Seekers of the Weird

Disney Kingdoms

by Brandon Seifert, Karl Moline (Illustrator), Filipe Andrade (Illustrator)

An all-new adventure inspired by Disney's legendary but never built Museum of the Weird! When their parents are kidnapped, teens Maxwell and Melody are thrust into a thrilling race through the world's most strange and dangerous museum, as they unite with their swashbuckling uncle to save their family and the world from an evil secret society! What lurks within the Wardens' Library...and what is the Walking Chair? Who is the Shadow Society, and why do they want the Coffi n Clock? In a catacomb of Mushroom People and a Séance Room under glass, our teen heroes discover the truth about the Museum - and their own destinies! Envisioned by famous Imagineer Rolly Crump for Walt Disney in 1965, the Museum of the Weird's innovative designs were left on Crump's drawing board...until now!
DISNEY SEEKERS OF THE WEIRD 1-5

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Marvel, Fiction, Horror, Young Adult

136 pages, Hardcover

First published July 15, 2014

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back when Walt Disney was building the Haunted Mansion, there were plans for a companion attraction, Museum of the Weird. Sadly, Disney passed away before his plans could come to fruition. Seifert has taken those designs and weaved a fun story around them about a family who are wardens of the museum and must protect it from a secret society of immortals. Karl Moline's art gives the book a fun retro animation vibe.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's too bad that this volume finds itself stuck in the Kingdom of 3 stars. It really had so many great elements that were leading up to good things: the characters, spooky storyline and setting were all working together and rolling along. But then the writing happened. I would just be getting into the story and living along with these characters in this ridiculously cool mansion-museum, and then the story would come to a grinding halt because a character had an odd moment of speech that didn't seem to fit in anywhere or there would be a solid course of action would suddenly end mid-panel. I had to read the last 2 issues twice - not because I wanted more, but because I felt like I was given a handful of puzzle pieces and asked to finish up a puzzle that I had never started. It just felt unnatural and this was something that I couldn't forgive, save for the really cool setting. Even the ending felt hurried, like I had been on a neat adventure and then the writer suddenly slammed my comic shut and said "ok, you've had enough. They all live happily ever after and blah blah blah, you get it. The end." It could've used a couple more pages and a more gentle ending. These kids had been through a lot and I had spent a couple of months running along with them. I guess that in the end, I wanted to be dazzled, and feel like I walked out of one of Disney Park's great attractions and instead it felt like waiting in a really long line for a ride that was just way too short.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before the Haunted Mansion was the Haunted Mansion, the original concept was for a walkthrough attraction that would be called The Museum of the Weird. Eventually, the concept grew well beyond those beginnings, and I'm grateful for that. The Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney ride. As a bit of Disney history, the Museum of the Weird is interesting, existing as it does as a series of weird, creepy concept drawings, some of which would eventually be incorporated into the final Mansion. As a basis of a story, there really isn't much of anything there. I think this would have been much better served as some kind of creepy anthology series, instead of trying to cobble together a coherent story from, really, not very much. Seifert is never quite able to make the book rise above dull, unfortunately. A lot of Disney books I can enjoy, but only recommend for fans. I think even most fans would find this disappointing. But the reproductions of Rolly Crump's concept drawings for the Museum of the Weird, included at the back, are cool enough to justify checking this out from the library.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The deepest cut in the Disney Kingdom catalog, and the best. If you didn't know, you'd never guess it's Disney. Based on an unused concept that died with Walt, SotW is akin to a haunted Warehouse 13, and is could easily have been expanded into an ongoing series.

[Theresa F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up the first issue of this series because I'm a Disney parks fan with an interest in 'lost' attractions. I was excited when I found this book at the public library because I wanted to know what was going on and what happened next in the story. I can now say that my curiosity has been satisfied, and that I don't feel the need to actually own a copy of this book.
Even though the story is based on a Disney concept, the characters and plot basically had to be created from whole cloth, so as a Disney fan there wasn't as much in the book that engaged me as I thought there would be. With the Figment comics, the plot was basically an original construction but readers still had the familiar characters to ground the work. Also, the abrupt pacing of the storyline in Seekers Of The Weird keeps the reader as disoriented as the lead characters for the length of the book, and I found that rather frustrating.
In conclusion, while I did enjoy the work somewhat, I think I enjoyed the concept more than the actual execution.
Did I like it? It wasn't bad.
Would I reread it? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? It depends on what the potential reader is looking for.

[Sarah Stubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little read. It would be cool if this was made into a tv series.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many amazing ideas and art I only wish it had been given longer to develop.

[Betty Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun to read.

[Stephanie Yuzuki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bringing attention to Rolly Crump's proposed Museum of the Weird attraction for Disneyland is a great idea, especially with Marvel Comics now part of Disney to bring it to life. With so much of Crump's conceptual artwork to go on, Marvel merely needed a story for the museum. Unfortunately, the results are rather limp.

