School Bus Graveyard (Comics Giveaway Day)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We saw this one at Alpha Comics during Free Comic Book Day and decided to check it out. As Wendy picked up a copy, a fellow comic book fan told us how amazing the series is and how we should definitely check it out. Based on a popular horror-themed webtoon, School Bus Graveyard finally sees print!

 

The story opens with several kids running through the woods, each of them armed. A girl with long braided blonde hair asked for the time. A kid with glasses says eight minutes. The girl hears footsteps behind them and says it's close. The kids continue to run as the dark figure runs behind them. They run into an area filled with abandoned school buses. One of them yells for them to close the gate and they do so. The monster arrives just as the gate's metal doors close in its face. 

The monster bangs upon the metal gate but it can't get through. The kids breathe a sigh of relief and head towards one of the buses. As they get inside, one of them finally says 'that sucked'. As the kids try to relax, the sounds of the monster banging against the gate stopped. One kid said it probably gave up. Just then he sees the monster stepping into the bus.

The kids freeze as the monster slowly walks towards them. The girl asks if they can open the back door, but it's blocked by the bus behind it. The monster lunges towards them. As it swings its claws at them, one of the kid's watch's alarm went off. The kids are suddenly gone, confusing the monster. The school bus is empty. 

 

The girl wakes up, back in her bedroom. She comments that it was 'way too close'. She checks her phone and sees messages from her friends, Logan, Aiden, Taylor and Tyler, all of them checking if they were alright. Ben asks if anyone finished their homework. The girls turns to see her unfinished homework and decides to screw it and go back to bed. Her friends agree.

Later that morning, the girl, which we now know is named Ash, gets on the school bus. One of her friends, Aiden, says the previous night was rough, as Ash clearly looks exhausted. Aiden tells Ash he finished the homework and asks her if she wants a copy. Ash is surprised that he never seems out of energy. 

Ash, Aiden and Ben show up to the class, looking exhausted. Their teacher, Mr. Thomas notices they the kids are like this every morning and wonders if they always stay up all night. Tyler, Taylor and Logan come in, looking just as tired. Taylor is sleeping at her desk. Mr. Thomas asks everyone for their homework.

The school bell goes off, waking Ashlyn up. She laments that she fell asleep in class, but she notices her classmates did too. She thinks they're going to fail at this rate but can't do too much in their situation. As she grabs her books, Aiden says they're going to grab lunch together and talk about 'stuff'. Ash knows this means they'll be talking about the phantoms.

As everyone grabs lunch and chat away, it's clear our group is completely worn out. One of them says they should return to Savannah. Logan says he thought everyone agreed it would be too dangerous. Tyler says they can't leave things the way they are. Ash says they're rather be semi-stuck than permanently stuck. Tyler says if Ashlyn told the truth from the beginning they never would have been stuck at all. Aiden says Tyler called the whole thing a prank. He asks if anyone would have believed Ash if she had said anything earlier.

Tyler stands up and says Ash should have said something whether he would have believed it or not. He says they're stuck in some demonic dimension, running away from flesh eating creatures and he lost of count how many near-death experiences he's had. None of them have slept in days and they can't tell their parents or anyone. Aiden slams his hand on the lunch table and motions him to keep quiet. Tyler sits back down and says what else can they do if they don't go back to Savannah where it all began. Everyone is quiet.

Ashlyn thinks that Tyler's outburst was annoying but understandable. If they go back, they can figure out what's happening and how to escape.... or they could make things much worse... 

My Thoughts-

Well... this might have just been my copy but the first thing I noticed was how several of the pages of the 'first half' (before you each the staples in the middle) were stuck together. I don't mean stuck together due to gum or whatever, I mean like the pages weren't completely cut right. I checked the book to make sure it wasn't part of a fold out pin up or some sort of gimmick... but no.. the pages just weren't cut all the way. 

 

I had to use a knife to slowly and carefully split the pages without actually tearing or ripping them up. I guess the comic was so strongly horror-themed, I had to put a knife to it before even reading it.

Based on the synopsis on the back, Ashlyn is a loner type but she had to make friends real quick after a school trip went horribly wrong. Now there are these creepy phantoms that only they can see. They can't harm them during the day, but once night time hits, the kids are sent to this other world where they can be killed. Now Ashlyn has to trust her new friends if they want to survive long enough to break this curse.

The story has a pretty cool as we're thrown into the thick of it. We see the crew barely survive a phantom attack. We see that this has been going on for a while and the toll it's taking on the kids. They allude to things like 'going back to Savannah' and 'if only Ash told us sooner', so you're gonna have to get volume 1 to get the full story. There's a very 'Nightmare on Elm Street' vibe as it looked like Ashlyn and the others woke up 'just in time' before being killed in this school bus graveyard.

 I assume there's a flashback coming up which details the field trip mentioned in the synopsis, as well as examples of Ashlyn being a loner before circumstances forced her to change. Volume 1 is coming out in June and Volume 2 will be coming this Fall.

The art style is simple, though serviceable. The artist does a good job conveying the exhausted body language as well as the dark circles over the characters' eyes. The phantoms are also simplistic-looking for sufficiently creepy. You do NOT want these creeping running around the dark corners of your home. 

The comic also comes with a pin up showing the kids sleeping at their desks, each of them showing a thumbs up as the phantoms lurk around the classroom. I wonder if there's a lore reason for the thumbs up or if it's just a pin up thing.

I'll keep an eye out for this one. I'm, at the very least, intrigued about how Ashlyn and her friends found themselves in this situation. This webtoon became popular enough to see print, so Ink Pop must be onto something. 

Have you heard of this webtoon? If so, leave your thoughts in the comments.