Review by Ian Keogh

Prunella is a nice little girl living in a town where there’s a great fear of monsters. An unfortunate time, then, for her to discover a magic ring that transforms her into a living skeleton. Matthew Loux has already shown how small-minded some folk are, so Prunella is fortunate that she’s only exiled. Her quest is to rid herself of the ring in the hope this will revert her to her usual appearance, and the monsters prove very helpful with that as she’s led from one possible source of help to the next.

While the direction of Loux’s plot is predictable, it’s a memorable adventure due to his art. He ensures the scenery is somewhere you’d want to visit, and conceives dozens of friendly monsters, all them thoroughly mismatched and better for that.

Despite her predicament Prunella remains upbeat and friendly and discovers that if you treat strangers with politeness and respect they’ll respond in kind. As that’s happening she’s shown wonders she’d never have seen without being friendly such as the rock stacking techniques of the Stone Megaliths and fire breathing fights between dragons. She picks up a whole posse of helpful companions along the way and Loux eventually supplies a great simple solution to Prunella’s problem.

Loux is aiming at children, and supplying the moral that sometimes you can be better off among people you don’t know than the hateful ones you’re familiar with. However, he overemphasises his point, avoiding shades of grey. Normal looking people whip up demons to fear while the monsters outside the town are friendly and accommodating despite their unusual appearance. The generally upbeat attitude and cheery art, though, carries Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring a long way, and provides a creative adventure in which to wrap the message.