The Squickerwonkers Act 1

Selma is a spoiled young lady who always gets what she wants… or she was, until she met the Squickerwonkers, a family of marionette puppets with a lesson to teach the bold and forceful young lady. Now she’s one of them, and with access to her father’s fortune, they’re happy to venture out into the world and explore. As they encounter a strange man selling curious wares, Selma demands nothing but the finest for her enjoyment, and despite the warnings of the other Squickerwonkers, it just might be her undoing.

Fitting the macabre and funny style of the first book, Act 1: The Demise of Selma the Spoiled delivers yet more dark and delightful dealings with the Squickerwonkers, the kind Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak would throughly enjoy, given the lessons Lilly codes into the text alongside the mayhem.

The art has changed from the original, leaving behind the spotty smeary grit of The Pre-Show</em for a warmer, scratchier, swirlier aesthetic. It’s as if both the characters and the art style have grown and flourished in the meantime, expanding outward to fill the greater narrative space. It’s an intriguing choice, one that lends a different flavor to the proceedings.

The Demise of Selma the Spoiled is weird and wonderful, showing that truly anything — as long as it’s macabre and unexpected — can happen in the world of the Squickerwonkers.