Category: Horror Stories

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Black Max: Volume 2


By Frank S. Pepper, Alfonso Font & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-862-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Astounding Air Ace Action… 9/10

It’s time for another sortie down memory lane for us oldsters and hopefully a fresh, untrodden path for fans of the fantastic seeking a typically quirky British comics experience.

This stunning sequel selection delivers one more stunning nostalgia-punch from Rebellion’s superb and ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, collecting more episodes of seminal war/horror shocker Black Max.

The strip debuted in Thunder #1 and ran the distance: surviving cancelation and merger and continuing into Lion and Thunder until that magazine finally gave up the ghost mid-decade.

This second volume carries the next wave of those stories, covering May 15th to December 25th 1971, with the periodical perils rounded out by longer yarn taken from Thunder Annual 1973.

The series is typical of the manner in which weekly periodicals functioned back then: devised by screenwriter, veteran Editor and prolific scripter Ken Mennell (Cursitor Doom, Steel Claw, The Spider and many more) with the first episode limned by the company’s star turn for mood and mystery Eric Bradbury (Invasion, The Black Crow, Cursitor Doom, House of Dolman, Hookjaw and dozens more). The whole kit and kaboodle was then handed off to another team to sink or swim with, which they did until 1974: a pretty respectable run for a British comic…

In many ways, the attrition rate of British comic strips bore remarkable similarities to casualty figures in war, but this serial was well-starred. The assigned writer was Frank S. Pepper. who began his legendary comics career in 1926. By 1970 he had clocked up many major successes like Dan Dare, Rockfist Rogan, Captain Condor, Jet-Ace Logan and Roy of the Rovers to name but a very, very few.

Series illustrator Alfonso Font was a ten-year veteran – mostly for overseas publications. Based in Spain, he had worked not just for Odhams/Fleetway but on strips for US outfits Warren and Skywald and continental classics such as Historias Negras (Dark Stories), Jon Rohner, Carmen Bond, Bri D’Alban, Tex Willer, Dylan Dog and more…

Episodic by nature and generally delivered in sharp, spartan 3-page bursts, by the time of these trench warfare and skyborne tales the premise and key characters were firmly established and Pepper & Font were growing bolder and more experimental…

In 1917, the Great War was slowly being lost by Germany and her allies. In the Bavarian schloss of Baron Maximilien von Klorr, the grotesque but brilliant scientist and fighter ace had devised a horrific way to tip the scales back in favour of his homeland. His extremely ancient family had for millennia enjoyed an affinity with bats and the current scion had bred giant predatory versions he controlled by various means – including telepathy – that flew beside him to terrify and slaughter the hated English. Initially, they had been a secret weapon used sparingly but by this juncture soldiers and aviators knew well this other form of death from the skies…

His schemes were imperilled and countered on a weekly basis by young British pilot Tim Wilson of Twelve Squadron. Originally a performer in a peacetime flying circus, the doughty lad was possibly the best acrobatic aviator on the Western Front and his constant encounters with von Klorr and the colossal chiropteran constantly frustrated the manic monster master…

Now, Wilson’s superiors are aware of the fearsome bio-weapons, and thanks to his constant interference, the Baron devotes an astonishing amount of time and effort to killing the English fighter ace …when not butchering Allied fliers and ground troops in vast numbers.

The odds seemed to shift once von Klorr began mass-producing his monsters, but Wilson eventually gained the upper hand: driving “Black Max” out of his castle HQ and into a hidden facility where the villain retrenched and made bigger, better terrors…

The private duel resumes here as extended, multi-part serials became standard. The first finds veteran English Ace Colonel “Hero” Hall quitting his desk job to take personal command of Twelve Squadron, after his younger brother is reported missing after meeting Max’s bats.

The vendetta makes life particularly hard for Tim Wilson and leads to Hall’s gross dereliction of duty in the field, but does send the German into retreat and cost him almost all of his monstrous animal allies…

On the back foot and frantically rebuilding, von Klorr is forced to improvise. Capturing and brainwashing ambitious new British recruit Johnny Crane the evil genius embeds him as a secret weapon against Wilson. After miraculously and obliviously escaping many traps, Tim is eventually captured by his nemesis and subjected to the same torture process, before turning the tables on Black Max and apparently killing the bat man in a spectacular escape…

Of course it’s not true and the Baron resurfaces in London weeks later. Wilson is there too, on sick leave, but as Zeppelins bomb the capital, he stumbles into a plot to kidnap British animal scientist Professor Dutton. Von Klorr needs the boffin to improve the strength of his killer beasts, but cannot resist going after Wilson too: a mistake that scuttles his grand scheme and costs him dearly…

Down but never out, the Baron returns to his regular tactics and familiar killing fields, but suffers another reversal when Wilson discovers his current laboratory base. With only one giant bat and his resources exhausted, Von Klorr relocates to a deserted aerodrome to consider his options and is shocked to receive a message from his grandfather. The terrifying patriarch of the bat clan has arcane knowledge spanning millennia and reveals he has unearthed an ancient potion to recreate the “great King-bat”!

Recovering the actual formula is far from easy as it rests beneath Allied lines, but after herculean efforts Black Max secures it and doses his final pet. Thanks to more timely interference from Tim, the killer beast imbibes far too large a dose and mutates into an immense, unstoppable horror that attacks both German and British lines, necessitating an unprecedented alliance of the sworn enemies. Wilson is completely ready for von Klorr to betray him, but is still taken unawares when the moment comes – just as they finally kill the rampaging terror…

To Be Continued…

As previously stated, this initial collection also includes a complete adventure from Thunder Annual 1973: an extended saga rendered by Font but sadly uncredited as regards a writer. It’s 1917, and Black Max is distracted from his obsession when glory-hungry Prussian Ace Major Heinrich Stynkel uses his influence to ground the bats and their master so that he can have first pick of the English fliers. The new psychopath’s plot almost ends the reign of terror until cruel fate and Wilson play their part in a macabre comedy of errors…

These strip shockers are amongst the most memorable and enjoyable exploits in British comics: smart, scary and beautifully rendered. This a superb example of war horror that deserves to be revived and revered.
© 1971, 1973 & 2021 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Black Max and all related characters, their distinctive likenesses and related elements are ™ Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Jughead: The Hunger volume One


By Frank Tieri, Michael Walsh, Pat & Tim Kennedy & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-68255-901-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

For over 80 years Archie Andrews has epitomised good, safe, wholesome fun, but the staid and stable company shepherding his adventures has always harboured an ingeniously hidden and deviously subversive element of mischief. Family-friendly superheroes, spooky chills, sci-fi thrills and genre yarns have been as much a part of the publisher’s varied portfolio as those romantic comedy capers of America’s cleanest-cut teens since the company Golden Age debut as MLJ publications.

As you surely know by now, Archie has been around since 1941, spending most of the intervening decades chasing both tantalisingly attainable (yeah, right!) Betty Cooper and wildly out-of-his-league debutante Veronica Lodge. The game was played with best friend Jughead Jones alternately mocking and abetting his romantic endeavours whilst rival Reggie Mantle sought to scuttle every move…

As crafted by a legion of writers and artists who logged innumerable stories of teen antics in and around idyllic, utopian small-town Riverdale, these timeless tales of decent, fun-loving kids captivated successive generations of readers and entertained millions worldwide.

To keep all that accumulated attention riveted, the company has always looked to modern trends with which to expand upon their archetypal brief. In times past they strengthened and cross-fertilised their stable of stars through a variety of team-ups such as Archie Meets the Punisher, Archie Meets Glee, Archie Meets Vampirella and Archie Meets Kiss, whilst every type of fashion-fad and youth-culture sensation have invariably been shoehorned in and explored on the pages of the regular titles.

The company has long exploited a close affinity with horror stories and – combined with the boost of racy new TV franchise Riverdale specifically aimed at “young adults” – launched a range of alternate scary, gory spins-off including Vampironica, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the tasty treat on view here…

The premise is deliciously sharp and appetising: ever since his 1941 debut, Forsythe Pendleton “Jughead” Jones has been a witty, sarcastic outsider: a little bit weird, very intelligent, immune to teenage love, faithful and loyal to Archie but – above all else – preternaturally hungry and apparently insatiable.

