Welcome to Dark Spell Comics, where worlds come alive from Pashar’s pen. As a nightmare demon on sabbatical in the 80's, he’s enjoying his vacation in the human world tending to his little corner of Hellscape Mall while he tries to keep his demonic plant, Chewy, from eating the customers. He is pleased to provide one comic per customer per day, one unique nightmare to torment them. Everyone finds the nightmare they are secretly searching for… even if they are a human who breaks in after-hours.
But this human is a special treat who intrigues him like no other, and one he especially wants to savor. Perhaps even for the rest of time if he can evade the infernal paperwork and dispose of the male ruining his vacation.
***The Monster of Darkspell comics has been expanded to a 57k novella from the original 21k story that appeared in the Creepy Court anthology
This is an adorable, cosy, comic-book–esque romance that follows a nightmare demon who accidentally traps an (entirely willing) human into working for him - and then, of course, promptly falls for her. Our FMC takes his demands completely in stride, mostly because his tasks kind of… work for her anyway. What follows is a charming, slow-burn will-they-won’t-they full of humour, warmth, and chemistry.
The world is bright and imaginative, boasting a vicious but loveable little plant, a fun 1980s-inspired backdrop, and an art style (or vibe, if you’re imagining it cinematically) that feels like a mash-up between a retro comic and a paranormal rom-com. It’s equal parts cute, quirky, and just the right amount of chaotic.
DNF’d @ 75% See, the build up from the beginning was that both MCs felt attraction towards each other but neither knew the other felt that way. Adding to this, MMC had been actively trying to ignore and resist his attraction to FMC. This is VERY evident, especially at the end of Chapter 18, where MMC physically removes himself from a situation in an attempt to restrain from his attraction to FMC.
Then Chapter 19 comes along and it’s as if the Author forgot what they had done in the previous 100+ pages. Out of no where, the characters are on a romantic outing together? touching up on each other and then being ‘freaky-deaky’ with each other in Chapter 21?
No joke, within 30 pages they go from no where near the starting line of a relationship to confessions of love. It was such a jarring switch that I had to go back and make sure I hadn’t skipped Chapters somehow.
I think somehow, there are entire sections of this story that are just missing, because that’s the only reasonable explanation I can come up with for why shit just did not make sense. There were even side Characters that just appeared, no establishment or anything else to give them any foundation. Yet they’re written in action and dialogue in a way that makes it seem like we should already know who these people are.
All in all, this story seems incomplete and needs alot more work for it to actually make sense.
This was such a cute/spooky story to kick off the beginnings of spooky season! The flow of the story was delightful, allowing enough time and room for character development. The little mystery with the creepy dude kept me guessing the whole time and I was surprised that none of my guesses were fully correct! (Coming from a true crime junkie, that's a compliment!)
I even enjoyed our demonic carnivorous plant and its role in this story. Nothing about their presence felt forced to me.
I don't think I've read a book by SJ Sanders that I didn't love. And this book is no different. The story building and slow burn romance was captivating from cover to cover. This world is one I didn't want to leave and have been happy for another 100 pages or more! I do hope the author returns to tell more stories of the different monsters hold up in Death Canyon City