Guest Author - Monica Flink
A small, unassuming graphic novel, The Grave Robber’s Daughter didn’t exactly stand out to me at first. There’s no massive page count, no cult following. Richard Sala’s eighty page graphic novel seems to be doomed to the bottom of any bookshelf, or the sale rack at Barnes and Noble. Yet, between the pages is an adult-oriented Nancy Drew style mystery with a bit of the macabre mixed in. There is something alluring in the way you are drawn in by the simple artwork, the familiar characters and the horror of what is truly going on that you don’t realize you’re afraid until the very end.
The plot of The Grave Robber’s Daughter follows Judy Drood to Obadiah’s Glen when her car breaks down. There, she discovers a quiet, strange girl named Nellie Kelley, and an old house full of sinister and murderous teenagers. All your normal mystery fodder until a gaggle of eerie, perpetually smiling-in-a-sinister-way clowns make an appearance, and Judy discovers that a wine cellar full of jars is something far more horrifying than she could have imagined. The end is slightly predictable considering the title of the book, but it feels as if no other ending could be quite as appropriate as the one that Sala has provided.
Unfortunately, there is very little to say about the artwork. Clean 50’s style black and white drawings that at some points date the work, though it was only published two years ago fill the pages of the book. The only color representations are on the cover, showing the dour blue dress of Nellie, as well as the continually frightening faces of the aforementioned clowns. Simplicity is sometimes the best treatment for such simple works of fiction, but in the end, you always feel a little let down, as if you know you deserved better art or more color for such a story.
The best thing about The Grave Robber’s Daughter is perhaps the fact that it is an extremely quick read. There are no long pages of exposition, nor any long-winded pages of just massive amounts of artwork in a small space that has to be analyzed for ten minutes before it shows any sort of sense. No, Sala’s novel is definitely for someone who wants to read something for just a little while, and not be bothered with sequels, continuations, or lengthy prose. But that doesn’t make it bad.
Perhaps the best statement to describe The Grave Robber’s Daughter by Richard Sala is the old adage of “It is what it is.” There is nothing spectacular about it, the story is even pretty predictable, but somehow, Sala lends charm to his story with a colorful protagonist who doesn’t shy away and run at the first sign of trouble, as well as a large bunch of clowns that, let’s face it, creep out everyone.