Reimagining this evergreen comedy prop, Frank Tieri injected some harsh (meta) reality in One-Shot’ – illustrated by Michael Walsh, coloured by Dee Cunniffe and lettered by Jack Morelli – by heading deep into Teen Wolf territory…

In this Riverdale, the traditional setup maintains until the night when beloved teacher Miss Grundy is eviscerated and beheaded by “the Riverdale Ripper”. The old gang are the last to hear the awful news about their favourite educator because they’re all watching Jughead put another All-you-can-eat diner out of business…

However, all notions of innocent fun forever vanish as a season of mayhem continues. Pop Tate, Big Ethel and Jug’s cousin Bingo Wilkins are also victims of a savage serial killer, and the Jones kid is feeling utterly unlike himself as he shambles home at nightfall. Everything seems sharper, clearer, and more intense.

The answer to Jug’s inner turmoil becomes clear when he meets Dilton Doily and the safe old life ends forever. As a wave of sensation overwhelms him, Jug he feels a change coming… and wakes up in his own bedroom, covered in blood and bits of Dilton…

Panicked and desperate, “Juggie” rushes to his best friend, only to learn Archie was a traumatised witness to the entire revolting encounter and saw him transform into a ravening beast… as well as what followed…

Before the best buds can even begin to process what’s happened, sweet dependable Betty arrives. The dilemma of whether to share the secret with her is solved when she explodes into martial arts mayhem, ruthlessly beating Jug before trying to shoot him…

Barely able to restrain her, Archie hears an incredible story: how the Jones clan have been lycanthropes for centuries, with her family – the Coopers – hereditary werewolf hunters for just as long. They are raised from birth to end their depredations when they turn feral…

She’s been watching and waiting for most of the gang’s lives and now it’s time to abandon friendship and do her duty…

Incredibly, Archies entreaties convince her to try an old unproven method, seeking to cure instead of kill. Days pass and all seems well until Jughead (and his beloved pet Hotdog) vanish from Riverdale. In their absence, the mangled body of Reggie Mantle is discovered…

All that occurred in a stand-alone debut released in March 2017, but the story picked up in October with a continuing series, joining other books in a separate Archie Horror imprint. Tieri remained as scripter, with Pat & Tim Kennedy, Bob Smith, Jim Amash, Matt Herms & Morelli completing the creative cast. The first three issues complete this terror tome, with the tale expanding as emergency doctors manage to resuscitate Reggie. They don’t live long enough to regret it…

Meanwhile, young wanderer “Smith” and his dog have joined a circus. Friendly but tight-lipped, they fit right in, and nobody asks why the kid “borrows” the escape artist’s gear every night…

Archie and Betty are relentlessly searching the region, but she is becoming increasingly unstable and violent. All Archie’s attempts to placate her are wasted, especially after she links up with her kin in the Cooper Underground: all eagerly looking for a fresh werewolf to kill. Andrews is now painfully aware that the entire world is crazy and he was utterly unaware of how it really works…

The same can be said for Jughead, who wakes up beside the bloody remnants of a circus girl. However, once he calms down enough to doublecheck, he realises he didn’t escape his bonds but was released by persons unknown…

Back in Riverdale, Ronnie Lodge is baffled and shaken by events and only achieves understanding in the brief moments before the true architect of all Jughead’s woes adds her to the body count…

With additional art contributions from Joe Eisma, the second chapter sees even more beloved characters fall to the mystery murderer. Not far away, Archie gets a crash course in monster-fighting and comes to the appalling conclusion that the only way to be true to his friend is to end him…

With Juggie’s face all over TV, a manhunt closes in on the “teen serial killer”, but when cops close in, Jones finds he has an unsuspected ally, someone he’d believed long dead…

Issue #3 finds that comrade sharing some useful werewolf tricks and tips; disclosing how he’d been using Jug to protect his own secret life. Their falling out mirrors the moment Betty takes Archie to meet her Auntie Elena who runs a global cabal dedicated to killing weird beasts, and the Andrews boy makes his own momentous decision. Inevitably all factions converge just as Jughead is battling for his life and trying to decide who’s side he’s on.

Silver bullets fly and the decision is taken out of his gore-streaked hands…

To Be Continued…

Fast-paced, pleasingly irreverent, blood-soaked and bombastic, the wild ride also offers a Special Features section comprising an Introduction by screenwriter Matthew Rosenberg discussing “Americana”, and a closing gallery of covers & variants by Franco Francavilla, Adam Goreham, Robert Hack, Walsh, and T-Rex, plus Character Sketches and Sample Pages by the Kennedys and pages tracing the process from pencils to finished art.

This terror-packed tome closes with a bonus story: the initial outing of Vampironica by Greg & Meg Smallwood, detailing how the darling debutante became a decidedly unconventional bloodsucker. Stay braced for a full review of her own in the weeks to come…

Brilliantly reimagining cosy comforting friends into compelling new roles, this is a spooky feast for fans and newcomers alike.
™ & © 2018 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Creature Commandos


By J.M. DeMatteis, Robert Kanigher, Mike W. Barr, Fred Carrillo, Pat Broderick, John Celardo, Bob Hall, Jerry Ordway, Dan Spiegle, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4382-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

American comic books just idled along rather meekly until the 1938 invention of Superman provided a flamboyant new genre for heroes: subsequently and bombastically unleashing a torrent of creative imitation for a suddenly thriving and voracious new entertainment model that would enthral future generations.

Implacably vested in World War II, gaudily-garbed mystery men swept all before them until the troops came home, but as the decade closed traditional themes and heroes resurfaced to gradually supplant the Fights ‘n’ Tights crowd.

Even as a new crop of kids began buying and collecting, many of the first fans who had retained a four-colour habit sought more mature themes in their pictorial reading matter. Recent conflict and post-war paranoia irrevocably altered the psychological landscape of the readership as a more world-weary, cynical public slowly realised that all the fighting and dying hadn’t changed anything. The period’s established forms of entertainment – film, radio, theatre and prose, as well as comics – increasingly reflected this.

To balance the return of Western, War, Crime and imminent Atomic Armageddon-fuelled Science Fiction, comics created fresh fields. Celebrity tie-ins, escapist teen-oriented comedy and anthropomorphic animal features thrived, and gradually another of the cyclical revivals of spiritualism and increased public fascination with the arcane led to a wave of impressive, evocative and shockingly addictive horror comics.

DC Comics bowed to the inevitable by launching a comparatively straight-laced anthology which nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles with December 1951/January 1952 cover-dated The House of Mystery.

After the hysterical censorship debate which led to witch-hunting Senate hearings in the early 1950s was curtailed by the industry adopting a castrating straitjacket of self-regulation, titles produced under the aegis of the Comics Code Authority were sanitised, anodyne affairs in terms of Shock and Gore, but the audience’s appetite for suspense was still high and in 1956 National introduced sister titles Tales of the Unexpected and House of Secrets.

Stories were dialled back from uncanny yarns to (always) marvellously rendered, rationalistic fantasy-adventures and, ultimately, straight monster-busting Sci Fi tales which dominated the market into the 1960s. That’s when superheroes – enjoying their own visionary revival after Julius Schwartz reintroduced The Flash in Showcase #4 – finally overtook them.

Such was never the case with war comics. Tales of ordinary guys in combat began with the industry itself and although mostly sidelined during the capes-&-cowls war years, quickly began to assert themselves again once the actual fighting stopped.

National/DC were one of the last to get in on the combat trend: converting superhero/fantasy adventure anthology Star Spangled Comics into Star Spangled War Stories the same month Our Army at War launched (both cover-dated August 1952). Also repurposed, All-American Comics became All-American Men of War a month later as the “police action” in Korea escalated.

National grew the division slowly but steadily, adding Our Fighting Forces #1 (November 1954) – just as EC’s groundbreaking combat comics were vanishing – and in 1957 added GI Combat to their portfolio when Quality Comics got out of the funnybook business.

As the decade closed, the anthologies all began incorporating recurring characters to the mix. Gunner and Sarge – and latterly Pooch – launched in Our Fighting Forces #45 (May 1959). They were followed a month later by Sgt Rock in Our Army at War #83 and – addressing mystery as well as mayhem – The War that Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #99 (May 1960) and The Haunted Tank took off in G.I. Combat #87 (April/May 1961). Soon every DC war book had a lead star or feature to hold the fickle readers’ attention.

