Writer: Dan Parent*
Pencils: Dan Parent*
Inking: Jon D’Agostino*
Lettering: Bill Yoshida*
Coloring: Barry Grossman*
Original Publication: Cheryl Blossom, No. 20
Cover Date: March, 1999
Length: 5 pages
*Only the lead story in the issue is credited. I assume the credits apply to all of the stories.
Although I have the original issue, I’m reviewing this story from the digital edition.
Cheryl and Priscilla are at a fancy auction. Cheryl talks of her love of them. Priscilla says all of this stuff belonged to a very aristocratic family. She also says “this” house was rumored to be haunted. Is the auction being held in the house? Anyway, Cheryl is intrigued. The next item up for bid is an antique dresser, which Cheryl finds awesome.
Cheryl immediately bids $5,000, which Priscilla finds crazy. Cheryl wins.
Later, at home, Cheryl runs to the door in excitement when her dresser from the Blake estate arrives. Jason believes the place is haunted and doesn’t even wanna be near the dresser, which Cheryl finds beautiful.
That night, while Cheryl’s asleep, the dresser’s top drawer opens, waking her.
Cheryl gets out of bed and shuts it, but it opens again. She guesses it’s probably just loose and decides to fix it tomorrow. She hopes that’s what it is. In this panel, Cheryl clearly has blue eyes.
The next night, before going to bed, Cheryl exposits about how the repairman said nothing’s wrong with the drawer. Later, the top drawer opens, and Cheryl’s clothes are thrown out. Cheryl gets up, scared. But then she figures it’s her asshole brother Jason’s doing.
Cheryl runs down the hall, screaming for Jason. Penelope pokes her head out of her bedroom and tells Cheryl to shut the fuck up. She tells Cheryl that Jason is staying at their cousin’s house tonight. Cheryl is now “officially” scared. And she clearly has blue eyes.
Cheryl goes back to bed and hides under her cover with her flashlight. She hears noises, shines her flashlight, and sees her silk nightgown moving across the floor. She thinks it’s “a spirit or some kind of evil creature of the night” before realizing it’s her own clothing. Still, it is moving on its own, seemingly.
Cheryl picks up her nightgown and discovers a squirrel underneath. She investigates and discovers a hollow compartment behind the drawers in her dresser. It’s full of leaves and nuts; the squirrel has been living in it. The commotion brings Penelope and Clifford to her room. An amused Cheryl holds up the squirrel and explains. Penelope finds it cute. Cheryl explains she thought the dresser was haunted. Clifford screams in horror. Cheryl asks him what’s wrong. He found the price tag that Cheryl had left on the dresser. Do auction sales come with price tags that list the final bids? Somehow, I doubt it. Still, Cheryl’s worried.
This story was pretty fun. Not much to it.
And that’s the end of Dan Parent’s run on Cheryl’s solo title. He’s been with the title since the beginning, writing from Cheryl Blossom Special #1 (and even cowriting various stories before that) and drawing from issue #4 of the ongoing title. Both he and inker Jon D’Agostino (who has been with the ongoing title since the beginning) are leaving.
Overall, I’d say Parent did a decent job of bringing Cheryl Blossom, a character created in 1982 and largely written by Frank Doyle, into the 1990s and modernizing her, even if some of her newer stories haven’t aged well, and even if the writing wasn’t always the best.
Dan Parent has returned to the character of Cheryl Blossom in the years since, of course, but, for now, we say farewell and await the new writer.
Riverdale Reviewed 