Review by Ian Keogh

Originally issued as The Adventures of Scarygirl, Nathan Jurevicius repackaged the story for reissue to coincide with the release of a Scarygirl movie in Australia. Asture readers will note the cover features the girl with the tentacled arm from the cover, while within Scarygirl is seen in her original form with the hook on her right hand and just a bone protruding from a sleeve as her left arm. Along with scars and eyepatch she certainly lives up to her title billing.

Scarygirl is found in a swamp by giant octopus Blister and their bond is immediate. However, she’s haunted by dreams of a mysterious man in a red hat, and in preference to comfort and security she decides to search for him, which is when she first meets spiritual rabbit Bunniguru. These names are only supplied in character profiles before what’s a completely wordless adventure aimed at young adults, but with equal appeal to fans of Tim Burton’s films.

Jurevicius draws a magical world populated by creatures who’re creepier variations of the sort common to children’s stories. Bright digital art with an emphasis on design results in psychedelia as Scarygirl is led to explore one new environment after another, most of them decidedly disturbing, but Jurevicius is able to incorporate mad diagrams, mazes and races in a very adaptable world. As there’s no attempt at stylistic consistency it adapts to anything Jurevicius wants to play with.

Such is the creepy nature of most of those Scarygirl talks to, there’s never any certainty as to who can be trusted, and at the beginning Blister is very suspicious of Bunniguru. The uncertainty is unintentionally increased by virtue of some pictograms substituting for dialogue being hard to follow, especially a sequence concerning possible treasure.

The preparation work is reproduced after the story in appealing black and white sketches looking so different from the digital illustration you’d swear it was a different artist. It displays that what may have seemed a random progression through new areas had actually been categorised beforehand.

Because there is some scary content, this isn’t quite suitable for all ages, but young adult readers will surely admire the skills, thrills and imagination.

The first third of this story was originally published in Australia alone, just titled Scarygirl.