The drive to produce superior material never wavered, however, hugely aided by the diligent and meticulous ministrations of writer/editor Robert Kanigher. As the Vietnam War escalated, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment attitudes against a young generation with a radical new social sensibility. In response, military-themed comic books from National Periodical Publishing became even more boldly innovative…

However, another sudden superheroes dieback led to serious rethinking and although war titles maintained and even increased sales, the editors beefed up both supernatural and anthological elements. Thus in 1971 (cover-dated October), a title merging horror scenarios with battle yarns seemed a forgone conclusion: a sure thing for both publishers and readers alike. The notion proved correct and Weird War Tales ran for 124 issues: a DC mainstay for 12 years and experimental forge for many young creators to learn the craft and business.

Eventually, history again repeated itself and character vehicles began to replace stand-alone stories: primarily revivals of earlier features such as The War That Time Forgot and G.I. Robot, but also the uncanny undercover unit that is the star of this turbulent tome.

Compiling stories and even some comedy sidebars first seen in Weird War Tales #93, 97, 100, 102, 105, 108-112, 114-119, 121 and 124 (spanning cover-dates November 1980 to June 1983), this vintage tome offers a broad blend of genre mash-ups for armchair combat fans with a taste for the dark and uncanny to relish.

It begins without flourish in WWT #93 as J.M. DeMatteis, Pat Broderick & John Celardo introduce ‘The Creature Commandos!’ Spring 1942 and America’s Project M (for Monster) and US Army Intelligence officer Matthew Shrieve want to create a specialist team for rapid strike missions using mankind’s primordial terrors as a psychological weapon.

Their prime candidates are three originally ordinary soldiers altered by science into analogues of Hollywood horrors. After stepping on a landmine and surviving experimental surgery Marine private Elliot “Lucky” Taylor is now a mute Frankensteinian colossus, whilst cashiered sergeant Vincent Velcro chose a course of bat blood serum treatments over 30 years in the brig: and is now a shapeshifting bloodsucking vampire. Unable to enlist because he suffered from “blood disorder” lycanthropy, Warren Griffiths was “treated” until he became an impermanently manifested werewolf. The proposed team would be completed by Shrieve himself: a human problem solver (for which read “callous psychopath”) in command of a relentless ruthless squad designed to strike fear into the hearts of the foe…

Allied Command are disgusted and never want to see the squad again, but as it’s wartime, that translates as dumping them in occupied France with orders to do as much damage as possible…

The first mission drops them on Castle Conquest, where Nazi robotic experiments prove no match for their savagery, but success is somewhat spoiled after Shrieve is shown to consider them utterly expendable freaks…

Fred Carrillo limns DeMatteis’ sequel in #97 (March 1981) as ‘The Creature Commandos vs. the Faceless Enemy!’  sees the monster squad enduring bitter winter weather and Nazi attacks whilst rescuing sexy scientist Dr. Frederique who turns out to be not what she seems, after which anniversary issue #100 (June 1981) highlights Mike W. Barr, Bob Hall & Jerry Ordway’s mighty team-up ‘Dinosaur Convoy!’

Here the eerie expendables are in the South Pacific to verify repeated reports of dinosaurs, only to clash with a Japanese task force on a similar mission. As Shrieve grows evermore bestial and brutal, his subordinates increasingly embrace their lost humanity even while slaughtering the foe and in the end “convince” their commander to keep the saurian secret and out of the war effort…

By now the terror team was assured of continued service and returned in #102 (August) as DeMatteis & Carrillo detailed ‘The Children’s Crusade!’ Here Adolf Hitler personally indoctrinates little German orphans to form a cadre of perfect, chemically-enhanced killers. To stop them, who better than Liberty’s own monsters, but in the end can even these dread agents do their duty?

A mirth break comes in a single-page gag by Dave Manak (WWT #104), as the squad star in patriotic movie ‘The Monster Marines’ before DeMatteis & Carrillo use #105 (November) to explore ‘The War at Home!’ Ordered back to upstate New York, the unit invades and eradicates the town of Freedom: routing out a nest of Nazi sympathisers where once again Shrieve proves just how much he belongs on a team of monsters…

Manak cartoonishly strikes again in #107 with an encore performance of ‘The Monster Marines’, after which DeMatteis, Hall & Celardo dump the squad ‘In the Kingdom of the Damned’ (#108 February 1982). It begins with Lucky attempting to end his abominable existence and triggers a flashback to the Creature Commandos’ last mission. Whilst destroying a Nazi death camp the team were captured and tortured, but the true horror for the patchwork man was making – and losing – a friend who truly understood him…

Weird war maestro Robert Kanigher signed up as writer with #109 and – with brilliant but underappreciated artist Dan Spiegle – contrived a continued tale that concluded in the next issue.

Velcro had been increasingly plagued by his uncontrollable blood thirst for months and ‘Roses are Red – But Blood is Redder, part 1: The Beast Within Us!’ saw him reject the bottled sustenance for fresher sources. Stopped by the recovered Lucky, the vampire swore off French maids (for now) even as the squad deployed to a fogged-in tank battlefield to halt a German counterattack by blowing up a dam.

The job was disaster-prone but still successful. ‘Roses are Red – But Blood is Redder, part 2: A Mirror for Monsters!’ found the almost drowned quartet stranded. Shrieve – whose bullying of “his freaks” had become incessant and obsessive was seriously injured and the monsters had to decide whether it was worth saving him. Valorous as ever, they carried him across enemy lines and a mountain of enemy bodies to a medical base where army plastic surgeon Myrna Rhodes saved the sadistic psycho. Tragically, their emotional overreaction cause a chemical accident bathing Rhodes in unknown chemicals and mutating her into a doppelganger of the mythical Medusa – albeit without the petrifying gaze…

With no other place to go, the medic becomes the latest addition to the Creature Commandos…

Cover-dated May, WWT #111 crossed over with comic book stablemate G.I. Robot as J.A.K.E. (Jungle Automatic Killer Experimental) #1 loses his human handler Sgt. Coker and goes AW/OL just as Shrieve’s team are returned to the Pacific Theatre to solve a mystery.

Allied shipping is being sunk and cannot relieve marines stranded on Tattu Island so the exotic expendables are dropped in by parachute only to encounter more dinosaurs.

Happily J.A.K.E. is on hand to save them from big hungry lizards, ancient “Atlantides” and ‘The Doomsday Robots!’…

Spiegle’s singular run ends with #112 as the unit is seconded to North Africa and Dr. Rhodes discovers an ancient analogue of her condition in an unearthed pyramid. With her comrades shockingly transformed by ‘The Medusa Sting!’, she is forced to carry them over the burning desert sands and foil Rommel’s advance until the spell wears off.

Carrillo joined Kanigher in #114 (August), remaining for the rest of the run. His first job was illustrating the monster squad’s infiltration of Berlin as a ‘Circus of Madness’ and raid on a concentration camp to rescue a nuclear scientist, before meeting J.A.K.E. II as he recuperates from injuries (damage?). As the mechanoid discovers love with blind blonde British princess Dana (just don’t, okay! It’s comics!) the weird heroes learn that ‘You Can’t Pin a Medal on a Robot’…

By this stage the writing was on the wall for genre comics, and internal logic and consistency was under mounting pressure. Weird War Tales #116 opened a ‘Doorway to Hell’ as ancient and heartless volcano goddess Inferna awakes just in time to interfere in the Commandos’ invasion of Sicily and abduct Shrieve to be her toyboy. Despite themselves, the terrors rescue their tormentor and head to Paris for R&R. After suitably upsetting the locals the horrors are recalled for another mission, but with Shrieve declared unfit for duty cannot find a commander to lead them. Bored, desperate and ever more unpopular, the team even take a pilgrimage to Holy Shrine of Lourdes before making ‘A Miracle for Monsters!’ to get back into the war.

Cover-dated December 1982, another team-up with the G.I. Robot in #118 proves ‘Heroes Come in Small Sizes’ as escaping German POWs take French children hostage to facilitate their escape but underestimate the ingenuity and determination of the beast warriors, before the scene shifts to London in #119 where unthinking prejudice drives the horror heroes back to the Front. Entering Italy, they battle Nazi execution squads covering atrocities and shut down rocket factories, but always meet rejection from those they aid…

When a sympathetic scientist offers to send them to a kinder future era, the monsters jump at the chance, but soon find that tomorrow’s ‘World Under Glass’ is even worse…

Returning to the devils they know, the squad resurfaces in #121 (March 1983) where ‘Death Smiles Thrice!’ and Hitler’s top brass unleash a psychological onslaught to destroy them. Of course, the unit have faced robot doubles before and know exactly how to respond.

