Review by Karl Verhoven

Peaches can talk to monsters, which is useful in a world where there are a lot of them about, although they’re usually well hidden. She seeks them out accompanied by Jonny the Golem, about whom we know very little. He’s big, he’s made of clay, and he’s promised to protect Peaches, and she needs protecting as secret agents are on her trail.

A series of short episodes follow the very similar pattern of Peaches and Jonny showing up in an area where there’s supernatural activity, getting into trouble despite her talent, and then settling the mess before moving on. Peaches is a bit of a globetrotter, as these sequences occur all over the world, but we have to be told this by caption as Dan Boultwood draws no backgrounds. The vampire cat community could be just down the road from the ghost dog rather than them being located in Romania and Japan respectively.

The whole book has the look of individual panels re-arranged on colour backgrounds so that what was originally a page or two comics is stretched over ten.

We’re a third of the way through Peaches’ Creatures before Ned Hartley has Peaches reveal “I’ve been travelling the world putting together a team of monsters for one reason… We’re going to pull off a heist”. At this point a little more background is disclosed and while it bolsters what Peaches is doing, it opens up a whole new set of problems. To expect resolute logic in what’s a comedy horror strip for children is setting the bar too high, but Hartley uses that as a loophole too often and even younger readers are going to question some aspects, such as a left turn into Sherwood Forest.

Boultwood draws goofy monsters in lively situations, and Peaches is suitably sinister and mysterious, but he’s battling against the formula scripts. Very occasionally Hartley rises above, such as a succession of challenges undertaken by Jonny the Golem, but that’s the only page in the entire book with nine panels.

How Peaches and Jonny got together in the first place is a question hanging over the entire book, and it’s answered in the flashback final strip. It has a charm and warmth often lacking in the earlier material, which is too much rush and not enough plot.