Do you love reading ghost stories, but hate being scared? Well, get ready for some spine tingling adventures of your favourite Wimpy kids, Greg and Rowley. But instead of getting spooked, the book will have you rolling on the floor with laughter. Author Jeff Kinney is diving into a new genre known as ‘comedy horror, with his latest book, “Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories”.
The new book, which released on March 16, follows Greg’s best friend, Rowley Jefferson’s imagination, and it is packed with zombies, vampires, ghosts, and many more spectres! Got goosebumps?
Keeping up his series of safe book tours during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kinney will embark on a haunted house-themed drive through book tour across the U.S for his latest book. He plans to also stop at Casper (the friendly ghost from the 1995 eponymous film comes to mind).
Ever since the first book in the series hit the stands in 2007, the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” has become wildly popular with young readers, who can relate to Greg Heffley the protagonist. A prolific writer, Kinney comes up with at least one book every year.
All about comedy horror:
You might think that horror and comedy are as different as dalk and cheese. One is about scary monsters, and the other is about delightful goofs and wordplay. And yet, when you put these different themes together you get something even better.
Comedy horror as a genre originated after the publication of Man Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. Many authors came up with parodies on the classic, and the trend picked up. In children’s literature, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps” series made the genre popular.
Comedy horror books tickle your funny bone, but make you want to sleep with your lights on!
Socially distant tours
To keep fans entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic Kinney devised fun, but socially distant book tours. In July 2020, Kinney gave out signed copies of “Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure via a custom-made 96-inch trident: That’s not all Kinney hosted a pool party-themed drive-through for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End in October. Sounds fun, right?
From Igdoof to Wimpy
Right from childhood, Kinney loved to draw, but he wasn’t very good at it. So he developed his own drawing style – with stick figures and bug-eyed characters.
Drawing inspiration from his surroundings, he created comic strips about the life around him. One such comic strip was “Igdoof’, which Kinney ran in his college newspaper at the University of Maryland. However, his work looked too juvenile and so he never received any offers from big newspapers. In 1998, he came up with the idea for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. Kinney worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher. The series started off online on Funbrain.com in 2004 and made its print debut in April 2007.
Picture Credit : Google
