{"id":7038379,"date":"2026-08-15T22:38:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/international-journal-of-comic-art-blog-graphic-novel-review\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T22:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:38:46","slug":"international-journal-of-comic-art-blog-graphic-novel-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379","title":{"rendered":"International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body-3931142919140852638\" itemprop=\"description articleBody\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: right;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/a\/AVvXsEjtG_7FULUDr6ZQ1ShEg7ZYMvCISaTXWCfWXoLNGLRL7p4DbJ4Kcgc6tTGV3f5kX8UVid7JmYNxEFT7bdc9-q9Sq9vl2SMlgM9h7gjJzF_F0lZHJsec8ePS4ROJhmR3s9tyzOc4MADjCJXpyQ8yvMKn3ktarGzwTgj9Hf_oDEGSs6RXqE3kTHh7hotyEig\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-original-height=\"450\" data-original-width=\"354\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/a\/AVvXsEjtG_7FULUDr6ZQ1ShEg7ZYMvCISaTXWCfWXoLNGLRL7p4DbJ4Kcgc6tTGV3f5kX8UVid7JmYNxEFT7bdc9-q9Sq9vl2SMlgM9h7gjJzF_F0lZHJsec8ePS4ROJhmR3s9tyzOc4MADjCJXpyQ8yvMKn3ktarGzwTgj9Hf_oDEGSs6RXqE3kTHh7hotyEig\" width=\"189\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u00a0reviewed by\u00a0<\/span>Lizzy Walker, Wichita State University<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1;\"><b><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">John B.<br \/>\nAllen, Robert Venditti, and Andrea Mutti, with cover art by Rob Prior. <i>MrBallen<br \/>\nPresents: Strange, Dark, &amp; Mysterious: The Graphic Stories<\/i>. Emeryville,<br \/>\nCalifornia: Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 208 pages, $24.99 978-1984863423. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/742533\/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-and-mysterious-by-stories-by-mrballen-illustrations-by-andrea-mutti\/\">https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/742533\/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-and-mysterious-by-stories-by-mrballen-illustrations-by-andrea-mutti\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1;\"><b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u00a0<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Former Navy SEAL<br \/>\nand renowned storyteller John B. Allen, known as MrBallen online, has<br \/>\nentertained audiences with his unique and conversational narration style, with<br \/>\na focus on the weird and unexplained on his YouTube channel. He also developed two<br \/>\npodcasts: <i>MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark &amp; Mysterious<\/i>, and <i>MrBallen&#8217;s<br \/>\nMedical Mysteries<\/i>. In <i>MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark &amp; Mysterious:<br \/>\nThe Graphic Stories<\/i>, Allen, adapter Venditti, and artist Mutti turn nine of<br \/>\nAllen&#8217;s tales from his popular YouTube channel into a collection of tales of<br \/>\nthe macabre. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">While all of the stories leave<br \/>\ntheir mark, there are a few that stand out. Allen relates what tragedies befell<br \/>\na number of people who ventured into &#8220;The Valley of Headless Men,&#8221;<br \/>\nlocated in the Nahanni Valley in the Northwest Territories. The allegedly<br \/>\nhaunted valley is plagued by strange and horrifying events. Those who venture<br \/>\nin to search for and reclaim the dead often find grisly scenes, and headless<br \/>\nbodies. Nobody knows what is in the valley, but some whisper about white<br \/>\ndemons, <i>waheela<\/i>, or something else. Allen shares various stories of<br \/>\ntragic events, such as accounts of gold prospectors who never make it out of<br \/>\nthe valley, a group of hunters in 1926 where one of the party, Annie Laferte,<br \/>\ngoes missing, and a strange creature is scene stalking the forest later; and<br \/>\nother tragedies that happened along the years.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">&#8220;Thorns&#8221; tells of Elsa, who<br \/>\nbecame a camp counselor in 2012, and had fond memories of the camp as she<br \/>\nattended it herself as a child. The first night at the camp in her new role,<br \/>\nshe is tormented by a horrific nightmare, expertly illustrated in a simple red,<br \/>\nblack, and white color pallet by Mutti, where strange men are forcing a crown<br \/>\nof thorns over her head in front of an angry crowd. As she screams in pain,<br \/>\nvibrant blood drips rivulets down her face. When she wakes up, she finds her<br \/>\nhead aching and her hands are covered in blood. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">&#8220;What I Saw in My Room Still<br \/>\nHaunts Me&#8221; is a personal story of Allen as a teenager when he sees something<br \/>\nenter the room where he and his friends are staying in New Hampshire. It<br \/>\nhappens three nights in a row, culminating in a message for his friend&#8217;s<br \/>\nmother, a recent widow.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">In &#8220;The Beast of G\u00e9vaudan,&#8221; Jacques<br \/>\nis endlessly bullied by other children for being a sensitive soul. He dreams of<br \/>\nfollowing in his uncle&#8217;s footsteps and joining the clergy, but his village<br \/>\nearns a living by farming and tending livestock. Children had been found killed<br \/>\nin the pastures and fields, mangled viciously by what villagers initially<br \/>\nthought was a wild animal. However, with the pattern of killings, they<br \/>\neventually come up with supernatural theories for the murders. From that point,<br \/>\nthe children responsible for tending the sheep ventured out in groups, one such<br \/>\nbeing Jacques, his brother Jean, the ringleader of the former&#8217;s bullying, and a<br \/>\nfew others. One of the boys suggests that Jacques, an expert storyteller, relay<br \/>\nsomething to pass the time, which he does. Unfortunately, the focus is pulled<br \/>\naway from the flock as the story starts to get good. Jean is taken by the<br \/>\nbeast. Now, Jacques must decide: face his fears or run away like the other<br \/>\nchildren.