While I enjoy these videos immensely, when I found out that MrBallen had a book coming out, I thought that sounded interesting and thought it would be worth checking out. So, when I got the opportunity to review Strange, Dark & Mysterious, I jumped at it.
Interestingly, MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious presents nine stories in a graphic novel format. The comic artist, Andrea Mutti, uses color and shading well to convey emotion and action and to heighten tension, which fits with the nature of these strange, dark tales very well.
Fans of the true-life aspects of true crime, real mysteries, unexplained paranormal and strange-but-true tales will appreciate the introduction (in which MrBallen shares how his love for these sorts of stories came about), the included world map that points out the locations that each of these stories come from, as well as MrBallen's personal connection to a couple of the stories. What I saw in My Room Still Haunts Me, is, in fact, MrBallen's firsthand account of a chilling ghost story, where the ghost was the recently deceased father of a close friend he would go snowboarding with. The friend's father had, in fact, gone on snowboarding trips with them. They went snowboarding in his memory, to honor him... and it seems that he joined them for this one last snowboarding trip... but from beyond the grave. MrBallen begins The Khandar Giant with his personal account, although he wasn't a witness of the event. He was told about it, after it happened, while stationed in Khandar while being debriefed on the dangers of the local cave systems. He didn't follow up on the story until he had begun his YouTube channel as MrBallen and discovered some authentic sounding reports from Green Berets.
However, those who enjoy researching such stories further will undoubtedly appreciate one of the final chapters, Further Reading, which provides six pages of references to sources for several of the stories. Additionally, in Acknowledgements, MrBallen reveals that the people who lived through Thorns and Bells Canyons shared their stories with him directly.
Given the graphic novel format, MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious: The Graphic Stories isn't a long read. It is, however, a very interesting one. Additionally, should you find yourself interested in jumping down a rabbit hole on one or more of the stories, the included references provide more than a tipping off point for doing just that.
I enjoyed these stories quite a bit and can see myself picking the book back up some rainy lazy winter evening and poring over the stories accompanied by a warm mug of hot chocolate.
