Twiztid Haunted High-Ons: The Curse of the Green Book #1

Twiztid Haunted High-Ons: The Curse of the Green Book #1

Source Point Press 2021

Story by Twiztid & Dirk Manning

Written by Dirk Manning

Illustrated by Marianna Pescosta

Coloured & Lettered by Alessandro De Fornasari

Still reeling from their last supernatural battle, Jamie and Paul join their ghostly companion Felicia on a trip to New Orleans... only to find themselves quickly drawn into a battle between the King and Queen of Voodoo over possession of an ancient and archaic tome of spells. Whose side should they take? Is The Darkness resurfacing in the Big Easy? And are those really zombies lurking in the distance?

These folks have won me over and turned me into a Twiztid fan that’s for sure. I really enjoy the way that Dirk brings the boys to life and how they’ve got Felicia as their moral compass and/or their sense of reason is fantastic. Granted I never met the boys in real life but through the comic you kind of get the sense that they are caricatures of themselves that almost feel as if they’ve been Scoobified to some degree. I think that too lends an air of charm and endearment to the series as well because they are the reluctant ghost hunters who did this as a scam and discovered the real thing had plans for them.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in fleshing out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story and the characters it leaves us wanting oh so much more.

I think the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow are exceptionally well crafted. I am also liking how we see the layers opening up new avenues to be explored. The Voodoo Queen and her less than subtle remarks which hopefully we’ll see a lot more explored. What this does is add so much depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I am really very much digging the interiors here as it has this great classic comic book style feel to the artwork. The linework is smooth, clean, crisp and strong while with the varying weights and techniques we see creating the detail work we see throughout is pretty extraordinary stuff. I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised but what we do see along with how we see the composition within the panels enhances and expands the moments as well as bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a superb eye for how colour works. Also the techniques we see with laying the colour down are extremely nice to see.

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If you haven’t picked up the first arc don’t worry this is new reader friendly and you’ll be able to follow along without any trouble whatsoever. Fans of the last arc should rejoice that the boys are back for round two and it looks like it’s going to be another humdinger of a case. Courtesy of the smart, witty writing and the excellent characterisation alongside these fantastic interiors we are certainly in for a much needed treat.