Wrapped Up Volume 1 features Milo, a twelve year old mummy who’s passionate about pizza and skateboarding. If you want to embarrass him just call him ‘Beetle’. Milo lives with his mummy Mum, archaeologist stepfather Henry and older stepsister Jill. For some reason poor mummy Dad lives with this blended family and no one seems to be weirded out by this. The next door neighbour is a wizard that has no name and is friends with Milo.
I’m not sure how this works but mummy Mum and mummy Dad wound up with a mummy son, even though, being mummies, they’ve been dead for quite a while. This is one of those graphic novels where you need to suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow. For example, in the introductory story a gorilla interrupts the family’s pizza dinner by crashing through the wall and then falls in love with Milo.
In Night of the Pizza Knight Milo wishes he could have pizza every day and No-Name-Wizard who appears perpetually drunk and/or stoned (potions are mentioned) grants Milo’s wish. They hadn’t counted on the arrival of the Pizza Knight or the ire of a cheesed off (sorry!) pizza delivery guy.
In Mummy vs Wild Jill asks Milo to meet her at the zoo. Amira, who we haven’t met until now, tags along with Milo. Once at the zoo the three split up and all of a sudden Milo is being chased and crawled over by zoo animals. This was my least favourite story in the collection.
In The Babysitter’s Flub Milo’s mummy Dad is going on a date and has arranged for Milo to have a witch in training babysitter that is younger than he is. This story features a chocolate milk cow and a psychotic pizza.
In The Ewww-y Decimal System Milo’s mummy Mum has a job for Milo at the library where she works. She needs him to locate the book that someone shelved after vomiting in it as the smell is (obviously) bothering the customers.
In Killer Cats and Mummy Wraps the wizard next door is certain that evil cats are trying to kill him.
In Keep It Down Milo can’t sleep because of the teenage jock frogs having a party in the back yard.
In Hungry, Hungry Kaiju it’s up to Milo to save the day when a ravenous monster causes havoc.
In Children of the Night Jill is having a picnic with her vampire friends one night in the cemetery (as you do). They realise they’ve been caught and have to bail, leaving their snacks behind 😢, but the person behind the torch light isn’t who they thought it was.
In Night of the Creepy Kewpie think Chucky but it’s a Kewpie doll instead and it’s decided Milo is its father.
In Halloween Treats Milo and the Wizard-With-No-Name learn what becomes of the discarded Halloween candy that nobody likes.
My favourite character in this strange family is Jill. She rocks awesome purple hair, loves vampires, has great clothes, jewellery and makeup, and works in a comic book store.
There were several artists involved in this collection. My favourite artwork was by Scoot McMahon and would have preferred it had they illustrated the entire book. There wasn’t anything wrong with the other artists’ work. I just really liked Scoot’s style.
My favourite panel features a gigantic purple cat doing a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man impersonation by reaching for Milo and Wizard-Man who are on the roof of a building. The awesome thing about this gigantic cat is that it’s actually all of the cats joined together to form the shape of the “man-cat”.
This collection was a bit of a mixed bag for me. There were a couple of stories I wasn’t a fan of and I felt the others needed to be fleshed out (apologies again!) some more. I enjoyed the stories more once I stopped questioning everything that didn’t make sense to me and let them flow over me instead. The series itself has potential and I’m interested to see where it goes from here.
Thank you very much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.
Once Upon a Blurb
Milo is just your average twelve-year-old boy. His loving parents are mummies, his best friend is an old wizard, and his babysitters are witches. When Milo isn’t busy at school or visiting the comic book store, he loves to hang out with cool teen vampires, play with magical kitties, feed a hungry kaiju, and avoid a love-crazed gorilla at all costs. You know, typical kid stuff.
Schizanthus Nerd 