Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 Review

Writers: Denton J. Tipton and Matthew Dow Smith
Artist: Chris Fenoglio
Colorist: Valentina Pinto
Letterer: Christa Miesner
Publisher: IDW

Goosebumps’ stab at comic books has honestly been a delightful experience for me. As a lifelong fan of the books and TV show, I am always ready to consume more Goosebumps media. And fortunately, IDW’s Goosebumps series so far have been great additions to the big world of all-ages horror.

Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 is a brilliant start to a new mini-series. The new story has been set up with the perfect amount of suspense, mystery, and humor. The plot is a slightly common one, but the characters and dialogue are unique and clever enough to make the story stand out. So we’ve got three unlikely friends, a mysterious house, and a sketchy young rich woman. Three fantastic ingredients to cook up a fun all-ages horror story.

IDW’s Goosebumps series have all successfully avoided a very possible case of too much cheesiness. Adults writing scary stories about kids that they’re trying to make relatable to readers can easily fail and backfire. The different writers for the few Goosebumps comic book series have done an amazing job at actually making the characters relatable, avoiding cheesy slang, and pushing morals in the stories.

The first issue of Horrors of the Witch House also does this very well by writing characters who are delightful and adding lots of humor. There is no moral of the story, there’s no badly written teenage conversations, and the characters are engaging.

The artwork and the colors of the issue are exactly what the story needs to fully come alive. Chris Fenoglio excels at creating spooky moments and adding the visuals that make the humor come alive. The colors further add the pleasantness of the whole story and its characters.

Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 is a wonderful introduction to what seems to be another great IDW Goosebumps comic book series. This first issue is very entertaining and very compelling and made complete by the talented team that put it together.