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">&#8220;Make It Rain,&#8221; set in 1983, follows<br \/>\nDon Decker who is on furlough from a jail sentence to attend his late<br \/>\ngrandfather&#8217;s funeral, not out of affection, but as a way to get out of his<br \/>\ncell for a short time. He hated the man, and his ire raises as he listens to<br \/>\nthe well wishes and grief pouring from the other funeral goers. After he leaves<br \/>\nthe services when he sees the corpse move and look in his direction, Don<br \/>\nbecomes haunted, perhaps possessed, by the dead man. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">Other stories included in this<br \/>\ncollection are &#8220;La Mussara,&#8221; in which some friends out on a hike<br \/>\nvisit an abandoned Spanish town with a strange past; &#8220;Bells Canyon,&#8221; where<br \/>\na businessman spends what he hopes to be a relaxing stay in the woods away from<br \/>\nthe bustling city turns into a few nights of terror; a group of Green Berets<br \/>\nface a sinister, legendary creature in &#8220;The Kandahar Giant,&#8221; and a<br \/>\nRussian hunter becomes the hunted in &#8220;Cat and Mouse.&#8221;<span style=\"mso-tab-count: 2;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">As mentioned, Allen has a conversational and<br \/>\npersonal way of telling a story, something which New York Times bestselling<br \/>\ngraphic novelist Venditti succeeds in conveying this adaptation. Mutti&#8217;s inclusion<br \/>\nof Allen&#8217;s likeness at points in the stories emphasizes the storyteller&#8217;s intrusion,<br \/>\nalbeit welcome, in the narrative. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">Mutti&#8217;s distinct and realistic artwork is<br \/>\nfitting for this collection. <span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;\">The book includes a location map where the<br \/>\nstories take place, a section of recommendations for further reading for each<br \/>\nstory, and short biographies of Allen and Mutti, as well as information on<br \/>\nBallen Studios. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1;\"><i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0reviewed by\u00a0Lizzy Walker, Wichita State University John B. Allen, Robert Venditti, and Andrea Mutti, with cover art by Rob Prior. MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark, &amp; Mysterious: The Graphic Stories. Emeryville, California: Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 208 pages, $24.99 978-1984863423. https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/742533\/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-and-mysterious-by-stories-by-mrballen-illustrations-by-andrea-mutti\/ \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Former Navy SEAL and renowned storyteller John B. Allen, known as MrBallen online, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7038380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200938,111399,200939],"tags":[1885,3767,6331,1002,3006,2218,3749],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7038379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graphic-novel-review","category-horror-comics","category-ijoca-272","tag-art","tag-blog","tag-comic","tag-graphic","tag-international","tag-journal","tag-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0reviewed by\u00a0Lizzy Walker, Wichita State University John B. Allen, Robert Venditti, and Andrea Mutti, with cover art by Rob Prior. MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark, &amp; Mysterious: The Graphic Stories. Emeryville, California: Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 208 pages, $24.99 978-1984863423. https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/742533\/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-and-mysterious-by-stories-by-mrballen-illustrations-by-andrea-mutti\/ \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Former Navy SEAL and renowned storyteller John B. 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Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review - Som2ny Network","og_description":"\u00a0reviewed by\u00a0Lizzy Walker, Wichita State University John B. Allen, Robert Venditti, and Andrea Mutti, with cover art by Rob Prior. MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark, &amp; Mysterious: The Graphic Stories. Emeryville, California: Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 208 pages, $24.99 978-1984863423. https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/742533\/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-and-mysterious-by-stories-by-mrballen-illustrations-by-andrea-mutti\/ \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Former Navy SEAL and renowned storyteller John B. Allen, known as MrBallen online, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-08-15T22:38:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":354,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AVvXsEjtG_7FULUDr6ZQ1ShEg7ZYMvCISaTXWCfWXoLNGLRL7p4DbJ4Kcgc6tTGV3f5kX8UVid7JmYNxEFT7bdc9-q9Sq9vl2SMl.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review","datePublished":"2026-08-15T22:38:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379"},"wordCount":865,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AVvXsEjtG_7FULUDr6ZQ1ShEg7ZYMvCISaTXWCfWXoLNGLRL7p4DbJ4Kcgc6tTGV3f5kX8UVid7JmYNxEFT7bdc9-q9Sq9vl2SMl.jpeg","keywords":["Art","Blog","Comic","Graphic","International","Journal","review"],"articleSection":["graphic novel review","horror comics","IJOCA 27:2"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038379","name":"International Journal of Comic Art blog: Graphic novel review - 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