One of the hardest things in life is finding your way home. It’s even harder when you have a key that allows you to travel to any time and world to get home. Welcome to the life of Kitsune and Tamsin.
“Skeleton Key,”  a one-shot by Andi Watson, is about the misadventures of fox spirit Kitsune and schoolgirl Tamsin as they use a magical skeleton key to travel through space and time to find their way home. Along their way they get themselves into some interesting situations.
It’s a ridiculous concept, but it’s a very fun concept. The three stories presented here-“Dead Can’t Dance,” “Room Service†and “Lost Propertyâ€- are all fun and funny in a Sunday funnies sort of way. Musicians summoning a demon? Played for laughs and pulled off nicely. A museum for lost things and no way out? Sounds like a story for some low-budget kid’s show but it’s actually a very enjoyable ride.
Watson’s artwork can also be compared to the Sunday funnies. The black and white pencil drawn characters, though elementary at first, become complex when they interact with the world and characters. The basic colors for backgrounds and random clothing and objects add a visual style that, though simple, is appealing to the eye and shows off the skill off the artist.
Other ways Watson uses colors for full effect is to give scenes certain moods, such as the yellow used in “Dead Can’t Dance.†The yellow, along with the frantic movements of the characters, really gives the reader the sense that the scene is loud and frantic with lackluster music playing in the background.
Watson’s “Skeleton Key†may be simple, but that is what makes it shine. Add in three stories that one sees in the Sunday funnies section of the newspaper and you have a comic that is worth reading. The odd setting itself is worth the price of admission alone. The only downside is that the journey is over too soon and that it leaves you wanting more. Now grab that trans-dimensional and find your way home already and beware of ghosts.
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