I am obsessed with Mr. Ballen and have watched almost all of his videos on YouTube. I was so excited that he was writing a book and even more excited it was a graphic novel. When I started the book, I planned on reading one story before bed but I ended up finishing the book. It was written perfectly and I could hear Mr. Ballen’s voice as I was reading. The illustrations were amazing as well. I hope this becomes a series because these were amazing!

Engaging and interesting from beginning to end!

I was curious what this would be like as I am familiar with his channel and content. I personally enjoy graphic novels so everything about this was attractive to me.

I like the way the stories are told and the way the illustrations tell the story. It's all so creepy and compelling but very accessible and not overly graphic/mature.

I loved this ARC and I am ready to read the rest of the chapters that will be released when it is fully published!

MrBallen Presents Strange Dark and Mysterious: The Graphic Series
by: MrBallen + Robert Venditti
Illustrated by: Andrea Mutti
due 10-1-2024
Ten Speed Graphic Novel

From the mind of the very popular YouTube podcast 'MrBallen Presnts', John Allen (known as MrBallen) has taken som eof his most bizarre and terrifying stories of paranormal, true crime and unsettling occurances, and presented them in graphic form. MrBallen has a unique and exciting way of telling a story with energy and enthusiasm. The illustrations are as beautiful as they are haunting and pair well with the stories. Masterfully drawn, each picture could stand on its own. Really wonderful art.

Read about the "Valley of the Headless Men", about the Naha Tribe of Nahanni Valley and their search for gold. Learn of what happens when teo strangers meet snowboarding in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My favorite was "Bells Canyon"

Buy this book for the creepy exciting stories. Buy this book for the haunting art and illustrations. Buy this book . Its fantastic.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending thid e-book ARC for review.
#NetGalley #MrBallenPresentsStrangeDarkMysteriousGraphicNovel

I am new to Mr. Ballen so I don't have the enthusiasm for this book that I see fans of his have. The art was fantastic. The stories interesting.
What I Saw In My Room Still Haunts Me was my favorite of the collection. The rest are hit and miss as tends to be the case for story collections. Even the ones that I felt were lacking are still beautifully shared.

I love Mr. Ballen and was excited to see this graphic novel on here. The artwork is great and the character of Mr. Ballen is spot on. I do wish all the stories were included so I could review the entire book, but what was here is great.

As I have been an avid fan of Mr Ballen for years now, when I heard he was creating a graphic novel version of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious series, I knew I needed it in my life!

This novel includes a number of tales which can all be read separately and are relatively short, making it a perfect one to pick up when you don't have a lot of time to delve into a book.

I found this to be thoroughly entertaining, eerie and visually pleasing. I'd recommend this one to anyone with an open mind who loves to learn about others' unusual/unorthodox stories.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this one before release - I can't wait to buy myself a physical copy!

This was more of a taster, several chapters held back until publication.

I hope I can read them but I’m overwhelming overwhelmed here. The art services, the stores are illustrative of the content from John on MrBallen. If you dig that you’ll dig the book. If you’re into horror comics you may well enjoy this volume as well. But just from the ones in this taster book it’s rather low on jump-scares

amazing story narrations with the most beautiful graphic art. highly highly recommend for viewers of mrballen content on social media

I am a big fan of conspiracies, creepy sightings and all things unexplainable in the world and this book checked all those marks. I usually find that because of my curiosity about this subject, I am normally re-reading stories that I have already heard. This book finally gave me some stories that I was unfamiliar with and kept me turning the page.

I am excited to see this book on shelves eventually. I did not like however, the chapters that were missing from the pre-published copy. These stories seemed very exciting and I'm bummed that I couldn't experience these with the rest of the titles.

This was every bit as awesome as I was hoping and expecting it would be. I'm a huge fan of the Mr. Ballen youtube and podcast already, but as a bookworm- I've been dying to have the strange, dark, and mysterious stories in reading format!
The artwork is beautiful and portrays each scene wonderfully. All of the stories are eery and told just as you would expect from Mr. Ballen. There are exclusive stories that are not in the digital version right now, and I can't express how excited I am to read them now once release day comes! There is a map at the beginning that shows where each location is. Each story also has a section in the back where you can find sources and read more into them. I appreciate that both the author and the artist have an "about" section as well.

I was beyond thrilled to see two of my (and many other's) favorite stories, The Valley of Headless Men and Bell's Canyon, included. I also noticed the original Mr. Ballen story, which is the absolute best addition- where it all began!
This book is so cool, and strange, dark, and mysterious fans everywhere will love it!

Fantastic artwork! Amazing storytelling (as always) but as a huge Ballen fan, the highlight so far was the retelling with visuals of John’s snowboarding story (“What I Saw In My Room Still Haunts Me”)! Very excited to read the original stories!

