REVIEW: School: A Ghost Story

School: A Ghost Story (2005-2007):Reviewed by BRYAN SCHUESSLER

Published by Deftoons! Cartooning and Comics

School: A Ghost Story is an independently written, drawn, and produced comic-book done in black and white by Brian Defferding. I first met Brian at Horror-Society’s B-Movie Madness where he had a table promoting and selling his comic, School: A Ghost Story, as well as some matted artwork in black and white that depicted pages from the comicbook. Those were what initially caught my eye and what led me to wander over to his table and see what he was all about.

I used to be a huge comic-book collector and I think, like a lot of people, it just came to be too expensive to continue collecting all the individual issues of all the titles I so dearly loved and needed to collect. Being an all or nothing type of person, I begrudgingly gave up and collect certain titles and certain issues here and there. Sometimes it may just be an issue that has a particular cover that the artwork is too awesome to pass by, like one of my favorite artists Simon Bisley, or just like Brian Defferding’s artwork, the scene was too powerful and gothic-driven for me to just dismiss it.

School comes off to me as a traditional gothic tale of a girl, Lindsey Buckner, who was brutally murdered and possibly sexually assaulted/raped and is now a ghost. The comic takes you through it all just as she is “living” it and each surprise that she encounters we,as the reader, encounter as well. One already knows I love the artwork in every issue. Defferding has a style and flair for creating art that is very pleasing to view and each frame can stand alone as a piece of artwork itself.

The only complaint I had while reading the 4-issues that he had published was the font. The story was not your typical font that you would read in the big league comic books and that probably was why it was fairly difficult for me to read. The lettering was sized differently and I could have enjoyed the story far more if I didn’t have to “work” so hard at reading it. But that would be my only nit-picky gripe about an otherwise professionally drawn and written comic-book that was all put together by one man.

School is an intelligent look into the mind of a lost and terribly hurt teenager that plays upon her fears and being utterly lost at having been murdered and thrust into a “world” of sorts that is somewhere in between heaven and hell. Lindsey Buckner’s character asks the questions that one would ask about the afterlife. I felt myself, as a living and breathing man, thinking that many of her thoughts, fears, and views on what was going in the story may have been the same as mine. Brian Defferding has created a character in Lindsey that causes one to feel emotion over and care about what her outcome may be. Pair that with the incredible artwork and you have a winning comic-book.

Some of the comics I grew up reading were Faust, Lobo, Green Lantern, Milk and Cheese, and Punisher War Journal (just to name a few!) and I have read read all the comics in between. Give School: A Ghost Story a read and do not think that just because the premise is a school and teenagers that this a read for the kiddies! As I said earlier, Lindsey was brutally ans savagely murdered and possibly raped- Brian deals with all these issues and more in a no-holds barred artwork and graphic nature. If the story did not deal with it that way, you would be reading an unfavorable review to this and not a positive review. I am looking forward to reading issue #5 which is only waiting on the funds from sales to get published and available for buying at Brian’s website, www.deftoons.com.