Creepy Scarlett is a figure from Sunnyville folklore. Some say she’s a great evil who once destroyed Sunnyville, while others say she’s heroic and saved the town, but no one is quite sure which story is true. In reality, Scarlett is some sort of supernatural entity who possesses superior combat abilities, a love of candy, and is trapped in Sunnyville’s cemetery except on Halloween of each year, which is when our stories take place.
The best way to describe Creepy Scarlett the character is to combine Buffy, Spike, and a dash of Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and set her free on the world. Like Buffy, Scarlett is heroic, just wants to live a normal life (well, normal to her), but will serve as the only obstacle between evil and power. Like Spike, Scarlett is selfish, takes what she wants, and is downright scary at times. Like Drusilla, Scarlett can be a bit mad; she frequently talks to a teddy bear, hosts tea parties with animals, and will change her priorities for the promise of candy. There’s a lot we don’t know about this character, her origin, exactly what she is, all she can do, or even if she is good or evil, but if you can put your gnawing questions to the side for a moment, Scarlett is a fun character. While Creepy Scarlett does deal with some serious issues, Scarlett herself never gets dramatic or broody about the conspiracies against her. In fact, she’s more likely to get distracted and do something bizarre to pass the time and let others worry about the details.
Interestingly, there is a bit of time jumping in this title, mainly due to the fact that Scarlett can only leave the cemetery on Halloween of each year. The small window of time to tell stories seems really limiting for an ongoing series, but assuming at least one crazy thing happened each Halloween, Creepy Scarlett will have many stories to tell. I wasn’t sold on Creepy Scarlett‘s depictions of 1968, but this might be because I was coming at it with American sensibilities. The different times are a great opportunity to change up the setting of the cemetery and Sunnyville to keep things fresh, so I hope we’ll see more different eras in future volumes.
While the book has several artists, the style remains fairly consistent across story arcs. There are a few rough points in the art, but overall it’s effective. The action scenes are brutal and well plotted out. Some of the action poses look painful, or at the very least poor tactical choices, but Scarlett is never put in any overly sexualized poses. The art style does not do subtle well in either emotions or action, so it’s a good thing that Creepy Scarlett plays to their strengths.
While action-packed, Creepy Scarlett isn’t afraid to have fun along the way. There’s a bit where Scarlett hides beneath a cardboard box and the Metal Gear Solid aspects of the scene are played up in a nice tribute that fits well within the story and doesn’t take away from the rest of the plot. This is only one of several allusions to other work hidden in the background and geared towards the theme of the story arc. An oddity in the book that’s really quite cute is the way Scarlett and the other characters talk about Mr. Ted as if he were alive. In fact, it’s so pervasive that I kept expecting him to start speaking at any moment, but as far as Volume 1 shows, he’s just a bear, even when zombies are more interested in eating his “brains” than Scarlett’s.
Creepy Scarlett Volume 1 is available for free digitally and is available for purchase in print. You can find links to both, as well as additional information on the series, including some preview pages of Volume 2 here. In addition, there are a couple of Creepy Scarlett short movies which can be found over at www.youtube.com/user/lastsunsetfilm.
