The Donna Party is a comic episode of Beyond Belief.
Purchase[]
Cast[]
Plot[]
Donna is very excitedly moving into her new house. She worries briefly about people not wanting to come so far outside of the city to her attend her housewarming, but as long as her best pal Sadie turns up she'll consider it a success.
Donna starts to hear strange noises, and begins to suspect her new house might be haunted. Donna threatens the ghosts with bringing in Sadie to no avail, and so she calls Sadie for help.
Sadie tells her to find a safe place nearby (a bar, obviously) and assures Donna that they'll handle things. Frank is reluctant to leave their apartment as they only just got back from a trip to get Donna's housewarming gift. Sadie insists and the two of them hear off.
Frank and Sadie arrive and Sadie admires Donna's new house. Although they agree the house doesn't look haunted, Frank warns Sadie that sometimes appearances can be deceptive. Ghosts immediately turn off the power, plunging the room into darkness.
The Doyles notice the wall of dolls that came with the house, and Sadie rushes to play with them while Frank pours the two of them a drink. Sadie asks the doll if it would like to have a tea party. Frank warns Sadie that, due to being in a haunted part of a haunted house, the dolls might not want to have a simple tea party. The dolls come to life and attack the Doyles.
The Doyles defend themselves using various items from Donna's house, and Sadie goes to look from something more substantial to use in Donna's hall closet (like an umbrella or a croquet mallet). While searching, Sadie finds an otherworldly gateway. The Doyles enter it to find themselves upstairs. Frank is annoyed by the ghostly room-switching. Sadie looks out of the attic window and notices that it has changed from day to night, and suspects that they are now in the house's past.
The Doyles exit the attic the way they came only to find themselves outside, even further back in the house's past. Fortunately, they spot a staircase leading to their way back. Unfortunately, Sadie brings up the concept of a tea party again while they are toasting this discovery, summoning the ghosts from before.
The force of the Doyles love for each other pushes back the spirits easily. The Doyles head back into the house discussing their theory on the source of the house's haunting - that the house was built on grounds tainted by dark rituals and sacrifice, and that the grounds themselves now crave human blood. To protect Donna, all they'll have to do is gird the house for her.
As they reenter the house, the Doyles discover that they are out of booze, and go in search of more. They discover the ghosts of the house's previous occupants, May Ellen Capp and her husband, Ted. The ghosts attack them, spilling the Doyles' drinks. Sadie talks to May, having spied her name on one of the boxes in the house's attic, and May calms down.
Sadie explains that the anger and desire to kill May feels isn't really her own, and that it belongs to the dark spirits, and May reverts to a more human ghostly form. May explains that when she was still alive, she became enraged at Ted's hatred for her doll collection and killed him. Frank explains that it wasn't really her anger then either, but that of the dark spirits.
Ted attempts to calm Ted down, and when Ted looks upon the more human ghostly form of May he begins to forgive her, lessening the dark spirits hold on him. While the two ghosts are distracted, Frank draws an "Enno" banishing sigil and sends the two ghosts into the afterlife.
Donna returns and thanks the Doyles for their help. Donna asks if they want to stay and help her unpack and the Doyles tell her that they do not (but they'll be back next week for her housewarming.
While heading out the door, the Doyles are stopped by Donna's next door neighbor, Joy Oxnard. She was told to come and get the Doyles by the monster that lives under her bed. The Doyles look, and see the monster sulking by Joy's window, and he gestures for them to come inside. The Doyles head in to investigate.
Notes[]
Continuity[]
- This is the second comic book episode of Beyond Belief.
- This issue was released on April 22, 2015.
- The previous comic issue is A Spirited Romance (BB #0).
- The next comic issue is Some Things Under the Bed are Dueling (BB #2).
Production[]
- Writers: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
- Pencil Art & Cover: Phil Hester
- Ink Art: Eric Gapstur with Ande Parks
- Color Art: Mauricio Wallace
- Letter Art: Marshall Dillon
- Cover Colors: John Rauch
- Variant Cover: Annie Wu
- Variant Photo Cover: Allan Amato
- Beyond Belief logo design: Chris Eliopoulos
- Packaged & Edited: Nate Cosby of Cosby & Sons Productions
- Book Design: Nate Cosby & Vincent Kukua