Press Release: Haunted Goes to Print

As I take my hiatus for the holiday season, looking over the webcomics-related emails in my inbox, I begin to realize: receiving a press release is like receiving a blogpost already halfway written for you.

Here is a press release concerning Joshua Smeaton's comic Haunted.

Haunted, the Xeric-winning web comic by Joshua Smeaton, makes its graphic novel debut. It is currently available for preorder from Orion Books.

What did you do for Halloween when you were 12? Trick-or-treat, bob for apples or run from a psychotic ghost bent on ripping out your soul?

It was supposed to be a night of carefree fun for a group of junior-high friends. All they had wanted was to sneak into the high school Halloween party thrown at an abandoned mansion. Unfortunately they aren’t the only uninvited guests.

Haunted is an adventure story about a group of kids that get trapped in a mansion with a murderous ghost. The story is a fantastical thrill ride with moments of calm made all the more enjoyable with its colorful vibrant art.

Haunted is a 104-page full color graphic novel priced at 12.95, ISBN 978-0-615-31563-8. Scheduled to be released January 2010. It is available in the November Previews catalog. Order Code: NOV090896. www.hauntedcomic.com

I took a look at Haunted for myself, and if it sounds like something you've seen before, that's because it is. The familiar teens-in-a-haunted-house trope is played entirely straight, with no major twists or turns on the basic concept. That said, it takes a done-to-death idea and does it reasonably well: the art is good, the dialogue is authentic, and the characters are an interesting, individuated bunch of quasi-delinquent teens. For all the familiarity of its premise, it doesn't really do anything wrong.

Might not be worth a buy for you, but it might well be worth a look. Ladies and gents, judge for yourselves.