Summary
Scary Go Round (SGR) is the new webcomic scripted and drawn by John Allison. In the
webcomics community, Allison is fairly well-known for his previous strip, Bobbins.
After discontinuing Bobbins in May of 2002, Allison moved on to create SGR with a similar (but more developed and pleasing) artistic style but a different tone and general plot.
SGR merges British situational comedy with class horror, which articulates itself in a
number of different ways, including gaseous murderers, giant devil beetle gods, and zany
inventions. The overall storyline sounds like someone merged the Twilight Zone with Murder,
She Wrote and asked the cast of Seinfeld to stand in one day. It's funny. Seriously.
Stories Thus Far
Gas
The first mystery that the story centralizes on begins with Rachel Dukakis-Monteforte, a Tackleford University student, being instructed to journalize more. As such, she is made editor of the school newspaper, which hasn't gone to print in ten years.
Rachel is joined by her friend Tessa Davies (and fellow journalism student), and both decide to explore the abandoned newspaper office. Upon entering the office, they finds it has remained untouched since the previous staff disappeared ten years before. Soon after, both are threatened by the same force that murdered the previous newspaper staff members.
As noted in another write-up, Tessa and Rachel are of Bobbins fame.
Fair
Soon after the 'Gas' episode, cast members Shelley Winters, Ryan Beckwith, and Tim Jones are preparing for a science fair in Tackleford. Tim, an inventor, shows his newest invention: a glow in the dark duck, so people can feed ducks at night.
Tim's nemesis, Seamus Fogerty is also at the fair, entering using one of Tim's prior inventions. When Fogerty ends up dead, Tim is jailed and everyone must try to figure out who the real murderer is, even as more people are killed.
Meddling
You read the previous stories, right? No? Well, you should do so before reading this part.
Ryan goes out to the pub alone, missing Shelley who died in the 'Fair' storyline. He leaves the pub with a necromancer, who inadvertantly helps raise Shelley Winters from the grave as a zombie. Ryan and Tim try to protect and understand her, even as zombie killers appear to remedy the problem.
Endorsements
SGR links to (and is linked from) a number of popular webcomics.
These include:
Link and Updates
Scary Go Round is updated several times a week, at www.scarygoround.com. The first SGR book, Looks, Brains, and Everything can be preordered for £10 (UK) and will be released mid-April 2003. It covers the storylines pertaining to Shelley Winters, and includes 8 additional pages of story.