Max Hamm Fairy Tale Detective #1 & 2

Posted: Tuesday, December 2, 2003
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Max Hamm Fairy Tale Detective #1 & 2 Creator(s): Frank Cammuso
Publishers: Nite Owl Comix (Self Published)
From: USA
Price: 4.95(US)

Max is a gumshoe in Storybookland, where it seems all the fairy tale characters live. His partner, Humpty Dumpty takes a fall while working on a case and Max has to pick up the pieces. The case has something to do with Bo Peep's missing sheep, but it soon grows into something else. In the second book Max recount his involvement in the Snow White case and finds himself left holding the goods.

Fans of Roger Rabbit or Little Golden books will love these parodies of Hard Boiled detectives. To complain that the books are full of clichés would be to miss the point. Frank manages to cram in pun after pun into each page such as Little boy blue lived in a shoe, Perfect place for a heal

The look of the books is picture perfect Disney animation straight out of the really good Disney films of the 50's back when Walt was still around to crack the whip. Frank mixes storybook layout (large images and text) for flashbacks with comic layouts for present tense action. The storybook style work is left with a pencil sketch look and uses grey washes for texture.

I laughed out loud at quite of bit of these book and appreciated the sly references to film noir classics. As you can see from the cover scans these books are beautifully presented. For those of you who have a tolerance to puns that matches mine, these books are a treat.

In a Word: Enchanted..



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