The era of unbridled imagination unceremoniously ended with a single page sign-off in Weird War Tales #124 (June 1983) as Shrieve commits the Creature Commandos to one final mission… ‘Destination Unknown!’

With covers by Joe Kubert, Ross Andru, Romeo Tanghal, Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Frank Giacoia, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson, Gil Kane & Trevor von Eeden, this manic menagerie of military monster madness celebrates a long-gone and much missed time of variety where “what if” was king and logic played second fiddle to moments of wide-eyed wonder.

By turns chilling, thrilling, daft, emotionally intense, and utterly outrageous – but always superbly illustrated, insanely addictive and Just Plain Fun – this is a deliciously guilty pleasure to astound and delight any lover of fantasy fiction and comics that work on plot invention rather than character compulsion. The Creature Commandos is a tome for all lovers of dark delight and one no arcane aficionada can afford to be without.
© 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ghost Tree


By Bobby Curnow & Simon Gane; coloured by Ian Herring & Becka Kinzie and lettered by Chris Mowry (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1684055999 (TPB) eISBN: 978-68406-810-4

The innate sadness and intense incompleteness of the spiritual world is something we tend to sideline in modern fiction, but once upon a time the melancholia of both the quick and the dead was far more important than scaring the pants off a thrill-seeking audience.

That old world approach is wonderfully revived in Ghost Tree, where author Bobby Curnow (Night of 1000 Wolves; My Little Pony; Battle Beasts; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), illustrator Simon Gane (They’re Not Like Us; Godzilla; Northlanders; Unfollow; Paris) and primary colour artist Ian Herring (Minor Threats; Ms Marvel; Nova: Resurrection; Junior Citizens) examine loss, legacy and duty. It’s all deftly done through a slowly unfolding search for self in its protagonist, and meaning or closure in the myriad spirits he is unwillingly connected to…

Despite growing up in the USA, Brandt was always close to his Japanese grandfather. However, the gentle old man also had other concerns and seemed to split his time. One day when the boy was visiting the old country, his beloved Ojii-chan wandered deep into the forests around the old ancestral home.

Curiously following, the boy stopped at a strangely twisted willow tree where the old man asked him to make a promise. A dutiful, diligent, loving – but uncomprehending – grandson, Brandt swore to return to this spot ten years after Ojii-chan died…

Decades later, the man Brandt is heading back to Japan. Grown up and married, he’d all but forgotten that day. Now with his world disintegrating and Alice leaving, he’s flying to the ancestral homestead where his widowed grandmother still lives. Cousin Mariko and her new baby meet him at the airport. She’s worried stubborn, headstrong Obaa-chan is not doing well…

Grandmother is as blunt and feisty as ever, hectoring the new generation on how they should live. It’s a little too much and Brandt has to step outside. Reminiscing about those carefree childhood days, he thinks he sees something at the edge of the woods…

Restless and jetlagged, his sleep is also disrupted as he thinks of what might have been if he had stayed here with Arami rather than living in America…

Unaware that he’s under keen scrutiny, Brandt tries to make peace with grandma, and learns that the happy family was anything but. Shocked by revelations of his forebears’ lives lived at odds, he wanders off into the woods. He might have forgotten that Ojii-chan has now been dead for a decade, but everything comes flooding back when he finds the old man waiting for him by that certain willow…

As they chat under the ghost tree, the dead man explains that for generations some family members have been able to see kami and talk to spirits. Moreover, certain places are attractors, and lost souls are drawn to them. They are usually, angry, confused and despairing, haunted by things left unsaid or not done…

Whilst they sit, dozens of dead people and stranger things draw closer. Grandfather explains they expect Brandt to intercede for them and help deal with their unfinished business…

The old man wants him to avoid the family’s burden and nor repeat his own mistakes: to live a life among the living. His advice is wasted and worthless as Brandt has seen his first love Arami is one of the clamorous phantoms…

Soon the mortal is counselling revenants and carrying out minor missions on their behalf, but the renewed activity around the tree has drawn some of the worst horrors of Japanese mythology, and Brandt learns that the Zero – a traditional guardian defender – is slowly fading.

With Grandfather urging him to forsake the dead and spend time with his family, and Arami looking for reasons to stay or pass on, the conflicted man of two worlds is clearly avoiding making decisions, when the choice is taken from him.

With the safety of the living also threatened by encroaching demons, Brandt must confront uncomfortable home truths before devising a solution to satisfy all parties and safeguard both worlds. Then it’s time to tackle the hard job: fixing his marital situation and getting on with life…

Powerful, sensitive, heartwarming and uncompromising, this very human drama offers echoes of classic movie fantasies such as A Matter of Life and Death (1948) and The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), suggesting that the dead are always with us and that – unlike families – it’s nothing to be scared of…
Ghost Tree. November 2019. © 2019 Curnow. Gane. Herring. © 2019 Idea and Design Works, LLC.

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Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft


By H.P. Lovecraft adapted by Richard Corben with Jeff Eckleberry (MARVEL MAX)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3287-5 (HB/Digital edition)

Richard Corben was one of America’s greatest proponents of graphic narrative: an animator, illustrator, publisher and cartoonist, who sprang from the tumultuous wave of independent counterculture commix of the 1960s and 1970s to become a major force in graphic narrative storytelling with his own unmistakable style and vision.

He is equally renowned for his mastery of airbrush, captivatingly excessive anatomical stylisation and delightfully wicked, darkly comedic horror, fantasy and science fiction tales. In later years he has become an elder statesman of horror and fantasy comics lending his gifts and cachet to such icons as John Constantine, Hulk, Hellboy, Punisher and Ghost Rider as well as new adaptations and renditions of literary classics by the likes of William Hope Hodgson, and the master of gothic terror Edgar Allan Poe.

Corben never sold out and American publishing eventually caught up, finally growing mature enough to accommodate him – due in no small part to his own broad and wickedly pervasive influence…

Born in Anderson, Missouri in 1940, Corben graduated with a Fine Arts degree in 1965 and found work as an animator. At that time, the neutered comic books of the Comics Code Authority era were just starting to lose disaffected, malcontent older fans to the hippy-trippy, freewheeling, anything-goes publications of independent-minded creators across the continent. These folks were increasingly making the kind of material Preachers and Mummy and their Lawyers wouldn’t approve of…

Creativity honed by the resplendent and explicitly mature 1950s EC Comics, Carl Barks’ perfectly crafted Duck tales and other classy early strips, a plethora of young artists like Corben responded with numerous small-press publications – including Grim Wit, Skull, Slow Death, Fever Dreams and his own Fantagor – which featured shocking, rebellious, sexed-up, raw, brutal, psychedelically-inspired cartoons and strips blending the new wave of artists’ unconventional lifestyles with their earliest childhood influences… honestly crafting the kind of stories they would like to read.

Corben inevitably graduated to more professional – and paying – venues. As his style and skills developed, he worked for Warren Publishing in Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, Comix International and outrageous adult science fiction anthology 1984/1994. He also famously coloured some strips for the revival of Will Eisner’s The Spirit.

Soon after, he was producing stunning graphic escapades for a number of companies, making animated movies, painting film posters and producing record covers such as multi-million-selling album Bat Out of Hell. He never stopped creating comics but preferred personal independent projects or working with in-tune collaborators such as Bruce Jones, Jan Strnad and Harlan Ellison.

In 1975, Corben approached French fantasy phenomenon Métal Hurlant and quickly became a fixture of its American iteration Heavy Metal, cementing his international reputation in the process. Garnering huge support and acclaim in Europe, he was been regularly collected in luxurious albums even as he seemingly fell out of favour – and print – in his own country. Through it all he never strayed far from his moss-covered roots.

Corben died in 2020.

This particular tome gathers a 2007 return to adaptations of classic literary horror canon. First published as a 3-issue limited series, it features adaptations of poems and stories by an undisputed master of supernal terror: H.P. Lovecraft. The tales are radical reworkings of the troubled author’s works, rendered in line and gray-tones, and each sequential narrative reinterpretation is accompanied by its original prose iteration.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in August 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island and his life in New England was one of gradual loss and despair. His father was institutionalised when he young, and a comfortable life of wealth ended when his grandfather died. Enduring privation, he lost his mother to another asylum in 1919. He married in 1924 after moving to New York, where his writing for Weird Tales and other pulp fiction magazines drew acclaim – and even acolytes – but little by way of commercial security.

