My Rating
“Dr. Giggles – Part 02”
The doctor is in, and the prognosis for Moorehigh isn’t looking good. Dr. Evan Rendell has returned home to continue the family practice, and business is booming. Unfortunately, his idea of preventative medicine usually involves scalpels, surgical instruments, and a body bag.
Jennifer Campbell has problems of her own. A dangerous heart condition has followed her since childhood, and the one person she definitely doesn’t want examining her is Moorehigh’s newest physician. Yet, as Dr. Giggles cuts his way through town, Jennifer soon discovers that his interest in her is anything but random. The Rendell family and her own past share a connection soaked in blood.
With bodies piling up and the doctor’s twisted medical procedures growing increasingly gruesome, the survivors must find a way to stop him before Jennifer becomes his final patient. But Dr. Giggles has been waiting a long time to perform this particular operation—and nobody leaves his examination room without a scar.
Can Jennifer survive the doctor’s final house call? Will Max arrive before Dr. Giggles performs the operation of his dreams? And can anyone permanently revoke this madman’s medical license?
Collect the series to find out…
Review
There really isn’t much I can say about the second and final issue of Dr. Giggles that I didn’t already mention with book one. The artwork is serviceable, but nothing spectacular. I actually enjoyed the coloring quite a bit, although there is one particular sequence where things go completely off the rails.
During the story, Max decides to cheat on Jennifer with one of the more promiscuous girls from their graduating class. The problem is that during this scene, the colorist uses almost the exact same colors for Jennifer and the other girl. Their hair and clothing are so similar that, for a moment, I thought Max was actually with Jennifer. Talk about confusing! I’m not sure if there was a miscommunication between the artist and colorist or if Dark Horse was simply rushing the book out to meet a deadline. Either way, somebody should have caught it before the issue went to print.
My Complaint
My bigger complaint with the Dr. Giggles comic-book adaptation is just how much of the movie has been condensed to squeeze everything into two issues. I rewatched the 1992 film last night, and the difference became immediately apparent. Dark Horse removed quite a bit of the transitional material that explains how one scene leads into another. Characters suddenly appear in different locations, Dr. Giggles pops up seemingly out of nowhere, and some of the connective tissue explaining why certain things are happening is simply gone.
That’s not a huge problem if you’ve already seen the movie. Your memory can fill in the missing pieces. But what about somebody picking up these comics in 1992 who hadn’t watched the film? I imagine there would have been more than a few moments of, “Wait…how the hell did he get there?”
A Shame
That’s a shame because I don’t think the problem was necessarily with the source material. Dark Horse simply needed more room to tell the story. Stretching Dr. Giggles into a three-issue adaptation would have allowed the creative team to keep more of those transitional scenes while giving the characters and murders a little more time to breathe. Instead, issue #2 feels like somebody hit the fast-forward button as the story races toward the finale.
Even with those problems, I’m glad I stumbled across both issues. They’re fun little relics from that wonderful period of early-’90s horror when studios were still desperately searching for the next Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, or Michael Myers. Dr. Giggles never reached those heights, but Larry Drake certainly gave it his best shot.
I would recommend the Dr. Giggles comics primarily for the nostalgia factor and for collectors of old horror-movie adaptations. However, if you have to choose between the two, watch the movie. It’s a wonderfully cheesy example of low-budget 1990s horror and gives the story considerably more room to work.
As for Dark Horse’s two-issue adaptation? Another three out of five stars.
The doctor is officially out!