
“Vandalism”
Welcome back to Strange Times & Places, where today we’re taking a faintly Halloween trip into the kid friendly with Lil’ Ernie #1!
How’s It Different?
It’s an imaginary story, reimagining the undead serial killer Evil Ernie as an incorrigible little rapscallion called Awful Ernie. This one-shot was released as part of a Lil’ Dynamite series of one shots alongside Lil’ Sonja #1, Lil’ Bionic Kids #1, Lil’ Battlestar Galactica #1, and Lil’ Vampi #1 – a more ironic take on Dark Horse’s Itty Bitty offerings and DC’s Tiny Titans.
What’s The Story?
Awful Ernie is a wannabe juvenile delinquent who “defaces” tombstones (with toothpaste), cheats on his homework (poorly), and breaks into a zombie family’s house Goldilocks style while is professional conscience, Smiley, tries in vain to keep him on the straight and narrow.
Best of Differences
- Instead of Evil Ernie’s two abusive parents, Awful Ernie has one fairly loving – albeit doddering and zombified – dad looking out for him.
Ernie’s peers
- Smiley is reimagined as Awful Ernie’s skeletal conscience, still egging Ernie on but in pretty well the opposite way of his “Evil” counterpart.
- Ernie is notably among the undead that appear in this ish, appearing markedly alive throughout.
- The person most hurt by Ernie’s misbehavior is himself, a noted change from the whole “spree/mass/serial murderer” thing his adult counterpart has going on.
Worst of Differences
- While meant to be somewhat ironic, this comic is akin to a recasting Freddy Krueger as a misbehaving rapscallion – it just feels very
Speaking of Freddy, Come Back Next Week For a Halloween Edition of Scripting Errors!