A massive collection of comics based on Netflix’s 80’s nostalgia-fueled Stranger Things . Sci-fi horror at its best including psychic kids, portals to parallel worlds, secret agents, and even slasher-flick style masked villains.
Collects four full comics Stranger The Other Side Stranger Six Stranger Into the Fire Stranger Science Camp
The Other Side follows Will Byers after he has been pulled into a mysterious nightmare realm. Isolated, disoriented and scared, he quickly realizes he isn’t alone—monsters lurk around every corner, and they are hunting him.
Six dives into the lives of the psychic kids being held at the mysterious government lab in Hawkins, Indiana. Stripped of her name and left with nothing but the number six, clairvoyant teen Francine plots to break out however she can. She has seen a horrific glimpse into the future to come and wants to save as many people as she can.
In Into the Fire , some of the teens who escaped find out that another of their number might yet still be alive and take off on a brutal journey where they must choose between vengeance and mercy all in the hopes of saving their friend from herself.
In Science Camp , Dustin Henderson arrives at Camp Know Where anxious about spending the summer away from his friends. When a spooky masked figure starts making camp counselors disappear, he gathers a crew of fellow geeks to save their camp – and possibly their own lives!
Featuring writing by Jody Houser with pencils by Stefano Martino, Edgar Salazar, and Ryan Kelly, Inks by Keith Champagne, and Le Beau Underwood, Colors by Lauren Affe, Marissa Louis, and Triona Farrell with lettering by Nate Piekos!
Collects Stranger The Other Side , Stranger Six , Stranger Into The Fire , and Stranger Science Camp .
This is such a lovely companion piece that fills in some blanks and expands some lore, but it really is not much more than that. Jody Houser is certainly breathing in the spirit of the nostalgia-laced Netflix series, as is every artist who drops their own pile of memory-fueled toys and posters in the backdrop of these tiny-sized, Hawkins-set tales from the upside down and the right side up. It's bite-sized storytelling designed to glue all of those loose scraps back down, and there's nothing wrong with that.
“Stranger Things Omnibus 1, Volume 1”(Graphic Novel) by Jody Houser.
I read this as part of a local library challenge to read a Graphic novel. 386 pages in total.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This volume should have 4 full comic series (however, actually there 6): 1. Stranger Things: The Other Side 2. Stranger Things: Six 3. Stranger Things: Into the Fire 4. Stranger Things: Science Camp 5. Stranger Things: The Game Master 6. Stranger Things: Erica’s Quest
Featuring writing by Jody Houser with pencils by Stefano Martino, Edgar Salazar, Ryan Kelly; Inks by Keith Champagne and Le Beau Underwood; Colours by Lauren Affe, Marissa Louis, Triona Farrell with Lettering by Nate Piekos.
I loved the Netflix series, I’ve watched them all, just waiting for Season 5. Why not refresh the mind with the graphic comic instead?
Scary, spooky, great drawings.
All the stories are the ones that are not covered or told in the tv series.
Book 1/ We see it all from Will Byers viewpoint, he’s stuck in the Upside Down world. Refreshing as we don’t see this part in the tv series. Will sees eleven disappear in the woods.. He talks to his frustrated mum, but has to hang up as the monster arrives.. The Christmas lights.., Will finds Barbs glasses by the pool..
Book 2/set in 1970..fast forward to 1978.. about a girl called Francine aka Six, telepathic.. the young lady recognises a man, Ricky aka Three, from her neighbourhood, who’s also part of the program at the lab. She hits a wall and a claw comes out - like she created the seed of the underground world. She saw it awake.
“More of a feeling like … something cold. Something bad, maybe.”
Three got her out of her house, was trying to protect her as (6) her parents were toxic, abusive, and trying to use her powers on guessing winning numbers on the lottery.
Ricky (3) was part of a special government program to help special kids. Six and Three have history.
Mr Brenner shows Eleven to Six. Eleven calls Mr B “Papa”. Six tells Mr B about what she saw. He puts her in the water tank.
“It’s called sensory deprivation, a way to focus your mind inward by removing the outer stimuli. Our goal is to grant you full access to your visions, your power.”
Six watches Nine’s experimenting.. “The material that Nine is trying to heat has been doused with flammable liquid. For now we’ll be observing from here.” - Dr Brenner. “Isn’t that dangerous?” - Six “If Nine had ever achieved anything CLOSE to the auto ignition temperatures needed, perhaps.” - Dr Brenner.
Dr Brenner was more worried about the lab staff than the children. Nine ends up bed-ridden and in a coma, the lab tech dead.
Ricky and Francine share a kiss, and plan to escape.
