Maxwell Dark is on a mission to help kids hunt down and defeat the nightmares haunting them in this chilling horror graphic novel filled with monsters and mayhem.I'm Maxwell. Please don't call me Max. I have a gift that I was born with, although most of the time it feels like a curse.That gift—or curse—allows twelve-year-old Maxwell to sense, experience, and enter other kids' nightmares. He drifts from town to town, drawn by the darkest dreams, till he can help people defeat whatever is truly haunting them. With seventy-three clients and counting, he's seen every monster there is to face.
Or so he thinks, until he meets Sid. Sid's dreams start off as typical nightmare fare, but soon they get weirder. Creepier. Impossible to ignore. As Maxwell goes deeper and deeper into Sid's nightmares, he starts to realize he may be trapped in one of his very own…
On sale: April 1, 2025
Age: 8-12 years
Grade: Grades 3-7
Page count: 208 Pages
ISBN: 9780593751138
Reading level: Lexile: GN530L | Fountas/Pinnell: U
Brady Smith (bradysmith.com), an illustrator and fine artist, also wrote and illustrated the graphic novels
Louie and Bear in the Land of Anything Goes and
Louie and Bear Bite Back as well as the picture books
You're Missing It! (with his wife, Tiffani Thiessen),
I'm Getting a Shark!, and
Bug Sandwich. He has exhibited his paintings in a number of galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston. He has his own illustration and design company, Brady Smith Creative. Also an actor and writer, he has appeared in and written numerous TV shows and movies. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, two children, three dogs, eight chickens, and one fish named Goldie Han Solo.
"Smith (
Bug Sandwich) deploys stylized cartooning rendered in psychedelic color to depict human characters (portrayed with varying skin tones) dwarfed by multi-eyed monsters, tentacled terrors, and snotty, toothy, creepy cryptids, while thick line art reinforces the frenetic feeling of entrapment in a strange and horrific place. Each chapter of this promising graphic novel series launch boasts thrills and humor that’s sure to impel readers into the next volume."—
Publishers Weekly
