Carnival Chaos

Cuphead #1

by Ron Bates

Fans of the award-winning and visually stunning video game can see Cuphead, Mugman, and friends like never before in this original, illustrated middle-grade novel. Join them on their adventure as they make merry mischief in the vibrant and topsy-turvy world of the Inkwell Isles!


It's a special day on the Inkwell Isles: Elder Kettle's birthday! Yes, sirree, it's a very special day. So Cuphead and Mugman need to find the perfect gift to honor their beloved mentor. But along the way, the brothers and their new friend Ms. Chalice are captivated by the sights and sounds of the carnival that just rolled into town. Despite Elder Kettle's warning that the attraction is filled with liars and thieves, the trio gets reeled in.


At the carnival, the friends are bamboozled and burgled by enemies, old and new. Will they escape the chaos and get their gift before it's too late?



Includes over 20 never-before-seen illustrations drawn by Studio MDHR's Lance Miller that feature hidden items for an interactive treasure hunt!




Cuphead in Carnival Chaos is the first book in an original series and perfect for players of Cuphead, and readers of Hello Neighbor, Bendy and the Ink Machine, and Five Nights at Freddy's.



© 2020 StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cuphead(TM), the Cuphead(TM) logo, StudioMDHR(TM) and the StudioMDHR(TM) logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc. throughout the world.

Genres: Comics, Childrens, Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Ron Bates began his career as a newspaper reporter in Texas, and later became an editor and columnist. His humorous features led him to a job as the resident humor columnist for three of Legacy Publishing’s regional magazines. As a freelance writer, Bates’ works include the children’s story, “Arnold Bought a Bug,” and “St. Mary’s and the Art of War,” the true story of how Italian POWs transformed a tiny Texas church. Bates also wrote the Cranium Comics series “Brawn,” the inspirational play, “Flight 1615,” and “Underground Ink,” a collection of funny poems. An award-winning copywriter, Bates lives in Frisco, Texas. howtomakefriendsandmonsters.com

Reviews

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you see Cuphead Carnival Chaos on shelves, be they virtual or digital, you may ask yourself: who is this book for? Fair question. There are two answers. One is obvious, and the other is semi-obvious. The obvious answer: Cuphead Carnival Chaos is for fans of Cuphead. The semi-obvious answer is that this book is for kids. I know nothing about kids, other than having virtually identical hobbies to most elementary-level young-ins. Carnival Chaos won’t reinvigorate your love of prose, nor will it take your breath away with nuanced characters. You know what it will do, though? Make you exhale through your nose in that pseudo-laugh we all do when nobody else is around to laugh with us.

Read my full review at The Quill To Live

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The video game is fun. This book was also fun. It's basically an old style cartoon in book form. It's not a comic book. It's a full story. I could easily visualize everything that was going on. The story is funny, adventurous and wholesome. Good for young readers and adults that like retro cartoons and like the Cuphead video game.

[Landon Scobee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic for fans of the game or if you're just stepping into the Inkwell Isles. For fans, you get a close look at an ensemble of characters, both new and old, with oodles of reference in the chapter to chapter images, complete with a "spot the item" game after reading, with little to no compensation. For folks who aren't familiar with Cuphead, this is an excellent start if you think the game is too tough for you. It's a darn shame there's only two of these books...

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the silliest books I've read! It was so fun and reads like a classic cartoon. My kids had a blast and a great time was had by all of us. I'm excited to read the next one!

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I see the appeal to children. I read this book out loud to my 8 year old. He absolutely adores Cuphead and was very excited to find books. I think it's fine. It's readable and it has decent writing and good pacing. After awhile it feels very repetitive. It really gives that feel of "defeating levels" each chapter and feels like a game, which his fine, but it does make it difficult to get through at points. Every chapter follows a formula of introducing the new "level" there is a struggle, and then the character leaves. It does this for about 20 chapters so by the end I was over it! LOL. I think a bit of variety to the narrative would have done wonders to make it more enjoyable.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was tons of fun to read to my kiddo, he delighted in the jokes, the cliffhangers, the characters...he had a great time! Bonus for him was going back and finding all the hidden items in the chapter pictures, which he was very excited to do!

For me, this was an excellent book to read aloud! Some kids novels are really not written to be read alouds and sound far more awkward than reading silently. Not the case with this book. It was a pleasure. I enjoyed the pacing and the characters, and i enjoyed that while written for grade school children this book isn't dumbed down, its written easy, but clever, and I appreciate that.

We've already gone and bought the next book, and I can't wait!

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to see characterization expansion on several characters from the game and...looks like the brothers are in trouble again. Plus why do I think-feel characters from the future DLC just made an early bird cameo!

[Mark Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick and easy. My son loves cuphead so he was very excited. He’s played the game and watched the tv series. We’ve read a few comics and read this together. 4/5. But a fun one with most of the characters involved. We look forward to reading the next one.

[Çınar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Brandon Longwell]

I love Cuphead! This book reads just like an old cartoon, goofy slapstick comedy for children.

[Damian Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely FANTASTIC.
I've Been A HUGE Cuphead Fan since the first game came out.
Such a Great Book!!

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny if you like the game. Son loved it.

[sanstheskelepun · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing

[Thien Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because there's fun and crazy stuff.

[Jacob Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fine fluff, with enough zealous, Adventure Time-style silliness in the writing to make the obligatory world-building and excess of characters bearable.

[Harper Glaviano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why Will liked this book, cuz he likes Cuphead, but I don’t like Cuphead, tsk this book wasn’t my thing.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read!

[Bruce Nieminski · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

272 pages

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like the story dragged a bit after Hopus Pocus chapter 16. Ending was a bit anticlimactic as well. I preferred book 2 over this one.

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely funny book I enjoyed with my son. Better than the second one.

[forky wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

He did a great job of capturing the feel of a cartoon. Very fun.

[BurgerBrawlFan96 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book, I read the whole book during my reading time at school and I wasn't disappointed, the story is good, the art style is amazing, and it reminds me a whole lot about the game, the things I like about it is that the character act like how I imagined they would act, the story of the book fits well with how the characters personalitys are, really good references to the game it originated from, and its just a really good book with it's secrets too, only bad thing i can say about the book is that the story can get repetitive sometimes, but my rating is is 8/10

[Rachel Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is humorously and delightfully written! An easy read and joy to look at as well.