Wonderland Annual #1: The House of Liddle (Zenescope – Wickline / Gregory / Hoover / Hendersen)
This one shot tells what happened to the Liddle’s house after Callie moved away (see Beyond Wonderland series). All and all, a pretty spooky little tale… It has quite a few positives, but one big negative.
This is your classic horror off-shoot sequel. Directly tied into the main series, but can be read seperately and not necessarily needed to be following the main Wonderland story. A new family has moved in… classic family to move in to a haunted house… divorced artistic dad, hot step-mom who is trying to make connections with the equally hot but rebellious 17 yo daughter who is standoffish and the younger son who has severe physical needs (low immune system – has to live in a germ-free environment – in other words trapped in a big plastic box in his room)… this just screams everyone is already dead 🙂
What I enjoyed about this book, is that it is a well-done horror tale… predictable but still tantalizing. And just because you already know the trip involves a cursed mirror, dark drawings coming to life and a very evil rabbit, it doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the ride. This, in the Zenescope tradition, is written in such a way that you are squirming in your chair as your read, yet you cannot stop. The Wickline / Gregory writing duo has yet to steer Wonderland in a bad direction. And the team of Dave Hoover on pencils and Garry Hendersen on colors does an admirable job of combining terror and eye candy popping – sometimes in the same scene! For example, we have a few panels of the aforementioned hot step-mom showering when these nightmarish, fist-sized spider creatures attack her, she turns and shatters the glass shower door (of course) and impales her entire body, like she is entirely lifted off the ground… crazy good!
If it possible to get a one-shot comic a standing ovation, this annual gets it!
The only negative… $5.99? ouch, that’s bite, even for a book as good as this!
Issue grade: A- (with the pricetag counted in)