He returned to New England in 1926 and wrote ever more fevered and chilling tales of weird science, fantasy and horror fiction. In the next 11 years he penned some of the most disturbing stories in literature, centred around his belief in Civilizational decline and Cosmicism: affirming the insignificance of humanity and its ultimate fragility and inability to endure in a harsh, unforgiving universe.

He is best remembered today for his Cthulhu Mythos: an elder god cosmology as seen in The Call of Cthulhu and other stories.

Lovecraft died in 1937 as a result of stomach cancer.

This selection of speculative meanderings opens with ‘Dagon’, as an ailing and oppressed marine researcher records how a close call with a German U-boat catapulted him onto a lost isle of monsters and ancient artefacts, and forever marked him as prey for an indescribable horror. The original prose vignette follows, after which ‘The Scar’ tells of betrayal and abandonment as a young man opts to save himself but not his companion from hellish plants: – a grisly episode eerily expanded upon from the poem ‘Recognition’ as collected in the tome Fungi from Yuggoth.

From the same book comes both the poem ‘A Memory’ and chilling icy exploration as Jack searches the desolate region that claimed his father and finds a relic that that dooms him via fatal family connection to lost and malign cultists of Shub Niggurath…

The second issue began with ‘The Music of Erich Zann’, as an impoverished student recalls how long ago he lived in a hilltop hovel where an elderly fellow boarder played bizarre melodies that shook the world and summoned arcane atrocities before – again bordered by a text version – another extract from Fungi from Yuggoth finds a flood survivor desperately searching for her lost love in the body-packed detritus of ‘The Canal’…

Sticking with the bulletins from Yuggoth, ‘The Lamp’ focuses on an unexpected and angry archaeological breakthrough that is alive and hungry after four millennia, before the final issue opens with extended scary satire ‘Arthur Jermyn’ and thereafter its primary text ‘Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family’. In a wry change of pace, it traces – via his proud descendants -the history and heritage of a gentleman explorer and anthropologist who in 1750 discovered a lost kingdom and injected some new blood into an old, old race.

Of course the miscegenation has resulted in some few throwbacks and anomalies in the hallowed English lineage since then…

Another ravening predator inhabits ‘The Well’ foolishly dug by southern farmer Seth Atwood, one using love and thirst to draw in victims, and our last glimpse of the outer dark comes through ‘The Window’ of a desolate old house as an orphan son returns to discover what took his parents 25 years ago…

A potent and evocative peep into the nastiest places in creation, this collection also includes ‘Cover Sketches’ and ‘Promotional Images’, plus a selection of inked pages prior to the application of the cloaking grey tones.

Infamous for his dark, doom-laden horror stories, Lovecraft was a pioneer of the subgenre of supernal, inescapable terror and under Corben’s imaginative scrutiny, the grim gloomy odes and yarns take on a whole new level of distressing dissonance. This compelling collection of classic chillers is a modern masterpiece of arcane abomination and inhuman horror no shock addict of mystery lover will want to miss.
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Deadman: Book One


By Arnold Drake, Jack Miller, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3116-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

As the 1960s ended, a massive superhero boom became a slow but certain bust, with formerly major successes no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The taste for superheroes was diminishing in favour of more traditional genres, and one rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly: making masked adventurers designed to fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and golden age colossus The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game-changing monster hero Swamp Thing, spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Moreover, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had arrived with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of 1967, when venerable science fiction anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly retooled as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with this first collection (of five) re-presenting that origin event and thereafter, pertinent contents from #206-213: cumulatively spanning cover-dates October/November 1967 to July/August 1968. The drama is preceded by Introduction ‘How Deadman Came to Life’ by originator Arnold Drake and the Foreword – ‘A Most Unusual Character’ by Carmine Infantino – each reminiscing, recapitulating and confirming just how daring and unprecedented the new kind of hero was…

Then it’s straight into eerie action with ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ – by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino & George Roussos – as we attend the funeral of high wire acrobat Boston Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked a decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour.

As “Deadman”, Brand was the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling, as well as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” includes simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had a few bad eggs too… people like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary.

The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’ antics and also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if he had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart…

Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, and Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true as the entity astonishingly made contact, telling Brand that he would walk among men until he found his killer…

The sentence came with some advantages: he was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a car. His only clue was that witnesses in the audience claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out the key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers…

Eventually, the ghost learns a shocking fact: his desperation is not worth the life of anyone else and he must not let his anger put his “vessels” in harm’s way…

Second episode ‘An Eye for An Eye!’ was scripted by Drake, and was Adams’ illustrative debut. Originally inked by Roussos, here it is rather unfairly reinked by Adams and further enhanced by modern colouring techniques. I understand how the artist should have autonomy and agency in his own work, but for the sake of chronology and authenticity, I take quite a bit of umbrage on behalf of old “Inky”, whose efforts seem unfairly judged and slighted by these revisions…

That being said, the tale is a strong one and indicates a sea change in narrative style as Deadman expedites his hunt for justice. The stories henceforth focus on those who are temporarily occupied by Brand: a string of episodic encounters that mirrored the protagonist of contemporary hit TV series The Fugitive (and by extension, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables), with an unfairly accused victim searching for personal justice all across America, to the benefit of many people in crisis.

Here, that’s young Jeff  Carling, who’s fallen in with a dangerous biker gang and is set up to pay for their crimes. He’s also Lorna’s brother, which is how Deadman gets involved in the mess, after learning the cash-strapped kid had taken out a life insurance policy on the circus star just before the Hook struck…

Having saved the kid from a perfect frame, Brand resumes his search and, as Jack Miller took over scripting in #207, is forced to ask ‘What Makes a Corpse Cry? The hunt leads him to revisit the night he saved bar girl Liz Martin from a drunken assault by her boss Rocky Manzel, but when the spook checks in, he finds Liz and boyfriend Paul being terrorised by Rocky, who coldly implies he caused the death of her last protector…

Even after using his ghost gifts to disqualify Manzel, Deadman is compelled to help the young lovers, and exposes the club owner’s criminal secret, but once again almost causes the death of his human ride…

Miller & Adams were providing a very different reading experience with innovative, staggeringly powerful art, but struggled with deadlines, and ‘How Many Ways Can a Guy Die?’ was delivered in 4 parts across Strange Adventures #208 and 209. The revelatory tale introduces Brand’s trapeze artist rival Eagle, who had tried to kill him years before, and now seeks to replace him in the circus and Lorna’s bed – whether she wants him or not…

When Deadman again borrows Tiny to dissuade the brute, Eagle threatens the gentle strongman with the same thing Brand got and the ghost is convinced his quest is almost over. However, the truth is far crueller, and when Deadman uncovers his rival’s actual scheme, the cost to Tiny and alternate vessel Pete is far too high…

The hunt stalled again, Brand finally thinks to check the official police investigation in #210’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (cover-dated March 1968). To his disgust, he finds the case is cold, with assigned detective Michael Riley dishonourably discharged from the force due to the testimony of a man with a hook…

Sensing a breakthrough, Deadman possesses Riley and, visiting the other “witness” to the former cop’s reported use of excessive force, uncovers a devious plot. Sadly, despite clearing Riley’s name, Brand misses The Hook who coldly disposes of the only man who could describe him before fleeing to Mexico…

Hot on the trail, Deadman arrives in El Campo in #211, and endures a shocking surprise in ‘How Close to Me My Killer?’ as Miller’s last story introduces wayward twin brother Cleveland Brand. Flashbacks show the sibling had plenty of motive to murder his showbiz brother, but as the tale unfolds, Boston learns he has an unsuspected niece and his people-trafficking but repentant brother needs some haunted help to save smuggled “wetback” labourers from a Texan businessman looking to whitewash his criminal endeavours…

Adams took over scripting with #212 and ‘The Fatal Call of Vengeance’ sees another change of direction, adding more conventional fantasy elements to the mix as Cleveland and his daughter Lita head north to Hills Circus.

Wearing his brother’s costume, Cleve revives the Deadman act and, in Mexico, a man with a hook sees a headline and rushes back to the USA.

