When your uncle is the Grim Reaper, you have an interesting family.
Creative Staff:
Story: Art Baltazar & Franco
Art: Art Baltazar
What They Say:
Grimmiss’s old pals the Grimm Reaper and B. L. Bubba Crisp are coming to visit the island! The boys are excited to see what Grimmiss has been up to, but time may be running out for the little skull head!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Grimmiss Island has been a delight with its first two issues with what the team here has done with it as we get a pretty fun world with a lot of variety to it. The world building has its own kind of simple silliness to it and it’s something that really comes across well with its energy but also with the way it’s fairly dense in some places with the scale of what it wants to build. But in the end, it all comes down to the characters themselves and their interactions, as well as the side jokes that come in along the way. There’s a kind of really great diverse aspect to the book in that while it plays to the Aw Yeah Comics style in an expected way, it does it with such abandon that it’s infectious.
With this installment, there’s once again a whole lot going on here that’s definitely hilarious to watch. The book introduces more characters to the scene as we get the arrival of the Pajamazons, three women that are excited to hang out with the Tiki’s for a picnic. Unfortunately, said Tiki’s ended up in the ocean the last issue after their chaotic run across the island. This issue also brings out two more characters in the form of the Grim Reaper, who is Grimmiss’ uncle, and the devil. They’ve both decided to go visit Grimmiss on the island, mostly because things have slowed down in collecting new residents for the underworld because of what Grimmiss and the others are up to in having a great time and not causing any problems. It’s rather fun to see the way Grimmiss is brought back to life once again and gets involved with everyone, especially since he’s so properly respectful towards his uncle and friend even though they’re there to start the flow of people dying and coming back down to where they are.
There’s a lot of good gags to be had in this book here, from how the cactus deals with the devil and the way things get set for the picnic that the Pajamazons wanted with the Tikis. It has a really fun flow with some small gags that just keeps it all moving and grooving so that you’re smiling a whole lot. It gets really fun as it goes on though and the Grim Reaper makes his play to get Grimmiss back on track by giving him the touch. Amusingly, the touch ends up being overdone and we see Grimmiss go crazy instead, which has him bouncing off the panels in a hilarious way that really looks like it’s going to be fun to watch as it unfolds. The really cute thing is how the volcano goddess comes into all of this as she confronts the devil and he’s pretty impressed by her, though he just calls her cute since she is hot stuff. While Grimmiss has been a good guy here so far, seeing him now go evil definitely looks like it’ll be a fun way to close out this series next issue.
In Summary:
Grimmiss Island has been a lot of fun in its first half and going into the second half here just cements it all the more. Grimmiss himself isn’t always front and center and that helps because there’s such a great and fun ensemble cast at work here that plays off of each other very well. The arrival of his uncle Grim Reaper and friend the devil definitely shakes things up as we see some of the fallout from what happened because of all that Grimmiss and the Volcano Goddess are up to these days. This book just makes me so stupidly happy with what it does, the style of it and the characters that I’m hopeful for several more Grimmiss books to come out in the years ahead. With one more issue to go, we get the first look at what an evil Grimmiss will be like and it looks like it’s going to be a hilariously fun ride. The setup for it here is really good and just leaves you wanting more right away.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 13th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
