Written by: Merho
Illustrations: Dirk Stallaert, Peter Koeken
Publisher: Standaard Uitgeverij
De Kiekeboes Knoflookgeur en Maneschijn – Comic Book Review
Halloween is coming up once again, which means that spooks, vampires, witches and other shady characters are lurking around the corner. An ideal time to come up with some themed merchandise and special editions. Standaard Uitgeverij didn’t stay behind and bundled three Kiekeboe albums in this new edition called ‘Knoflookgeur en Maneschijn’. In this issue the Kiekeboes are joined by some vampires to vamp things up.
In the first issue, Het Witte Bloed, Marcel desperately needs a holiday. He arranged for the family to go to a camping site and enjoy the peace. On their way there, Marcel runs over a man who suddenly crosses the road. Luckily the man is alive, but when they come closer, Fanny notices that his blood is white. Before they can do anything, two nurses are already on the scene to take the man to hospital. As if this wasn’t enough already, when the family finally arrives at the camping, it turns out that all their neighbors had the same luminous idea. At least their camping neighbor Mona can bring Marcel some solace with her beauty. Fanny meets her new love Mikal, but soon finds out that he is a vampire. Together with him, she sneaks into a private hospital to find blood. There they find more of the white blood she’s seen before. High time for an investigation.
In De Kus van Mona the local graveyard is threatened to be destroyed and make way for a big housing project. This means real trouble for the vampires who live there. They will have to move, unless they find a way to stop the demolition. Mona, the camping neighbor from Het Witte Bloed, has meanwhile become a vampire herself and has not forgotten how mad Marcel used to be about her. She decides to visit him again and proposes him an ultimatum: either he makes sure the building is prevented, or he gets a kiss from her, which means he will never see the light of day again.
The last issue in this bundling is called Mona de Musical. Marcel’s boss, Van de Kasseien wants to organize a musical that is to be performed in an old theatre in town. Therefore he tricks Marcel into being the financial director of the whole thing, bearing all the costs in case of a flop. This old theatre is now the home of Mona and the other vampires we got to know over the former albums. When Mona hears about the musical, she convinces Marcel to cast her for the lead. Things of course don’t exactly go according to plan and Marcel will need to find a way to prevent him having to foot the bill.
The stories are each quite fun to read, as there is always a lot going on and the vampires add a nice, special touch. In reality, these albums were not published as a miniseries within the Kiekeboe comic books, but rather every now and then, with other albums in between. Nonetheless it seems like they follow each other seamlessly. We see how Mona became a vampire in Het Witte Bloed, and even meet her baby Vladje in Mona de Musical.
The names of the characters are hardly ever randomly chosen, but usually have a double meaning which immediately tells you more about the character’s personality or striking features. It is something typical for the series, and has again been done in a great way here. Another funny feature are the tomb spells in De Kus van Mona. They don’t add any value at all to the storyline, yet they keep things light and airy and provide a funny note. While children may not always see these hidden jokes, they will certainly be well appreciated by grownups.
In Mona de Musical, a fun side story is added, namely Leon Van Der Neffe, the irritating neighbor, who tries to book tickets for the musical. He has to stay on the phone for hours though and completely gets worked up, which provides a fun extra.
It is noticeable that while in the two first issues, our heroes wear the same old clothes as ever, in the last issue their outfits have been updated to a more modern version. Other than that, the outfits still resemble the old ones and, as is often the case in comic books, they only switch this outfit on special occasions.
On the cover of the bundle we see the vampires, with in the background a full moon. It’s of course an ideally chosen illustration, but just you wait until darkness falls. The cover gets even more interesting then, as the moon will glow in the dark.
Conclusion
While the stories have all decent storylines of their own, it was a good move of Standaard Uitgeverij to publish them together in this bundle. It’s not only perfect for this time of year, but also nice to read the issues one after the other, as they follow each other more or less. There are quite a few funny extras, which, although not being important for the story in any way, still add a lot of airiness. Knoflookgeur en Maneschijn is an entertaining new publication, with an appealing cover and funny jokes. Everything you need for a relaxed night on the sofa.
De Kiekeboes Knoflookgeur en Maneschijn - Comic Book Review,
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