Faster than any jet, Boston is already there and watches helplessly as his brother makes himself a target of the unknown killer. The phantom is also completely spooked by new lion tamer Kleigman who is rude and unfriendly and is missing his right hand…

With everyone at odds, both Boston’s returned killer and the circus family set traps with disastrous results, but in the end the Hook escapes again and it’s Tiny who’s left bleeding out from a gunshot…

This first collection concludes with a dip into the madly metaphysical as ‘The Call from Beyond!’ tests Deadman’s abilities to the limit as he enters Tiny’s consciousness to promote his recovery and break a assumed-fatal coma. Following that miracle, the restless revenant repays his debt by saving the reputation and life of Tiny’s surgeon Dr. Shasti after the medical savant is duped by murderous con artist/medium Madam Pegeen…

With groundbreaking covers by Infantino, Sekowsky, Roussos & Adams and ‘Biographies’ of the creators involved, this spectral delight perfectly captures the tone of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics masterpieces no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1967, 1968, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman & Batman vs Vampires & Werewolves


By Kevin VanHook & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2292-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

The Man of Tomorrow and the Dark Knight are two characters who have, for the most part, escaped their lowly comics origins to join a meta-fictional literary landscape populated by the likes of Mickey Mouse, Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes. As such their recognition factor outside our industry means that they get to work in places and with other properties that might not appeal to funny-book purists.

Take for example this out-of-print tale that piles on heaped helpings of monster-bashing, and which, despite a host of guest-stars, felt on release more like a test launch than a assured hit and has since become as vanishingly vaporous as its arcane antagonists…

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves is an intriguing, if flawed, oddment (with one of the clunkiest titles ever imagined) that should have appealed to the casual reader, especially if they’re not too adamantly wedded to the comic book roots and continuity of the DC Universe.

Prowling the streets of Gotham City, Batman comes across a partially devoured corpse and is promptly boots-deep in an invasion of mindless berserker vampires and werewolves who turn the city into a charnel house. Helpless to combat or contain the undead rampage, the Caped Crimebuster accepts the aid of enigmatic (but rational) vampire Marius Dimeter and his lycanthropic counterpart Janko who grudgingly ally themselves with the hero to track down Herbert Combs – a truly deranged scientist resolved to traffic with the Realms Beyond.

To facilitate his goals, Combs turned Janko and Dimeter into the accursed creatures they are and unleashed his plague of horrors on America to further his research. The bonkers boffin is infecting more helpless humans and has become an actual portal for Lovecraftian beasts to invade our reality…

Superman joins the fray just as one of these Elder God nightmares is unleashed, but even after its defeat he’s no real help: hampered more by his ethical nature than utter vulnerability to magic. Far greater aid is provided by super-naturalist Jason Blood and his Demonic alter-ego, whilst Kirk Langstrom – who can transform into the monstrous Man-Bat at will – provides both scientific and brutally efficient clean-up assistance.

Fellow harder-edged heroes such as Wonder Woman, Nightwing and Green Arrow turn up and join the battle to great effect, but after their admittedly impressive cameos and participatory contributions inexplicably wander off before the overarching threat is ended…

Nuh-uuh! Once a team-up begins, comics guys (who aren’t paid big bucks like big-name guest actors) don’t leave until the day is saved!!

So it’s up to the headliners – with Dimeter and Janko – to finally restore order and normality, even though the cost is high both in blood and convictions…

At the last, the superheroes are – relatively – victorious, but the ending is rather ambiguous and leaves the impression that the whole affair has been a pilot for a Dimeter spin-off…

This was clearly a break-out publishing project, aimed at drawing in new readerships like those occasional movie tie-ins that drive professional fans crazy, and on that level the daft and inconsistent plot can be permitted, if not fully forgiven.

VanHook (Flash Gordon, Bloodshot, G.I. Joe, Red Tornado) makes more films than comics these days and the tale is certainly most effective on the kind of action and emotional set-pieces one sees in blockbuster flicks: so even if there are far too many plot holes big enough to drive a hearse through, the sensorial ride should carry most readers through. Most importantly, the moody art of Tom Mandrake (Grimjack, The Spectre, Batman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter) is – as ever – astoundingly powerful: dark, brooding and fully charged for triumph and tragedy…

So if not perhaps for every reader, there’s a great deal of sinful pleasure to be found here. And let’s face it: who doesn’t like monster stories or finding out “who would win if”…
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Supernatural: Origins & Supernatural: The Dogs of Edinburgh


Supernatural: Origins
By Peter Johnson, Geoff Johns, Matthew Don Smith & various (DC/WildStorm)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1701-3 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-84576-754-7 (TPB Titan Books edition)

Supernatural: The Dogs of Edinburgh
By Brian Wood, Grant Bond, Matthew Don Smith & various (DC Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3506-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Comics have always enjoyed a long, successful affiliation and nigh-symbiotic relationship with television, but in these days when even the ubiquitous goggle-box business is paralysed and endangered by on-demand streaming, too many channels and far too much choice, the numbers and types of program that migrate to funnybooks is increasingly limited.

Excluding kids’ animation shows, cult fantasy adventure series now predominate in this dwindling arena and one of the best to make that transition to the printed page was the epic monster-fighting saga of two brothers literally on the road to Hell as they tracked down unnatural horrors, mystical malignancies and all the unexplainable things that treat humanity as fair game and delicious delicacies…

Over 15 seasons of 327 episodes and spanning from September 13th 2005 to November 19th, 2020, TV series Supernatural followed Sam and Dean Winchester whose lives were forever changed when a yellow-eyed demon killed their mother. The horrific event drove distraught John Winchester into a life of eternal wandering: stalking and killing impossible beasts and horrors he now knew lurked in every shadow.

Years later, rumours still abound that the show will return… soon!

After growing up from a baby on the road to hell, Sam got out of the life and tried to live a normal existence before being dragged back when his surly, alienated brother called to say that their dad had gone missing. It happened right about the time Sam’s girlfriend was killed by a fiery demon…

If you’re looking for a spooky, rowdy, funny binge watch, go no further. Moreover, as we do comics here and the series was rapidly picked up for a spinoff funnybook series, you could also enjoy some printed scary stories…

Supernatural: Origins is an impressive official prequel to the epic show, following the dysfunctional Winchester family in the days, months and years after the boys’ mother floated up into the air and spontaneously combusted. It left their father with unanswerable questions, a hunger for vengeance and two rather unnatural kids to raise…

After Mary’s death, John packs toddler Dean and baby Sam into his car and goes into a spin of booze and bar-fights, until he meets palm-reader Missouri Mosley. The prognosticator offers veiled answers and a glimpse into a world of mumbo-jumbo which is proven to be savagely real when an unseen thing kills Mary’s best friend Julie. She was babysitting the traumatised boys at the time of her demise, and lodged in her ghastly remains was a huge, rune-carved fang from no creature ever born on Earth…

Armed only with hints into the true nature of the world, the former marine begins a quest for the tooth’s owner and in Tempe, Arizona meets prickly, reclusive scholar Fletcher Gable. He identifies it as belonging to a Black Shuck… a Hellhound…

Sending the senior Winchester on to a reported sighting of such in California, the savant offers a further gift: a blank journal to record the notes, photos, clippings, drawings, thoughts and experiences that will inevitably occur and need reporting now that father and sons are irrevocably set on their particular road to Perdition…

The wise man and his latest student are both painfully unaware that Winchester is himself being hunted…

When Mary’s formidable brother Jacob comes looking for the boys and fearing the worst (although he has no idea of what the can worst actually be), he too is embroiled in the quest – to his eternal regret – and only the arrival of the mysterious shadower saves John from becoming the latest casualty of the hellhound…

‘Hunter’ – more job description than name – helps Winchester clear up the mess and cover up the evidence before introducing the now-doubly bereaved and shell-shocked single parent to the full horror of the hidden world of the Supernatural. It’s 1983 and all Hell’s breaking loose…

Winchester becomes part of an amorphous hidden association of loners known as Hunters: mortals who’ve lost loved ones, seen the truth and had the guts to look for payback. Partnered with his brusque and enigmatic mentor, John Winchester is still looking for a golden eyed demon and a hellhound with a missing fang as he tackles his first monster – a leaping carnivore known as a “Heeler” with Hunter and another clean-up man named Ichi.

