3 out of 5

I’m really surprised this didn’t work for me: kid-respecting, well-arted, fantastical kid comic-lit?  Seems like my bag.  And Andy Hirsch’s art plus Fred Stresing’s colors are to die for.  However, I’ve experienced reservations with Langridge previously: a lot of his projects feel “safe” to me, and when I read an interview with the man, he did come across as a bit of a fuddy-duddy.  ‘Peculiars’ is a lot of goofy fun at points, but the essence of that sensibility still hovers over it, keeping it from feeling like it ever pays off with truly big laughs or big thrills.

Still, we have one of those great Goonies-esque premises, where disparate folk come together for mismatched-ensemble yuks and to resolve some oddity.  Our folk are a bundle of orphans (more or less) plus an expressive dog named Wellington; Langridge does the role divide in the typical high / mid / low balance: the uptight one, the raggedy one, and the bipartisan chick as the middle-man.  Wellington is comedy relief, and rightfully earns the most chuckles.  Our foursome gets conscripted by one Sherlock Holmes to solve the dastardly case of the coming-to-life statues, which unfortunately breaks down to a ridiculously basic cause – they’re all golems – and thus is more mined for comedic effect.  So, yeah, despite Holmes and the mentions of mystery, that’s not what the book is: it’s an adventure tale, and it’s a well-told one.  The kids are sharp, navigating through the dangers and challenges effectively, and Langridge balances their investigations with plenty of cutaways to the cockney lead golem.

The energy is high for the first couple of issues, when the kids are in it for the money and thrills and the world is stuffed to the gills with flavor from Hirsch, but once we pass the introductory stuff, the “safe”ness tamps down on things, and it starts to feel very standard Saturday-morning-cartoon.  Even though the lessons are “modern” – girls can do stuff too! – it loses the zaniness, which sucks the air out of the final confrontation.  Not that we ever feared for the children’s safety, it just feels like the story is going through motions it kicked off – i.e. following its own trail, not enthusiastically writing it as it goes along.

Mind you, the overall quality and consistency of the writing is polished; Langridge is a veteran, and can definitely tell a story from start to finish.  However, all the witty reader-winking eventually can’t distract from the pretty standard construction, at which point we’re relying on the buoyancy of the art to carry us through.