Six premonitions about escaping, the other kids during, she saves Three and Nine’s twin, she sees the monsters. Six changes the future.
Book 3/ into the fire. There’s two stories happening side by side - a fictional one about a princess - it’s Marcy’s dream… Boston 1985.
Ricky pretends to be a reporter, trying find out more about the strange things happening in the town.
Nine’s Twin surviving sibling’s story, Marcy and Ricky grown up. Speak to Eight/Kala? Looking for someone..
Slightly hard to follow - I had to reread the story.
1975: The twins are Jamie and Marcy, two girls. Jamie caused the fire with her powers and killed everyone in the house. Marcy is normal, no powers. The two sisters go and join the program. Marcy was worried that she would get separated from her sister. Dr Brenner said they wouldn’t…
Jamie is alive somewhere..
Back to 1985, Ricky and Marcy grown up…
The programme pretended to help the children, Eleven’s mother broke into the building looking for Jane (Eleven), it was the same day Six, Marcy (Nines twin) and Three escaped. What happened to the children who got left behind?
Kali said: Dr Brenner told Jamie (Nine) that her sister left her. He asked Kali (Eight) to help Nine, give her something to focus on. “Spin her a fairy tale..” it worked for a little while, when Eight stopped, Nine became violent towards Eight: “Bring my friends back.”
Eight’s powers can create things that aren’t there look real. Nine, drugged up, been told she’s been abandoned, believed her fairy creatures (illusions) were real. Eight (Kali) was terrified of her and never saw her again.
Kali tells them that Eleven escaped and she’s doing really well on her own.
Kali gave them the name of the doctor who was working closely with Nine.. Dr Morris.
Nine is imagining her fairy tale still, and Marcy is connected to her sister somewhere as she’s dreaming them..
Ricky and Marcy pay him (Dr Morris) a visit.
“We’re not the ones who have been hurting the people from the program.” - Ricky
“You’re going to tell me where my sister is. And you’re going to tell me NOW.” - Marcy pointing the gun at the Dr Morris.
“Your twin, Nine, was one of the most promising candidates for the program…. Power potential. But she had the same problem as the other children, control or lack thereof. Nine was proving herself to be quite a problem. Then Dr Brenner had a breakthrough…” with One!!! - Dr Morris.
“One convinced him (Dr Brenner) the other participants in the program are redundant.” - Dr Morris.
Dr Brenner wanted Dr morris to “dispose of her.” Morris managed to rescue Nine and put her into a facility (a doctor who owed him a favour) where she will be safe, “completely off the books” and “a strict drug regiment.. to suppress her abilities.”
Morris gave them the name and address.
Meanwhile, Nine in her illusion sees her doppelgänger (not realising it’s her sister), kills a staff at the secret facility and escapes, setting the whole place up in flames.
Marcy and Ricky follow the wreckage flames.
Jamie (Nine) thinks she’s hurting her mirror reflection when actually she’s attacking her twin. Then Ricky stops it, Jamie remembers her sister.
Ricky goes back to return Dr Morris’s gun, Morris commits suicide.
Book 4: Science Camp
Dustin is on a summer camp. This is his story.
Something sinister is happening to the girls at camp. A man is hunting the counsellors, attacking them with a screwdriver..
I love this chapter, showing Dustin in a new light of confidence, since he’s met demogorgans, has two girls in his D&D group, danced with a high school at his school prom, Max and Eleven. Seen epic fights with monsters from a different dimension.
Dustin meets his girlfriend Susie, (maths genius) at the camp!
“I wish Steve was here!” Dustin and Steve and their spiky baseball bat.
Turns out two of the counsellors were messing about trying scare everyone, to end the camp, the staff need the job.
Book 5: The Game Master. It’s Nov 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana.
Nancy and Steve chatting.. Mike is still upset with Eleven disappearing. Mike has gone to see Will at hospital after school, they haven’t visited him yet in his house.Mrs Byers said he needs some time.
Nancy has been in the awful place for only a few seconds, “but I still faced a monster, still lost a friend and I still have nightmares about everything that happened.”
So they play games… as a distraction.
Book 6: Erica’s Quest. Erica is Dustin’s best friend’s little sister. They’re talking to each other on their walkie-talkies.
Steve and (introducing) Robin work at the video store.
“Steve! Robin! I’m sure Erica has stole a bottle of that green acid from the Russian bunker and is heading to Indianapolis to sell it!” - Dustin
“I was supposed to be paid for my services. I haven’t seen anything yet.” - Erica
“You were going to get paid in ice-cream. But the ices cream store burnt down.” - Steve
“I’m aware… I need money..” - Erica Then Dustin yanks her rucksack and drops the green acid canister and it cracks.
