GOGO MONSTER MINI-REVIEW

Just a few quick words about Taiyo Matsumoto's GoGo Monster. I really enjoyed this book, about a young boy who may or may not be in contact with otherworldly spirits who inhabit the restricted fourth floor of his elementary school. Mastumoto's distinctive, European-influenced artwork elevates what in other hands may have been a too on the nose parable about growing up, and losing that childlike sense of the world as a magical place we all once had but that many lose. The story culminates in a bravura sequence, a dark night of the soul in which Our Hero discovers a fifth floor in his four story elementary school, and engages in a kind of spiritual battle with the beings he finds there. Scary stuff. I liked that the spirit creatures did not appear in the actual book, only on the cover, and that they do so there in colorful, fully painted brilliance. This book would have made my Best Comics of 2009 list had I gotten around to reading it in time. Great ending.