I'm a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious so I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of this graphic novel ahead of its release and it was just as awesome as I imagined. I can't wait to have it on my coffee table.

As someone who's listened to every episode of the podcast, I hear his voice throughout this and I think it was so clever and original. I think MrBallen is one of the greatest storytellers of our time and I feel lucky to have found him.

If you're interested in more of this content, please invite the Amazon pre-order button over for dinner, but use their phone to order several copies of this book when they're in the bathroom.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and MrBallen for the opportunity to read and review. It's beautiful. I can't wait for more.

I enjoyed this book and was disappointed there were four chapters left out. The stories were spooky and interesting. However, this is not a book I would buy my own copy of.

Thank you to Netgallery and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for an early release copy of Mr Ballen Presents; Strange, Dark, & Mysterious by MrBallen. This book will be available for purchase on October first of 2024.

I’ve been a fan of Mr.Ballen for a long time! I’m really excited to see them release a book! I’ll have to admit the art style isn’t quite what I was expecting but it did grow on me towards the end with the more detailed environmental scenes. My favorite story from in here has to be the one titled Thorns! However the story that haunts me the most has to be the Bells Canyon one. While reading I could literally hear the way he narrates “Do you know where bells canyon is?” In that creepy modulator voice.

1. The Valley of Headless Men ★★★★✩
2. Thorns ★★★★✩
3. What I Saw In My Room Still Haunts Me ★★★★✩
4. Bells Canyon ★★★✩✩
5. The Kandahar Giant ★★★✩✩

I still remember when I found Mr. Ballen's channel about a year ago and became engrossed in his videos. I couldn't stop until I had binged them all, and I've been watching every Sunday since then, eagerly anticipating each new upload. That's why I was so thrilled to receive this arc. The storytelling translated well into this format, and the illustrations were absolutely stunning. The only downside is that the arc is missing four stories out of the nine total. However, I thoroughly enjoyed each of the five included stories and look forward to reading the rest once the book is officially released!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

These stories are some of the most popular MrBallen cult classics, and for good reason. They are captivating, interesting, and brought to life here in a stunning graphic novel format that is easy to finish in one sitting, or broken up into several short reading sessions. (Four stories were not shared in the ARC I received, but I'm sure they're great too.) The writing is slightly different than the video versions that MrBallen has on his channel, but even though they were rewritten by John Allen's sister, Evan Allen, and her team, they still manage to capture the essence of John's narrative style. Because they're slightly different, they're fresh, and even if you watch the story immediately beforehand (like I tried with one story) it doesn't feel repetitive.

The artwork is stunning, both on the cover and in the stories. Well done artwork by Rob Prior and Andrea Mutti, respectively. The graphic novel format really brings these tales to life in a new way, even if, like me, you've already listened to them multiple times on MrBallen's YouTube and Podcast.

Any fans of MrBallen, or of the strange, dark, and mysterious told in story format will enjoy this hauntingly beautiful book. I will be picking up a hardcopy of this once it releases later this year. I can't wait to read the other four stories!

Thank you to MrBallen, Ten Speed Press, Ol' Seagull Lung, (Not you Like Button), Ballen Studios, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I am honoured to have been chosen as one of the ARC readers after listening to MrBallen for years.

Lastly, to all those who shared their stories and experiences within this book, and with MrBallen over the past few years, I hope you find peace.

(Please note that this review will not be shared publicly until the week of publication, as per the publishers request.)
This review was written on May 25, 2024
This review will be shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, & Tiktok.

This is full of fun stories and the art is done really well. I enjoy that they went for a Tales from the Crypt style for the set up here, brought me a lot of nostalgia from being a horror loving kid. Not a huge fan of this man's podcast but I definitely left this book feeling happy with it.

LOVED the mood of this story collection! It felt very dynamic and atmospheric, the stories were quite engaging and I love that there are additional information sources linked for those who'd like to know more. I would say it was quite refreshing to read scary stories based on real events!
P.S. Can't believe the chapter I was looking forward to reading the most according to the location's description is redacted :( Will have to wait for the official release, haha!

My husband is a huge fan of MrBallen's podcast and YouTube channel. When MrBallen announced an upcoming graphic novel, I knew we had to have it. The artwork was brilliant and beautiful and it raised MrBallen's stories to a whole to level... parts were especially more creepy than in the initial podcasdt/video, thanks to the artwork. I can't wait to purchase a copy to read the 5 excluded chapters.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Awesome graphic novel with such captivating, true stories. I've watched Mr Ballen on YouTube for years and was so happy to be able to read this early! Will definitely be recommending to friends.