NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #31: Escape of the He-Beast

As we get closer to the end of Ghosts of Fear Street I don't think there's been a book in the series I've been more excited to cover than this one. And yes, it's ENTIRELY the cover as the reason why. Though going by the story itself, we have another comic book-themed adventure on our hands and those have always been a mixed bag. But I'm at least optimistic so I can only hope we're in for a fun one. Will this be a beast of a book, or am I just going to find more interest in the cover? Let's find out with Escape of the He-Beast.

Oh my god I love this cover. It is so perfectly "This is CGI in the 1990s" and I love it so much. Our he-beast, Hecula, is an amazing sight with the blue-gray skin, the sharp fangs and all the spikes around his eyes. The earring's a silly little touch too. It's such a perfect monster design that maybe could have worked with a more hand-drawn piece, but somehow it's a design that only really pops with the CG model. It might easily be my favorite of the Happy Boy Pat covers. Not scary in the slightest, but works in selling the horror comedy aspects of Ghosts of Fear Street quite well. 

Jamie Kolker starts the story by reading his favorite comic, Hecula the He-Beast. A creature created by someone known only as "The Creator", Hecula is a bloodthirsty monster burdened with eternal torment. But he wants revenge on his creator, to tear him limb from limb. But before we can have any limb removal, Jamie's mom tells him to go to bed, and removes any light sources that could aid in him staying up all night reading comics. Jamie moved to Shadyside with his family a couple weeks ago, but surprisingly doesn't live on Fear Street. He's a massive comic book nut, as is well established, and was even making a comic with his friends Bill Stevenson and Ricky Chan called Morgon the Man-Mutant before he was forced to move. But there's one thing about Shadyside that excites James. Al Refko lives there. Who the hell's Al Refko? Why, he's the creator of comics like Doomsday 9000, Iron Warriors and, of course, Hecula the He-Beast. All Jamie knows is that Refko lives somewhere in Shadyside and has a studio in his basement. And he's determined to meet his hero. I'm sure there's no saying that tells you to never do that.

At school, Jamie gets in trouble for reading Hecula during class, and continues to draw comic characters. A girl in his class, Samantha, tells Jamie that his art is good, but his Hecula drawings are way off. And she should know as she knows what Hecula should look like, seeing as she's Samantha Smith, daughter of Al Smith, the man who uses the pen name Al Refko. So, that was an easy hunt. Well, not as easy as Sam won't divulge any info on her dad, even though she could have just up and lied to Jamie. But Jamie realizes quickly that maybe if he befriends Sam, he'll be in her good graces and maybe that will allow him to finally meet her dad. What could possibly go wrong? Jamie gets more pointers on how to draw Hecula, with it being too wrong for Sam's tastes, saying that he dad based Hecula around a lot of the stories surrounding Shadyside. He asks her point blank to meet her dad, but when that doesn't work, he stalks her on her way home. Her home that just so happens to be on, where else, Fear Street.

He finds Sam's home and sneaks in through the gate, only to hear the voice of Hecula, that is to say the voice of Sam who isn't Hecula. She invites Jamie inside, seeing as her dad isn't home. Her mom died when she was young and it's just been the two of them. Jamie searches for the bathroom, but instead finds a basement filled with hideous monster drawings and clay models. It's Al Refko's office. Jamie finds Al's computer complete with a generated model of Hecula. In the story, Hecula attacks a meat van before encountering The Creator, but before we get any answers, that's it for the story as the rest of the pages are blank. Sam finds Jamie and is pissed since not even she's allowed in her dad's office. Jamie wishes to read the rest of the comic, which is in the computer. But, oddly, the comic is now set in Shadyside Middle School. Hecula is there, tearing everything apart. Then he turns to the screen with hyper-realistic eyes. No, seriously, bloodshot and all that. This book's a bit ahead of the curve on the creepypastas. 

As the two make their leave of the basement, they run into Al Refko, who is tall and imposing. He also has a bit of an ego to him, as when Jamie says he loves Al's comics, Al goes into a very villain-esque rant about how nobody in Shadyside appreciates his work, but he'll make them all pay. Sam chalks it up to comic sales being in a slump. I mean it is the late 90s after all. Jamie makes his leave, only to discover that in all the confusion, he took the computer disk with Al Refko's work on it. Jamie decides that since he has the disk, he may as well see the rest of what's on it. Only when he puts it in his computer, it causes his computer to explode. His parents chalk it up to being some sort of weird virus, but Jamie begins to wonder what was really on the disk. After the computer's removed, Jamie returns to his room as some creature is there waiting for him. But as he gets his parents, the creature disappears. His parent's don't fully go "Because Goosebumps Parents" and not believe him, since, you know, the whole exploding computer situation, but when the cops arrive, they see no sign of anyone or anything suspicious. But that night, Jamie finds gray fur that could possibly come from a he, she, they, or other pronoun-beast. He tells his parents and NOW they go "Because Goosebumps Parents" on him. Though at this point he's just bugging the shit out of them. 

