybe it was something to do with the giant skull-shaped island), but regardless, he chucks an odd test tube at Molly Manaic. Whether or not she catches is determined by how high up I, the reader, catch a ruler. She ends up catching it, but it vanishes in a puff of smoke, and Molly Maniac turns into a monster, enslaved to the Purple Rage. He tells her not to move a muscle, and she freezes in place. However, as The Purple Rage turns his back, and Molly Molloy-saurus twitches her nostrils, realising that The Purple Rage's control is very weak. I guess rage weakens one's Chemistry prowess. Molly Maniac decides to spy on The Purple Rage, who announces his plan: to make The Molloy-saurus and another of his monsters destroy the city because... he's evil, I guess. Suddenly, Molly Maniac grabs him and demands that he change her back to her super-powered persona, but before she can go on, Kid Flash-o-Saurus shows up.
Molly Maniac tells him that The Purple Rage doesn't actually control him, and turns back to The Purple Rage, who agrees to change them both back. Man, you used to be cool. It's like Odin when Jane Foster became Thor. Kid Flash, however, doesn't trust the Purple Rage, and tries to Guest Shot out of the comic. Howevr, he's used it too many times, and melts into an ink blot. That's a bit dark. The Purple Rage starts whipping up a formula to change Molly Molloy back to normal, but it'll mean she loses her Maniacal powers. It works, including the loss of powers, sadly, and the now de-powered Molly Molloy explains her predicament about being stuck in the comic book, which The Purple Rage calls "an interdimensional hyperflux." I guess 9 year olds will just eat up 2 long science-y words put together. He has 2 ways of understanding the whole thing: get into a big metal box, or use his device, the Hazzafrazza, though he doesn't have enough readings for the latter. Molly Molloy settles on the box, and climbs in. It confirms her story, and The Purple Rage makes her stand in front of a device called the "Unconfrabulator." He shoots her with a beam of blue light, and everything goes white.
She lands in a vacuum shop next to the comic book store. She tells a nearby bloke that she'd been trapped in the comic book store, but he says that she couldn't have been, because it's been closed for several years after the owner died. Oh. It's this sort of ending. I'm not complaining; its an oldie, but a goodie.
On the other side is The Purple Rage, doing science stuff. He doesn't know how she found him (maybe it was something to do with the giant skull-shaped island), but regardless, he chucks an odd test tube at Molly Manaic. Whether or not she catches is determined by how high up I, the reader, catch a ruler. She ends up catching it, but it vanishes in a puff of smoke, and Molly Maniac turns into a monster, enslaved to the Purple Rage. He tells her not to move a muscle, and she freezes in place. However, as The Purple Rage turns his back, and Molly Molloy-saurus twitches her nostrils, realising that The Purple Rage's control is very weak. I guess rage weakens one's Chemistry prowess. Molly Maniac decides to spy on The Purple Rage, who announces his plan: to make The Molloy-saurus and another of his monsters destroy the city because... he's evil, I guess. Suddenly, Molly Maniac grabs him and demands that he change her back to her super-powered persona, but before she can go on, Kid Flash-o-Saurus shows up.
Molly Maniac tells him that The Purple Rage doesn't actually control him, and turns back to The Purple Rage, who agrees to change them both back. Man, you used to be cool. It's like Odin when Jane Foster became Thor. Kid Flash, however, doesn't trust the Purple Rage, and tries to Guest Shot out of the comic. Howevr, he's used it too many times, and melts into an ink blot. That's a bit dark. The Purple Rage starts whipping up a formula to change Molly Molloy back to normal, but it'll mean she loses her Maniacal powers. It works, including the loss of powers, sadly, and the now de-powered Molly Molloy explains her predicament about being stuck in the comic book, which The Purple Rage calls "an interdimensional hyperflux." I guess 9 year olds will just eat up 2 long science-y words put together. He has 2 ways of understanding the whole thing: get into a big metal box, or use his device, the Hazzafrazza, though he doesn't have enough readings for the latter. Molly Molloy settles on the box, and climbs in. It confirms her story, and The Purple Rage makes her stand in front of a device called the "Unconfrabulator." He shoots her with a beam of blue light, and everything goes white.
She lands in a vacuum shop next to the comic book store. She tells a nearby bloke that she'd been trapped in the comic book store, but he says that she couldn't have been, because it's been closed for several years after the owner died. Oh. It's this sort of ending. I'm not complaining; its an oldie, but a goodie.
Round 2: Suicide
Character Select: Matt Daniels
So, yeah, a similar thing happens to last time. Matt goes to the comic club, misses the bus, finds the comic shop and discovers the rack and staircase. This time, however, he decides to use the staircase. (I'm going into uncharted territory in order to make getting brutally killed more easily) Suddenly, the stairs turn into a slide, and Matt zooms down to the basement. This is why you don't get the architect at Hogwarts to design your comic book store.
Matt finds himself in a dark room with a bunch of pathways, like a maze. He wanders round a bit, eventually coming across a room full of copies of an ultra rare issue of House of Mystery Cellar of Scary Stories. Matt notices that the host, of sorts, of the book, Milo the Mutant, looks suspiciously like the comic shop owner. That's not very nice. Suddenly, Matt hears footsteps behind him, and decides to run, getting a 2 inch splinter into his arm. I'm pretty sure that no longer classifies as 'splinter' at that size. Matt looks over his shoulder and sees what's chasing him: a creature with the body of a bull, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a lion. I'm not sure if that's ridiculous or awesome.