Twin siblings Melody and Maxwell asre our protagonists, a lot of Seekers of the Weird is them bickering with each other. I know they saw their parents kidnapped by horrific monsters and were thrust into a nightmare adventure, but could they treat the situation more seriously and bicker less? Then again, I'd be cranky if I were Melody since she does nearly all the work for a while, being the capable athlete; Maxwell's the clever one, but it takes some time for him to be helpful. Their swashbuckling uncle Roland starts out extremely cool, but quickly gets his legs cut off and he's left to sit around, ostensibly providing advice to the twins but he withholds vital information from them and doesn't even arm them until several chapters in despite how dangerous the situation he put them in is. Even worse than Roland are the Wardens who are so reactionary and close-minded it's amazing they managed to protect anything. The antagonists, the Shadow Society, recieve almost no development or insight; they're just there to be evil.

The writing is very basic—explore the strange museum and avoid its dangers to save the world. This would be fine if the characters were more likable and behaved more believably. The simple plot instead compounds the weak characterization.

The best feature is the artwork. While not as attention-grabbing as the original Crump art, Karl Moline's illustrations bring the museum to life and his designs are great, except for Despoina the Mistress of Evil who looks bland compared to the whimsically twisted vision Crump had. Filipe Andrade takes over for a single chapter though and the sudden change in style is jarring.

Inclusion-wise, Head Warden Efrain Fenton Whetstone is a Black man. Roland is disabled early on, unable to walk. There is no LGBT inclusion whatsoever.

In short, this is a weak beginning to a fascinating idea. I hope the stories that follow this are an improvement.

[Arnela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the plot of the story, 2 kids help their parents out in a strange shop, suddenly parents are kidnapped, the kids learn they were part of a secret society, and now with the help of an estranged uncle they gotta try to get their parents back.

The art was great, the creature designs were pretty fun, we didn't get to see the baddies too well, and I'm a little disappointed by that, I wanna see them being bad, I [as I feel the audience will agree] needs something more than just an explanation of why they're evil. I gotta feel it, I gotta get emotionally invested in wanting these guys to go down, and I didn't get any of that.

I do like that we were mostly seeing everything from the kids points of view, it was their adventure, they had to figure out if uncle Roland was trustworthy, they had to be a part of this mess while knowing nothing about what their family did, where they were, what the bad guys were up to, NOTHING. But at the same time I felt the story was a little rushed. Yes, it's written for kids but I still feel like we could have delved a little more into character development and building up the tension of the situation and increasing the mystery. Kids know the difference between somethings good, and something's great, and this could have been great, the story had a really good base to build off of, it just didn't build as high as it could [like it was scared of being too tough for kids to get into].

I still recommend it to anyone that likes supernatural mysteries. It feels like The Librarians but for kids.

[Peter Derk · Rating 1 out of 5]

The backstory behind this book is very charming, the idea that there was supposed to be a sort of haunted museum attraction at Disney along with the haunted mansion. But you’ve now read the most interesting thing about all of this.

Usually I’m a fan of the ambitious failure, the story trying to do a lot with a little, but this one kind of does a little with a lot, a less desirable combo.

I don’t know, I suspect disney is probably glad they didn’t do the whole weird museum thing. Chances are, being built so long ago, it’d have some of those weird Ripley’s vibes where we cross over from a guy who can fit three pool balls in his mouth to “check out this actual shrunken head” and so on.

Now, if they had Walt Disney’s frozen body in the museum, that’d be awesome. I heard a conspiracy theory once that said Disney made Frozen so that when you searched Walt Disney Frozen you would stop getting rumors about him being cryogenically preserved and start getting stuff about a princess who was turned into snow (or whatever, I’ve never seen it, I hear it’s fine).

This is one of my all-time favorite conspiracies because it’s totally harmless, it’s plausible, and whether it’s true or not doesn’t change my life one bit, so it’s fun to think about.

Take note, makers of conspiracy theories:
1. Harmless
2. Plausible
3. Unimportant

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lost chapter of the haunted mansion’s history…and what might have been…

Disney Kingdoms: Seekers of the Weird by Brandon Seifert was one of the first comics to come out after Disney bought marvel comics and decided to do some “corporate synergy”.

Unlike other Disney kingdoms comics (Figment, Thunder Mountain, Tiki Room, etc), Seekers of the Weird wasn’t based on a ride or attraction. It was based on an unrealized concept that was originally planned for the haunted mansion area of Disney world.

The comic tells about the museum of the weird and a family that guards it. It’s all really cheesy and for those who like weird stuff and kids doing magical adventures…but the real value is the designs.

