Franco Aureliani and Agnes Garbowska, Peach and the Isle of Monsters (2021)

Peach and the Isle of Monsters

Published: 2021
Acquired: October 2025
Read: November 2025

Written by: Franco

Illustrated by: Agnes Garbowska

Colored by: Zac Atkinson

Lettered by: Marshall Dillon

Way back in 2013, I helped fund Franco Aureliani and Art Baltazar's Aw Yeah Comics on Kickstarter, a series of kid-friendly superhero comics. It recently occurred to me that my seven-year-old would enjoy these, and I dug them out of my shortboxes. Doing so triggered a dim memory, that I was pretty sure the series was supposed to have twelve regular issues and two annuals... but I had only received one (Cora De Flora from Bora-Bora). I went digging in my e-mail and found a note from 2017 that the second one, Peach and the Isle of Monsters, was then-forthcoming. (Like many Kickstarters, it certainly took its time coming out.) Well, I never received it, so I decided to see if it had ever come out. It did indeed... though not until 2021! Chasing down a 2021 release from a 2013 Kickstarter in 2025 seemed a bit asinine, so I bought a copy on the secondary market instead so that me and my kid could finally read it.

Like all of Aw Yeah Comics, it's cute and aimed at kids. Peach is a girl (I think teenage, though this is hard to tell with the art) thrown out of her home by her adoptive father; she goes with other kids to Monster Isle, whose inhabitants have been attacking her homeland. With these other kids, she discovers there's more to both herself and the monsters than she thought. The book contains two forty-page stories; I'm guessing it was originally intended as two separate issues because the first one ends with the credits. The second story has Peach meeting up with pirates, (unfortunately stereotypical) natives, and a glowing monkey. Franco Aureliani's writing is quick and lively, sometimes too much so—the beat of Peach being tossed out by her father goes by way too quickly and is much too dark for the tone of the rest of the comic. Agnes Garbowska's artwork is very cute, and a clear match for what Franco is doing in the writing.

I think probably there are deeper kids comics out there, but I don't know if this is aiming for deep; my kid seemed to enjoy it a lot, which is probably enough, though it's not as funny as Franco's work on the regular Aw Yeah Comics line.