THE BAWK-NESS MONSTER

Penny plans to thank Bessie for rescuing her from a scary plunge in the lake three years ago.

Bessie, known as the Bawk-ness Monster, is a part-chicken, part–sea serpent legend residing in Lake Bockamixon. Penny enlists her friends—skeptical Luc and eager Kaylee, a budding cryptozoologist—to help her reconnect with the large, feathered creature. Penny’s mom, unaware of the plan to find Bessie, reluctantly agrees to take the trio camping at the lake, where Penny and her friends don a fake Bessie costume and are soon captured by a group of cryptid poachers. The poacher’s boss, Alvida Scales, a Cruella de Vil type, is a single-minded, child-loathing villain who has built a lair under the lake to cage the various cryptids she’s collected and plans to sell. The trio of friends—and Penny’s mom—heroically rise to the occasion in order to rescue themselves and the cryptids. The human characters possess a lively, sometimes frenzied energy, with swooping gestures, huge eyes, and enormous mouths conveying emotion. The bright backgrounds, dynamic speech balloons, and many open frames are equally energetic. Kaylee is Black; other major characters read White. A flashback shows Luc’s evolving gender identity. Goetter and Riess provide an illustrated inside look at their process of creating the graphic novel, from concepts to thumbnails to inking.

A spirited mix of excitement and broad humor.