Page 45 Review by Stephen
Monstrous, magnificent and, oh, so cool!

“Pop out! Fold! Glue!”

It’s as simple as that: no safety scissors required, just glue and added glitter if you fancy, for in addition to 50 full-colour, pre-scored mummies, mutants and assorted malevolent meanies there are 10 blank templates for you to design yourselves then follow the equivalent instructions. That’s genius!

We will so be building these for ourselves and I think Page 45 deserves its own moribund monster, don’t you? You know, in addition to that bald dipsomaniac behind the counter who comes off like a cross between Nosferatu and the Addams Family’s wine-addled Uncle Fester. He’s a walking, talking, lazy-assed liability, but he’s better off cared for within the community than without.

I discovered this book at Gosh! in London while waiting for Eddie Campbell’s slideshow and signing. I’m of the view that it’s only polite to put something in the pot if you turn up to a shop hosting a comicbook creator’s appearance, and since I had all the Campbells (and have them all signed - we’ve hosted Eddie ourselves), I scoured their shelves to see what we might have missed out on. Couldn’t find any new graphic novels (we have 7,000 different titles of our own), but I did discover this and Josh at Gosh! and wee Hayley Campbell told me it was this Christmas’s biggest-selling book. I can believe it!

The designs are thrilling, funny and often quite elaborate but the instructions are easy to follow. Plus each has a background story which often interlinks with others’. You can create your own history and nonsensical nomenclature to go with whatever your fevered mind confects in confabulation and I’m still addressing adults. 10-year-old girls and boys are going to squeal at first sight then delight you for days - not just with their absorbed, enormously satisfying silence whilst fashioning these multi-coloured miscreants, but with their end results! A house full of horrors! Windowsills of wonder! Beasties strung up on nigh-invisible fishing wire which your bonce will bump into and curse at forever and ever!

It’s quieter than giving them a drum kit anyway.