Dustin asks a weeping Erica what she needs the money for. She replied an expensive Dungeons and Dragons masters guide, players handbook and the monster annual. She doesn’t have enough cash.
“Jeez Erica, if you want to play D&D just use for friends guide.” - Dustin. “My friends aren’t nerds.” - Erica “Yeah.. whatever you say.” - Dustin.
The chapter ends with them all playing the game.
The End!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
At first read, this seems like a peculiar idea…making a mediocre comic to accompany a superlative show. But stay with it, that’s just the first story featuring everyone’s least favorite Will. Going forth, there are much more interesting stories. It is, after all, an omnibus. The second and third stories are continuations of each others, featuring some of the other “numbered” supernaturally gifted kids from the facility, and the last one is about Dustin’s adventures in the science camp. You read and you read and you realize it’s kind of a nice companion to the show. Especially considering how long the show takes between the seasons and how awesome of a tapestry it creates, allowing for many side wanders and tangential tales. This book is about 400 pages long, but reads very quickly. I wouldn’t say it’s meant for kids though it features kids, much the same way the TV show really isn’t a kids show. But it does have a certain all-age appeal. The art is bright and fun, too. Actually, the covers are the real stunners. The art in between isn’t quite of the same quality, but it works. And overall, it’s just a fun read.
The four main stories in this omnibus amount to some cool bonus material for a few of the unseen events from the famed Netflix series.
‘The Other Side’ shows what Will was doing when he was stuck in the Upside Down, while ‘Six’ and ‘Into the Fire’ follow the activity of a few other numbered kids that were being “helped” by the Hawkins Lab. These first three stories maintain a darker theme and are interwoven with a handful of actual scenes that occurred in the series, this time seen from a different perspective, but still completely consistent with the show. ‘Science Camp’ is on the lighter side showing how Dustin met Susie in a type of Friday-the-13th parody that has more of a Scooby-Doo ending. Finally, there are two brief snippet stories that offer feel-good conclusions that stay true to the overall inspiration of the show.
Enjoyable supplemental stories that are a full-go for fans of the show.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for sending me ARC of this graphic novel. I enjoyed this read. It shows you some of the stories you didn't get to see in the show. It shows you a little of will in the up side down. You get meet some more of the kids that are in the lab and what Dustin does at science camp. So if you're looking for a stranger things fix while we wait for the next season pick up this graphic novel I loved it!
I'm usually terrible with reading graphic novels, but I literally read through the entire thing in one night. The first two stories really leaned into the horror factor, and the third was both creepy and heartbreaking. The Camp Nowhere story was a smidge disappointing, but still a fun read. And the two little side stories near the end were pretty heartwarming. Overall, difficult to just stop reading, except when my ADHD got in the way.
Some of these were good little side stories, some of these were meaningless filler manufactured to keep making money off of a popular show. I liked the ones that had actual bits of plot, and was bored by the ones that didn't go anywhere, do anything, or establish any further lore/character development/backstories.
The images and graphic in this is amazing and they are huge books! Which is amazing. They are a collection of short stories that fill in gaps from the series so if you haven't watched the series it will be a very confusing read. It wasn't bad though.
This was a pretty good fresh start and I have to say it got me out of my slump. I have always been a fan of stranger things so reading this was crazy to me. I couldn’t believe so many things were tied to each other and it all ended with a little happy comic.
I've long completed the Netflix shows, so I was happy to pick this collection of "companion" stories. They were a quick and light read, but enjoyable. I do think if people haven't watched the series on Netflix, almost none of what's in this omnibus would make sense.
Great collection of the first four Stranger Things graphic novels: The Other Side, Six, Into the Fire and Science Camp. Essential reading for all the Stranger Things fans out there who also happen to read comics!
Quick and easy read, and should go down well if you’re a fan of the show itself. I’ve never read a graphic novel (but did love comics when younger) so felt pretty new to the genre again, and enjoyed it. Artistry and illustration are really cool.
This was really interesting and added some backstory to what was going on in the lab and I really enjoyed the part with Suzy and Dustin at camp. Obviously if you didn’t love stranger things then you probably shouldn’t read it but if you did it was really good and I would recommend it.
I had a fantastic time reading this. I loved getting a view from characters who we don’t t really get to see in the show or don’t have a lot of personal screen time like Dustin and Steve.
Some stories are interesting, and some are stupid, but all are fun and worth the price of admission. Highly recommended for the Stranger Things need in you
It completes the TV series and the theatre play. This stranger things project is a unique type of project. I am sure there will be other projects for the same story line.