Monster Mayhem by Christopher Eliopoulos (review)

Every adult in young Zoe's life—her loving parents, who have their hands full with their new triplets; her teachers at the Advanced School of Technology; the projectionist at the movie theater she visits alone every Saturday—wants her to make friends, but she's an introvert and, in their eyes, stubbornly independent. The one time she tried to open up to a new friend, her feelings were hurt, so Zoe, a robotics genius and big fan of kaiju films where giant monsters and robots attack big cities, just doesn't see the point. When she comes across a magical wish-granting ring (a holdover from Eliopoulos' previous graphic novel Cosmic Commandos, BCCB 6/17), a giant, building-eating monster tracks her down and puts her tech ingenuity and capacity to make friends to the test. While the original monster helps Zoe fend off his kind, she has to enlist classmates, teachers, and her father—along with a variety of her own inventions—to save the city and find a new home for all of the monsters. Eliopoulos' muted palette, line work, and friendly draftsmanship (his characters have oversized heads à la Bill Watterson or Charles Schulz) are comforting as additional monsters arrive to threaten the city. The action never really catches fire here, and the conclusions are forgone from the get-go—Zoe will make friends and the monsters will be harmless. Nonetheless, this graphic novel moves briskly through a story that playfully celebrates the kaiju genre.