The Sleepy Truth #1 by Jason M. Burns, illustrated by Erik Valdez y Alanis, colored by Ramon Espinoza
Viper Comics, $9.95, ~98pp, tp, 9780979368059. Graphic novel.
Warning: this review contains some spoilers.
Weird things are happening in the sleepy village of Sleepy Hollow. Sure, everyone’s heard of Washington Irving’s headless horseman, but the rest of the stuff that goes on there… well, it’s almost like a conspiracy to keep what’s going on out of the public eye.
In fact, it just may be a conspiracy when four plucky investigative reporters—all young teenagers—set out to publish the truth and stand behind their 1st Amendment rights. There may actually be sea monsters, and aliens, and ghosts, but our four intrepid adventurers will discover the truth and then get the truth out there. Unless, that is, they’re stopped by one of those sea monsters, or aliens, or ghost tribes.
Fifteen-year-old twins Suzanne and Thomas Watson have strange birthmarks on their cheeks, a missing father, a nose for news, and a secret power that may be able to save them, if they can use it (and no space monkey to drag them down). Fifteen-and-a-half year old Grant has no arms, but he’s cornered the market on cool, and those prosthetics may be able to best Steve Austin. And then there’s fourteen-year-old Mathias: sure, he’s the design expert, and he says he’s got telekinetic powers, but has anyone every seen him use them? Three major stories hit the news desk all at once, and it will take all of the staff’s powers just to survive, let alone get the paper out on time.
This is a great little book for the younger set (the three pages of “activities” in the back of the book tell the reader who their target audience is), but an more sophisticated palate can enjoy it, too. I absolutely loved the feel and color of the art (the shapes of the people took some getting used to, but each page was a delight to look at), and the art complemented the story and kept everything moving right along. Now I’m wondering what they’ll do for an encore (the back-of-the-book teaser tells us to look out for headless horsemen and reanimated squirrels, but there’s got to be something “interesting” coming, too).