Sadly, by the time the trio return to the grimly unique bar called Harvell’s Roadhouse – where Sam & Dean have been waiting under the lethally efficient care of waitress Ellen – John is a full-blooded monster killer. Good thing too, as Ichi isn’t friendly or human anymore…

Thus begins a perilous pattern: John and Hunter dumping the kids on someone oblivious or horribly in on the secret for a few days as they take care of business. That journal rapidly fills up with accounts of incredible horror…

Winchester learns fast and, after meeting a resurrected priest who grants him a few precious, tainted moments with Mary’s spirit, he and his extremely hands-on senior partner revisit Fletcher Gable with useful intel on the rune-carved fang. Before long they’re headed to one of the spookiest locations in America and an appalling gauntlet of terrors, a confrontation with the hellhound and its master, inevitable betrayal and an explanation for all that the bereaved father and his sons have endured…

Dotted with moving, telling “flashbacks” – like the moment in 1991 when independent, lethally dangerous Dean has enough and tries to run away, abandoning dad and little brother to an interminable legion of monsters – this initial chronicle also includes a short tale of the boys by Geoff Johns, Phil Hester & colourist JD Mettler.

‘Speak No Evil’ harks back to a day in 1989 when taciturn Sam asked his big brother just how their mother died. He might even have received an answer if a demon hadn’t smashed through the motel window just then, locked in a death grip with their father…

This rip-snorting, tense and moody thriller lives up to the demands of the dedicated TV following and still fulfils all that’s demanded of a horror comic for readers who haven’t tracked the torturous trail of the Winchesters, and this chilling compendium even offers in-process views of covers by Tim Sale, plus pin-ups, working drawings and sketches by series illustrator Matthew Dow Smith.

 

Supernatural: The Dogs of Edinburgh compiles volume 4 #1-6 from 2011, and was written by Brian Wood (DMZ, X-Men, Northlanders, Moon Knight), with art from Grant Bond (Revere, The Clockwork Girl) & Matthew Don Smith. It examines a different piece of the past and sees Sam returning to Scotland after years away.

Back then, he was no killer of killers but a student on a research grant from Stamford University. His journey of discovery to Edinburgh University was initially educational, but immensely brightened by meeting mysterious lass Emma – “of the Isles” – who seemed interested in exactly the same arcane nonsense he was. She was also really pretty…

It turned out that Emma was a Breaker – the Scottish equivalent of Hunters – and as they grew closer she showed him the mystic highlights of the ancient city. He found himself falling, but was also increasingly aware that Emma wasn’t like other girls…

Meeting ghosts and battling an immortal who ran with feral city demon-dogs and controlled numerous crime rackets, they got too close, ended a monster menace together and inevitably parted…

As opening arc ‘The Dogs of Edinburgh’ gives way to present-day sequel ‘Emma of the Isles’, Sam examines a stash of notes, photos and a plane ticket. After all this time Emma has sent them to him and now he’s heading back to Scotland…

The mystery trek leads him to a remote village on the coast and a reserved room at the Clachan Inn. There he reads decades of clippings about drowned girls, but finds no sign of Emma. By the time she finally makes contact, the Hunter has deduced what’s behind the countless deaths, if not why, and the ghastly dreams he’s been experiencing are starting to form a pattern..

A charming legend becomes ghastly truth after he is attacked by nocturnal predators and saved by Emma, who gradually shares the truth of her origins but not her plan to end an eternal cycle of death and procreation. All they have to do is survive a determined assault by an entire tribe of “Selkies”…

This time, however, Sam is no unseasoned kid. He’s a trained hunter, with a lethally-skilled brother who will drop everything and cross an ocean to save his family. All Sam has to do is stay alive and hope to divine what Emma really is and what she really wants…

With covers by Dustin Nguyen and a tranche of concept art by Grant Bond, this twisted romance is a powerful seasonal mystery yarn to delight fright fans and another example of the eerie adventures that made Supernatural such an undying delight.

Punchy, powerful and spookily addictive… get them before they get you…
© 2008 Warner Bros Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Supernatural and all characters, distinctive likenesses and related elements are © Warner Bros Entertainment, Inc.
© 2012 Warner Bros. Television Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Supernatural and all characters, distinctive likenesses and related elements are © 2011, 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

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Essential Tales of the Zombie volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Stan Lee, Kit Pearson, Marv Wolfman, Tony Isabella, Chuck Robinson, Chris Claremont, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Gerry Conway, Lin Carter, John Albano, Gerry Boudreau, Len Wein, Carla Joseph, Kenneth Dreyfack, Carl Wessler, David Anthony Kraft, Larry Lieber, John Warner,  Tony DiPreta, Bill Everett, John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Pablo Marcos , Dick Ayers, Tom Sutton, Syd Shores, Gene Colan, Dick Giordano, Winslow Mortimer, George Tuska, Ralph Reese, Vincente Alcazar, Bill Walton, Enrique Badia, Rich Buckler, Vic Martin, Ron Wilson, Ernie Chan, Russ Heath, Frank Springer, Alfredo Alcala, Dan Green, Michael Kaluta, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Virgilio Redondo, Yong Montano, Tony DeZuñiga, Rudy Nebres, Boris Vallejo, Earl Norem & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-1916-7 (TPB)

Inspiration isn’t everything. In fact, as Marvel slowly grew to a position of market dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, they did so less by experimentation and more by expanding established concepts and properties. The only exception was an en masse creation of horror titles in response to the industry down-turn in super-hero sales – a move expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules.

The switch to sinister supernatural stars brought numerous benefits. Most importantly, it drew a new readership to comics: one attuned to a global revival in spiritualism, Satanism and all things spooky. Almost as important, it gave the reprint-reliant company opportunity to finally recycle old 1950s horror stories that had been rendered unprintable and useless since the code’s inception in 1954.

Spanning August 1973 to March 1975, this moody monochrome tome collects Tales of the Zombie #1-10, plus pertinent portions of Dracula Lives #1-2 but – despite targeting the more mature monochrome magazine market of the 1970s – these stories are oddly coy for a generation born before  video nasties, teen-slasher movies or torture-porn, so it’s unlikely that you’ll need a sofa to hide behind…

The chillers commences with ‘Zombie!’ illustrated by unsung legend Tony DiPreta: one of those aforementioned, unleashed 1950s reprints which found its way as cheap filler into the back of Dracula Lives #1 (August 1973). In this intriguing pot-boiler criminal Blackie Nolan runs for his life when the man he framed for his crimes animates a corpse to exact revenge…

A few months earlier, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas had green-lit a new mature-reader anthology magazine starring a walking deadman, based on a classic 1953 Stan Lee/Bill Everett thriller published in Menace #5.

Cover-dated July 1973, Tales of the Zombie #1 contained a mix of all-new material, choice reprints and text features to thrill and chill the voodoo devotees of comics land. The undead excitement began with ‘Altar of the Damned’ by Thomas, Steve Gerber, John Buscema & Tom Palmer, introducing wealthy Louisiana coffee-magnate Simon Garth as he frantically breaks free of a voodoo cult determined to sacrifice him.

He is aided by priestess Layla who usually earns her daily bread as his secretary. Sadly, the attempt fails and Garth dies, only to be brought back as a mighty, mindless slave of his worst enemy Gyps – a petty, lecherous gardener fired for leering at the boss’ daughter…

Next comes a retouched, modified reprint of the aforementioned Everett ‘Zombie!’ yarn, adapted to depict Garth as the corpse-walker rampaging through Mardi Gras and inflicting a far more permanent punishment on the ghastly gardener, after which Dick Ayers limned ‘Iron Head’ as a deep sea diver take a decidedly different look at the native art of resurrection…

‘The Sensuous Zombie!’ is a cinematic history of the sub-genre and ‘Back to Back and Belly to Belly at the Zombie Jamboree Ball!’ delivers an editorial tribute to Bill Everett.

after which Kit Pearson, Marv Wolfman & Pablo Marcos expose the secret of ‘The Thing From the Bog!’ before Tom Sutton applies a disinterred tongue to his cheek for the blackly comic story of ‘The Mastermind!’.

Gerber, Buscema & Syd Shores the saga of Simon Garth in ‘Night of the Walking Dead!’, as the murdered man’s daughter loses the arcane amulet which controls the zombie to a psychotic sneak thief…

Dracula Lives #2 introduces ‘The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans!’ (Thomas, Gene Colan & Dick Giordano relates the Lord of Vampires’ clash with undying mistress of magic Marie Laveau (tenuously included here as the charismatic bloodsucker strides past the recently deceased Garth on a crowded Mardi Gras street) before Tales of the Zombie #2 unfolds in its gory entirety.

