- Writer and Artist: Nick Roche
- Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
- Letterer: Shawn Lee
- Logo Designer: Wayne Daly
- Editor: David Mariotte
Thanks to IDW Publishing for the review copy!
Never judge a book by its title. I figured SCARENTHOOD was going to be about the pitfalls of raising children – images of dirty diapers and lost social lives popped into my head (admittedly, I may have made this assumption because I have a 20 month old child). Thankfully, the story by Nick Roche goes a completely different direction and is much more interesting than I expected. SCARENTHOOD does have scares, but they aren’t caused by trying to raise kids. In fact, the children largely take a back seat while the parents interact with each other.
The book brings together four parents who otherwise would have no reason to talk while they wait to pick up their children. The dialogue is well written, and does an admirable job of conveying accents (which is really hard in a comic). Each parent has a distinct personality to go along with a unique character design. They get involved in a spooky mystery that has some real potential moving forward.
While the parents take center stage, main protagonist Cormac’s daughter Scoop is the one child to get some focus. She’s quite cute, both in how she is drawn and her dialogue. It will be interesting to see what the series has in store for her as well as what the series has to say about her mother.
SCARENTHOOD isn’t terribly scary yet, but the first issue is a lot of fun. As befits a series about what parents do when kids aren’t around, it has some curse words, so parental discretion is advised.
SCARENTHOOD #1 is now available.
Are you going to pick up the issue? Have you already? Feel free to chat with me on Twitter or leave a comment below!