Jamie has a nightmare similar to the events of the disk where Hecula shows up at his school and tears him apart. But when he heads to school, he sees his classroom torn apart, and his desk clawed to pieces, which confirms to Jamie that Hecula is definitely after him. Later, he tells Sam about accidentally taking the disk and all of the Hecula attacks. She doesn't believe him, but he's certain that Hecula must be an actual beast that exists in Fear Street Woods. Given the history of the hauntings in Shadyside, it's not out of the question. He also heads back to Refko's with Sam to apologize, and maybe get some answers. But when they head to Sam's house, Al is nowhere to be seen. Jamie invites Sam to a housewarming party his family is having and heads off. But as he walks home, he sees what looks to be Hecula, ready to grab him. But he makes it to the bus in time. After the party, the Kolker family take Sam home as it looks like Al's back. But Jamie can't talk to him since it's too late and his parents are there to spoil his plans. As they drive home, Jamie sees Hecula chase after the car and almost get it. But Jamie's parents don't notice because I guess they're just really good at not paying attention to stuff.

The next day, Jamie and Sam see police talking with a driver whose meat van was attacked by a giant beast. Jamie begins to suspect that something is going on. That Hecula seems to be after him. Maybe for the disk. And maybe because he's in cahoots with Al Refko. The van attack also seems one to one with what was on Refko's comic pages. They head back to Sam's house, but her dad is nowhere to be seen. When Jamie heads home however, he's caught by Refko, unshaven and looking beastly. He's been stalking Jamie for the past several days as he knows it was him who took the disk. Jamie tells him that it was an accident and that he did put it in his computer, which Al panics over as because of that, there actually IS a Hecula. In other words, it was Jamie who let Hecula out. An escape of the He-Beast if you will. 

So, how did this all happen? Well, Al Refko was trying to make an animated series, and used a very powerful computer program. So powerful that it could bring any creation he made to life. To ensure that he could still use the very dangerous program and not unleash whatever sin against god on the world, he got a computer with a very powerful shield to keep his creations intact, including Hecula. When Jamie used the disk in his far weaker computer, it caused Hecula to escape, materializing in Shadyside Middle School similar to the script of the story. Same with the meat van. Whatever was scripted for Hecula to do, he'll do. The two return to Al's house and take Sam to the basement as they try to figure out what to do, when Al tells them what's going to happen. Since Hecula is following the story and Hecula's goal is to destroy The Creator, he won't stop until he destroys his creator, Al Refko. 

Al's plan is to draw a cage and have it come to life through his computer. Just then, Hecula shows up and attacks. The cage materializes, but is too weak to contain Hecula, who crushes it, then smashes Al's arm with a metal bar, breaking his arm. So it's up to Jamie to draw something to subdue Hecula. Jamie decides that he should draw Morgon the Man-Mutant to battle Hecula. Morgon is created and battles Hecula, but starts to lose the fight. Jamie draws armor, but as it materializes, Morgon disappears, so Jamie puts on the armor complete with a missile launcher to battle Hecula. Except he didn't draw a launch button on said missile launcher. Okay, that's actually a hilarious swerve. The last ditch effort is to have Sam write that there's a specific Hecula-killing sword in the room, which Jamie uses to finally defeat and delete Hecula. 

The next day, Jamie helps Sam and Al clean up the mess from the Hecula attack when Jamie finds a disk labeled "Project Jamie" when he boots it up he sees drawings of himself and everything that had happened before he arrived in Shadyside. Al says that Jamie and his family were comic creations he made because he wanted someone who could appreciate his comics and be his assistant. I mean, he already has a daughter who seemed to be somewhat into the stuff, but why have that when you can go all comic book Geppetto?

 

This book isn't too bad. Comic book themed horror is usually a mixed bag. Some books do it well, others don't. And this one definitely has enough fun with the premise. Page McBrier is our author, and this seems to be her only notable GB-like offering, which is a shame since I do like what she offers. It definitely feels very close to a Stine-style story. A lot of the twists and turns a Goosebumps book would take, a really action packed final act and a really intense monster in Hecula. You COULD make the argument that the biggest problem with the book is that the concept does feel very hackneyed. A magic computer that can create anything, but can also essentially narrate the destiny of whatever it creates. Feels a bit closer in line to something like The Blob That Ate Everyone. The twist is also a bit weird, but I think does a better job in setting up that Jamie is a comic book character all along better than Attack of the Mutant did with Skipper's transformation into a comic character. Overall, it just feels like a much better take on Attack of the Mutant with less of an iconic villain. 

Jamie's a decent protagonist. We get our over the top obsession which peters out a lot once he's in actual peril. He also seems very fine with being a comic book character with really no control of his destiny or his own actions as, if the ending can be interpreted, he's essentially the puppet for whatever Al Refko wants him to do. Sam's a decent secondary character. Mainly the skeptic for the majority of the story up until the end when she's caught in the middle of everything. Refko works as a decent red herring. You could easily see the book at one point wanting Refko and Hecula to be one and the same, but went with the more original idea instead. Though I do wonder if Sam is also one of his pieces of art brought to life similar to Jamie. Since Sam's backstory is that her mother died when she was young, it could easily be assumed that Refko made himself a daughter who I guess was into comics, but not enough to be his assistant. Or maybe she'd have been down, but he's a sexist shithead, who knows? Hecula's also a great villain. Imposing, dangerous, could actually kill the character if not for the ending and all. Definitely fits the bill of what the cover design makes him out to be. 

So overall, this is another decent Ghosts book. A little bit convoluted, a bit too much in the asspull territory, a twist that's just okay in the grand scheme. But it does a lot of things right to really make it feel like a more well put together attempt at a story like this compared to other, lesser takes. It's a definite recommend in my book. We're reaching the very end of Ghosts of Fear Street and as we approach the last couple, at least I'm still getting good books out of this. Hope that lasts for the last few. Escape of the He-Beast gets an A-.