Most of the stuff in the museum of the weird is based on old concepts for the untold cues attraction. The book includes an introduction by one of the original imagineers, some behind the scenes photos, some of the old production sketches, and an editorial on how this comic came to be.

The comic may not be terribly original or ground breaking…but what it represents is one of the many unrealized ideas of Walt Disney that finally found a home…even if it was in a medium he likely didn’t expect or predict…

[Faeryn Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge Disney nerd and Rolly Crump is my Imagineering idol. I've always loved his concept of the Museum of the Weird and been so sad that it never came to life in the parks. This comic brings it to life in an amazing way. The story is amazing, the art is incredible and true to Rolly Crump's original ideas, and it's just all around a perfect way to give the Museum of the Weird the life it should've had 50 years ago. If you're a fan of Disney, the Haunted Mansion, the Museum of the Weird, Rolly Crump, Imagineering, or just comics and weird stuff in general, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pick this title up. You won't regret it.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am fascinated by Disney’s Haunted Mansion and find Rolly Crump’s art and ideas really compelling, so I was excited to discover this series based on the never-built Museum of the Weird. Overall, I enjoyed it; the story was fun and exciting, the settings were great, and the characters were strong. I would have appreciated a more developed narrative and more consistent art—some pages were gorgeous, some seemed very slapdash—but it was a fun couple of hours in a beautifully strange world. Oh, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I dreamt about keys the night I finished it!

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Disney so much that I could be considered a Disney Apologist. I don't care that they shamelessly mass produce every original thought over and over again. I don't care that they commercialize original park or animation concepts and try to turn them into franchises. However, sometimes they churn out stuff like this book where there is so little care into writing and development. This one goes straight into the garbage bin.

[Kay_Rose_Rab · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story has so much potential, but the story telling fell short. The author doesn’t give the proper details. The story doesn’t give you enough background. There’s constant holes in the story. Makes you get irritated along the way as you read because you become lost. At some point in the story I didn’t understand what was going on.
It’s very sad because this could have been an amazing comic series.

[Kyle Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of The Haunted Mansion and for those who know its back story will be familiar with Rolly Crump's Museum of the Weird concept. It sadly never saw the light of day, aside from a few props and concepts that were incorporated into the attraction. But finally the Museum is given the attention it rightfully deserves! Wish we had all had the chance to physically walk through it, as it was intended, but at least it served as inspiration for this great comic series.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what Marvel and Disney were hoping for with this title but it never seems to fully get off the ground just like the never constructed Disney attraction that inspired it. On the whole I wish that there were enough here for a longer series but despite genuinely great art it feels as though five issues was about as far as they could take this.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up in a bargain book shop and I'm very glad I did. The story is based on a proposed Disney ride that was never created, which is understandable as it would have been rather scary! Classic good versus evil fight with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Printed on gorgeous glossy, strokeable paper too 😀

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the Disney comics aren't particularly memorable, and this is perhaps the most forgettable of the bunch. I believe they are trying to establish an interesting mythology with which to tell future stories, but the characters aren't particularly interesting and neither are the organizations in conflict with each other.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am biased because I love all things Disney Parks and this book is a fantastic taste of an attraction that was never fully realized(in the U.S.). Seekers of the Weird is suspenseful and has one of the strongest storylines in the Disney Kingdoms Marvel collection. I would recommend it for older children and up. It may be too scary for littles.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Based very loosely on concept drawings for an unbuilt Disney attraction - what could go wrong? Lots. Messy inconsistent art makes the action hard to follow around some genuinely creative central concepts. Some things are rushed, and important elements happen off-panel. Overly-complicated mythology is introduced too fast, and I couldn’t recap any of it for you.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked seeing the different implementations of Rolly Crump's designs within the comic. The story could have used some fleshing out. I honestly this one could have been extended and given more time to really get some exploration going.

Disneyland's Lost Park Attraction Only Exists in Marvel Comics

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover art was far better than the artwork inside. I was rather disappointed. Also, the story progressed too slowly to really hold my attention with action happening without a buildup in an attempt to recover from the terrible pacing. I will be trying it again, but not for a while.

[Leisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had potential, but just seemed disjointed in places. You can definitely see the Disney influence and how it might have been a great addition to the Haunted Mansion mythos, but it just didn't grow like it should have. I'm sure that one day we'll probably see a movie.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story about 2 siblings and the adventure they partake when their parents are abducted by monsters. Based on the concept of the Museum of the Weird for Disneyland that never came to be. A little disjointed at times, but a fun little adventure.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for more Disneyland.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creepy YA story that is spun-off from Disney’s Haunted Mansion. The art for the weird objects and monsters is excellent, but I wished the plot had been able to keep up with the visuals.

[Kathy (Kindle-aholic) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun enough. Would check out another. We'll see what the verdict is when the ids try it.

[Tia Garrigues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read, interesting plot, wonderful art!