Matt runs onwards, and spies a kid up on a ledge. He tells Matt to jump, and he'll catch him. This is one of those times where the book lets fate decide the outcome: in this case, the hour of the day. Since it's close to 2 o' clock at time of writing, Matt jumps, and actually grabs the kid's hand, getting pulled up from the beast. You know it can fly, right? Suddenly, the kid gets pinned under a pile of wreckage that also buries the beast. The kid, Charlie (I got nothing), says that a bunch of his friends are still trapped in the basement, and Matt needs to save himself. Matt just proclaims that he'll help Charlie out, and starts taking the wreckage off of him. As Matt gets to the final bit of rubble, he notices a bull's hoof on it. And attached to the hoof is the beast, which slowly walks towards Matt, presumably killing him.
Extra Life!
No.
Oh. OK then.
Round 3: Victory Attempt
Character Select: Carly Beth Caldwell
Once again, Carly Beth misses the bus, and winds up at the comic shop, this time picking up The Amazing Dr Maniac comic and getting sucked in, where she bumps into Kid Flash. This time, though, she decides to visit the world of Ballistic Bug. Carly Beth ends up in a bank in the middle of the night, when Ballistic Bug shows up. She quickly realizes that she's a bank robber, and calls out "Guest shot!" Eh. Bank robbers are pretty lame characters anyway.
She winds up... on a school trip to a nuclear power plant. She quickly realizes that she is Peewee Parkbench Billy Deep, Ballistic Bug's secret identity. She also discovers that this is the field trip where Ballistic Billy gets his superpowers. At the power plant, she notices the radioactive bug that gives Billy Bug his superpowers. And it's horrifying. Being reasonable, she decides to jump to another comic. Given this passage, I think I'd prefer the burglar.
Carly Beth winds up on a stage, faced with Ballistic Bug's arch-nemesis, Dr Doof(inshmertz). He's about to zap her with a brain bolt, but she just flies out of the way. Yes, Carly Beth is now Ballistic Bug. She then zooms up close and uses her Insect-Electro sting to knock Doofinshmertz flat. But then he doesn't get up, despite the fact that his armour should've protected him, so Ballistic Beth goes to investigate. Suddenly, Dr Doofinshmertz gets up and grabs her by the throat. As Carly Bug is about to pass out, the villain whispers in her ear, "That electro blast wasn't in the script!" Turns out all the fights in superhero comics are staged. At least, says the book, that explains why the superheros always win. Yeah, that's pretty funny. Ballistic Beth says she just got a bit mixed up, so Dr D asks if she wants to take a break. She instead decides to fight him. The mad doctor tells Carly Bug to prepare for 'the old A-233.' It sounds so generic, it wouldn't intimidate anyone. He grabs her by the ankles and spins her around a bit. Then he lets go and she flies into a wall. Since she's not a comic book professional or anything like that, she flies into the wall at top speed and breaks her neck. She's killed instantly.
Extra Life!
The same thing happens again, except Ballistic Beth decides to take a break this time. Dr Doofinshmertz asks for the guy in charge of comic books in the sky (at least, that's what he thinks it is) to put in an ad. Carly Bug decides to ask Doofinshmertz for help in escaping the comic. He tells her that there's a way out: if Ballistic Beth and Doofinshmertz fire their weapons at each other, it'll create a hole in space time, allowing her to escape the comic book world. They do so, and Doofinshmertz jumps into the hole as Carly Bug calls out to him. But there's no time, and she jumps into the hole in space time. She ends up on the school bus; Carly Beth's back in the real world. A piece of paper blows through the window: a large comic panel. It depicts Dr Doofinshmertz, in a pants-darkening situation: frozen in fear whilst leaping through a hole in space time. That's... genuinely unnerving. Kudos, guys.
You win!
Next time, buddy
Other characters who appeared in the book in stories that we didn't cover including Y's Guys: Professor Y, Wolfen-Bean, Jean Greene, Stinky Stanley, and the Fighting Vegetable. They're not worth checking out, mainly because they suck and if you bump into them, it's certain death. However there is a pretty good joke where it says that Jean Greene's power has something to do with coming back to life. And if you know what Jean Grey's like in the comics, you'll know what they're on about.
Any Questions?
Theoretically, what would happen if a comic book character used the Guest Shot? In fact, come to think of it, how does the Guest Shot work in the first place? Does it work in the real world? I'm not gonig to get any answers, am I?
Conclusion
Little Comic Shop of Horrors is silly, yes, but it's the fun kind of silly. It's kind of like a B movie about superheroes, made by The Asylum. Some of the concepts are creative and intriguing, and the comic characters are all beautifully hammy. Overall, worth a go.
Any Questions?
Theoretically, what would happen if a comic book character used the Guest Shot? In fact, come to think of it, how does the Guest Shot work in the first place? Does it work in the real world? I'm not gonig to get any answers, am I?
Conclusion
Little Comic Shop of Horrors is silly, yes, but it's the fun kind of silly. It's kind of like a B movie about superheroes, made by The Asylum. Some of the concepts are creative and intriguing, and the comic characters are all beautifully hammy. Overall, worth a go.
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