Solomon E Visits the Peak Shift Mad House

Look alive gigantic ghouls and miniature mummies!

Today’s review will examine a comic called “Peak Shift – Mad House” from Botcomics. This five-issue long series first began in mid-February 2014 and ended in early December 2014.

Malenkaya wrote the series. Malenkaya has written a large number of illustrated stories for Botcomics including, but certainly not limited to, “Giantess Containment Bureau,” the original “Peak Shift,” and “Red Pill: Legalized.”

TIK drew it, but one must note that there is conflicting information regarding the art credit.

When first released the individual chapters, such as the cover for the finale seen above, credited TIK for the illustrations. However, the series cover seen below lists Peter Logan (a.k.a. Mariano Navarro) for drawing & inks and Chris Flash (a.k.a. Hernan Cabrera) for color & letters.

To my eyes the drawings do not look like Navarro’s work. Furthermore, the illustrations were consistent throughout without any indications that more than one artist was involved. So, I think TIK drew the entire run. However, please comment below if you have contradictory information! Not for nothing, but I would appreciate it if Botcomics ensured the artists it employed were properly recognized for their contributions.

Peak Shift – Mad House was clearly inspired by the “Saw” franchise. That franchise began in 2004 with the movie Saw and its overwhelming financial success led to numerous cinematic sequels, comic book tie-ins, video games, etc. The basic premise of Saw is that a terminally ill psychopath captures people and forces them to participate in deadly games to test their will to live. For instance, in the original film the antagonist Jigsaw built a test in which his victims would have to saw off one of their own feet to escape. Like Saw, Peak Shift – Mad House began with multiple individuals waking up and wearing restraints in a dingy windowless room while a voice on a monitor gave instructions.

Mixing the terror of Saw with size fantasy could have been a lucrative proposition. Rapidly growing larger can be depicted as a horrific sequence. Such was the case in DC Comic’s “Justice” 12-issue limited series, published from 2005 until 2007, in which supervillain Giganta grew into a giantess via an uneven process that looked painful. Alex Ross’s artwork evoked body horror during the transformation. Peak Shift – Mad House could have followed suit, but it did not.

The plot starts with the mysterious overseer saying the individuals need to grow larger if they want to escape, but the narrative quickly became muddled without any rationale given for why these particular people were chosen. No one appeared to be particularly evil and deserving of potentially fatal Saw-like punishment.

One woman called Shauna apparently had “… always been ready to step on people to survive,” but that description was too vague to condemn her. It would have been more damning if she stepped on people merely to achieve financial success and advance her career. However, if it was truly a situation in which she needed to step on people “to survive” then that sounds more like kill or be killed which is certainly not a good thing, but is more understandable. No one was given a proper background and the overseer’s motivation for their capture was unknown. In general, the narrative was a mess with random events happening without a strong through-line to connect them.

In the first Peak Shift a university researcher analyzed a growth formula which his fellow scientist and fiancée then used without his permission. In Mad House, a “terrorist” got a hold of that formula and used it to form the trap.

It must be noted that despite the scary cover this was by no means a scary comic. People died in Saw, but no one even suffers the slightest injury in this comic. Thus, it was puzzling when one character said “You have brought me the greatest pain and pleasure imaginable.” Despite her claim of suffering great pain, no one so much as said “ow” or suffered a bruise or bleed even the smallest amount in this entire series. In contrast, this much more closely resembled a typical ZZZ comic in which many men and women fuck and grow larger. Nothing wrong with that, but the cover could definitely misled people into thinking this was a scary story.

There were several typographical errors such as a sentence which read “You were the one who promised to go stop until not a drop was left.” Presumably, that should have been “not stop.” In another example a sentence read “What you were monologing [sic] and Jayne seemed preoccupied” which should have been “While you were monologuing and Jayne seemed preoccupied I did something.”

Additionally, there was several continuity errors such as a character allegedly holding a shotgun when in actual fact she held a semi-automatic rifle.

In another instance a character smashed a glass against a wall, but that character had not been holding a glass in the preceding panels. There was also a sequence involving long serum-filled tubes which according to the dialogue had needles on the end, but those needles were never actually drawn. Characters had bizarrely colored eyes, such as a short-haired blonde with orange eyes, for no apparent reason. In the first few pages of the first issue a character did not have a shackle on her left wrist for the first two pages then the bracelet suddenly appeared without any explanation on the third page.

Overall, I cannot recommend Peak Shift – Mad House. This could have been a great size-themed horror comic, but the awkward dialogue, lack of art continuity, and nonsensical story make this an easy pass.

That is it for today. There will be one last review before the month ends so stay tuned for more size scares!

This review was written by Solomon E and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.

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