Review – Murder Kingdom #1 (Mad Cave Studios)

October 9, 2024

2–3 minutes

Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Chris Panda
Release Date: 9th October 2024

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: Mad Cave Studios are fast becoming the go-to publisher for exciting and unusual creator-owned comic book awesomeness. Their latest offering, on sale this week, takes us to the Disneyland-esque “Storybook Kingdom” theme park and introduces us to Tanith, an employee on the verge of handing in her notice for her summer job and applying for the Cat Cafe vacancy that will hopefully soften the blow once her parents find out she isn’t going to college. Gee, I hope nothing gruesome happens to derail her plans!

Series writer Fred Van Lente’s track record should pretty much speak for itself at this point, and I particularly like the way he spends the bulk of this first issue gradually letting us get to know Tanith and the slightly unsettling, corporate-driven world of the Storybook Kingdom. Van Lente shows a wonderful knack for capturing the inherent humour of the customer service world, whether it’s Tanith finding herself covered in the cremated ashes of one particularly overzealous punter’s dearly departed “Meemaw” or the (soon to be former) Briar Rose having an alcohol fueled meltdown that soon becomes a viral internet sensation. There’s a real ‘The Way Way Back’ vibe at play here (niche reference I know) that I absolutely love.

Chris Panda puts in a fantastic shift on the visual side of the book, giving everything a suitably grounded feel and perfectly illustrating some glorious facial reactions from Tanith and others. He does a great job of conveying the slightly over-the-top vibe of Storybook Kingdom and its sterile corporate underbelly, and it’s clear that a lot of work has gone into crafting the overall aesthetic, from the character designs themselves to the numerous visual easter eggs thrown in along the way (wait, is that Santa Claus?!)

The real meat of the story only really comes to the light in the final few pages, and it’s not exactly a spoiler (particularly considering the name of the series) to say that blood is going to flow as theme park employees start being picked off one by one courtesy of a deranged masked assailant. Can Tanith get the bottom of the mystery and save the day? Only time will tell, but with a brilliant blend of coming-of-age drama, corporate parody and serial killer thriller, this is most definitely a strong opening salvo for what promises to be another stellar creator-owned series from Mad Cave.

Rating: 4/5.

[UNLETTERED PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]