Dr. Giggles #2 Review

***THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED A YEAR AGO ON THE NERD BLITZ PATREON***

Gang, as we desperately hang onto the waning spooky season, I must report that we have reached the end of our road with ol Dr. Giggles, for now.
And now that I sort of know what I’m in for, I feel I am far better prepared for the horrors ahead.
Let’s not waste any time, the moment has come to dive on in.

Per the norm, this is your long suffering ***SPOILER ALERT***

Cover By Doug Mahnke: This one is far less gory and shocking, but really ups the depravity and overall unease.
The beads of sweat and tears as this dude looks up at Giggle boy sewing his fuckin’ eye closed is just disturbing!
I do wish there was a bit of blood oozing from some of those thread holes, but I love it as is.
It’s gruesome, menacing, and detailed.

Art By Kent Burles: Slightly improved over last issue.
If nothing else, it doesn’t dramatically switch styles page to page anymore.
But it’s nice, splattery and splashy, how you’d expect a horror or slasher comic should be.
But there are a couple spots where it’s difficult to tell what characters you are following that still hold me back from loving it.

Story By Steven Grant: Okay, I have to admit something, gang.
It has been about a month, in real time, since I read issue 1 of this 2 parter and I don’t really remember much about the story.
But there is good news, it doesn’t really matter because any semblance of story quickly falls away as this 2nd issue is all about the gore!

One of my problems from last issue has been ratcheted up though, the herky jerky pacing.
It cross cuts between a few different characters and locations, and the Dr shows up at all of them.
Leading me to wonder yet again if there is a supernatural element that I’m missing, if there’s a continuity, editing, or printing issue, or if they just said fuck it, let’s show the kills and wrap this bitch up already.

At this point, I am fairly certain this is an adaptation of the movie, and this makes me want to see it even more.
I want to know if it can help me make sense of these 2 issues a bit better.
It almost has to make more sense or it must just embrace the absurd to a degree that it becomes solely all about the kills, I can’t see an in between.
Which, while the latter of those 2 options would be pretty damn frustrating, I could appreciate.

But, I am sad to report that until I see this movie, I’m going to have to say you should probably skip these issues.
There just isn’t enough meat on these bones to justify me recommending them without any prior knowledge of the movie.
Too often I felt confused and lost while reading them and I can’t inflict that on you good people.
What I would like to do though is get a copy of the movie, watch it, and then revisit these reviews either in a commentary here on Patreon or in a Doom Does episode and see if my opinion changes at all.

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