Gerber & Marcos led off with ‘Voodoo Island!’ as daughter Donna Garth takes ship for Port-Au-Prince, determined to learn all she can about the dark arts, whilst the shambling cadaver of her father is drawn into the nefarious affairs of criminal mastermind Mr. Six. By circuitous means, mindless but instinct-driven Garth also ends up in Haiti – just as a madman turning women into giant spiders decides Donna is an ideal test subject…

Luckily, the former coffee-king’s best friend Anton Cartier is a resident – and expert in Voodoo lore…

‘Voodoo Unto Others’ by Tony Isabella & Winslow Mortimer tells a grim but affecting tale of the law of the Loa, whilst ‘Acid Test’ by Stan Lee & George Tuska is another 1950’s thriller culled from Marvel’s vaults, followed by a text feature by Isabella trumpeting the company’s “next big thing” with ‘Introducing Brother Voodoo’…

It was back to contemporary times with stunning graveyard re-animator yarn ‘Twin Burial’ by Chuck Robinson & Ralph Reese, balanced by Colan classic ‘From Out of the Grave’ after which Chris Claremont asks in expansive prose piece, ‘Voodoo: What’s It All About, Alfred?’

Gerber & Marcos conclude their Garth saga in ‘Night of the Spider!’ before TotZ #3 sees the Zombie still lurching around Haiti in ‘When the Gods Crave Flesh!’, encountering a manic film director and his histrionic starlet wife who want to expose Voodoo to the judgemental celluloid eye of Hollywood.

Bad, bad, bad idea…

Claremont scripted a prose shocker next, contributing part 1 of ‘With the Dawn Comes Death!’ – illustrated with stock movie stills – before ‘Net Result’ offers another Atlas-era DiPreta delight, after which Isabella & Vincente Alcazar excel with an epic of samurai-against-dragon in ‘Warrior’s Burden’.

Don McGregor’s ‘The Night of the Living Dead Goes on and on and on’ provides in-depth analysis of the movie that restarted it all, and Bill Walton limns Fifties fear-fest ‘I Won’t Stay Dead’ before Doug Moench & Enrique Badia deliver a period piece of perfidious plantation peril in ‘Jilimbi[s Word’.

‘Tales of the Zombie Feature Page’ closes the issue with a Gerber interview and critique of George A. Romero’s film Codename: Trixie – which we know today as The Crazies – before Tales of the Zombie #4 (March 1974) opens with ‘The Law and Phillip Bliss’ as the mystic Amulet of Damballah irresistibly draws Garth back to New Orleans at the unwitting behest of a down-and-out with a grudge…

Another movie feature by McGregor follows, examining the spooky overtones of then-current Bond flick Live and Let Die, after which Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Vic Martin & Mortimer crafted a comic strip film-thriller in ‘The Drums of Doom!’

Fantasy author Lin Carter explores modern supernatural proliferation in ‘Neo-Witchcraft’ before ‘Courtship by Voodoo’ (Isabella & Ron Wilson) recounts Egyptian romantic antics, and Moench & Mortimer disclose the downside of desecrating graves in ‘Nightfilth Rising’.

John Albano & Ernie Chua (nee Chan) tell a tragic tale of ‘Four Daughters of Satan’ before ‘The Law and Phillip Bliss’ concludes in cathartic slaughter of high-priced lawyers, whilst ‘The Zombie Feature Page’ highlights the work and life of artist Pablo Marcos.

‘Palace of Black Magic!’ then sees Phil Glass lose the amulet – and control of Garth – to Mr. Six with the Zombie becoming a terrifying weapon of sinister Voodoun lord Papa Shorty, until his new master’s own arrogance lead to carnage and a kind of freedom for the Dead Man Walking. Issue #5 continues with Moench’s filmic tribute article ‘White Zombie: Faithful Unto Death’ and a Russ Heath Atlas classic ‘Who Walks with a Zombie?’

The concluding instalment of Claremont’s article ‘With the Dawn Comes Death!’ precedes text infomercial ‘Brother Voodoo Lives Again’ and new western horror saga ‘Voodoo War’ by Isabella, Shores & Ayers, and TotZ# 5 ends on a gritty high with ‘Death’s Bleak Birth!’: a powerful supernatural crime thriller by Moench & Frank Springer.

Tales of the Zombie #6 (July) opens with a handy update of events thus far before launching into Gerber & Marcos’ ‘Child of Darkness!’ wherein the anguished ambulatory remains of Simon Garth interrupt a Voodoo ritual and encounter once more the Mambo Layla, who tries in vain to save him before his death and revivification. Even together, they are unprepared for the vicious thing lurking in the swamp’s deepest recesses…

Gerry Boudreau explores the genre’s history by critiquing Hammer Films’ ‘The Plague of the Zombies’, followed by a hilarious photo-feature on Zombie/blacksploitation movie ‘Sugar Hill’ and Claremont’s article on all things undead ‘The Compleat Voodoo Man’.

Brother Voodoo initially ran in Strange Tales #169-173 (September 1973-April 1974) but ended on a cliffhanger. It finishes here in Moench, Len Wein, Colan & Frank Chiaramonte’s ‘End of a Legend!’ as the Man with Two Souls finally defeats Voodoo villain Black Talon.

Carla Joseph’s ‘The Voodoo Beat’ rounds up a selection of movies and books then available regarding all things Cadaverous and Fetishy before Moench & Alfredo Alcala provide a fill-in tale in ‘The Blood-Testament of Brian Collier’ wherein Garth shambles into a High Society murder-mystery, followed by a Village Voice article by Kenneth Dreyfack on ‘Voodoo in the Park’, notable for comics fans because it’s illustrated by future great Dan Green.

Moench & Mortimer’s comics featurette ‘Haiti’s Walking Dead’ and Claremont’s book review ‘Inside Voodoo’ take us the issue end and ‘A Second Chance to Die’ – a classy short thriller by Carl Wessler & Alcala.

Tales of the Zombie #8 (November) opens with a similar frontispiece feature by Isabella & Michael Kaluta ‘The Voodoo Killers’ before Gerber & Marcos return with ‘A Death Made of Ticky-Tacky’ as Garth and Layla finally reach New Orleans and fall foul of bored urban swingers seeking a different kind of good time. ‘Jimmy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ offers a chilling prose vignette from David Anthony Kraft, liberally illustrated by Kaluta.

‘Night of the Hunter’ by scripter Larry Lieber and artists Ron Wilson, Mike Esposito & Frank Giacoia sees a corrupt prison guard realise he’s tortured and killed the wrong black man, when the victim’s brother turns up straight from the sinister heart of Haiti…

‘Tales of the Happy Humfo’ is another Claremont voodoo article, spiced up with Kaluta drawings after which Alcala again closes show down with ‘Makao’s Vengeance’: a slick jungle chiller scripted by Kraft.

The first issue of 1975 opens with Isabella & Mortimer’s ‘Was He a Voodoo-Man?’, after which the author scripted stunning Zombie headliner ‘Simon Garth Lives Again!’, illustrated by Virgilio Redondo & Alcala, and Claremont & Yong Montano contribute second chapter ‘A Day in the Life of a Dead Man’ (Alcala inks) before Isabella & Marcos conclude the Garth extravaganza with ‘The Second Death Around’.

As an added bonus Moench & Alcala also designed a swampy slaughter-party in ‘Herbie the Liar Said it Wouldn’t Hurt!’…

Tales of the Zombie #10 (March 1975) leads with a Brother Voodoo tale by Moench & Tony DeZuñiga, wherein the Lord of the Loa struggles to prevent ‘The Resurrection of Papa Jambo’ because the scheduled Simon Garth saga had been lost in the post at time of printing). Bringing up the rear were medical nightmare ‘Eye For an Eye, Tooth For a Tooth’ by Conway, Virgilio Redondo & Rudy Nebres and Wessler, John Warner & Alcazar’s death-row chiller ‘Malaka’s Curse!’ with Sutton’s macabre ‘Grave Business’ the last seen treat…

By this time the horror boom was beginning to bust, and the advertised 11th issue never materialised. An all-reprint Tales of the Zombie Super-Annual was released that summer, with only its cover reproduced here.

Peppered with vivid Zombie pin-ups by Marcos & Sutton, and covers by Boris Vallejo and Earl Norem, this intriguing monochrome compendium – although a bit dated – contains what passed for Explicit Content in the mid-1970s, so although the frights should be nothing for today’s older kids, the occasional nipple or buttock might well send them screaming over the edge.

However, with appropriate mature supervision I’m sure this groovy gore-fest will delight many a brain-eating fright fan, until Marvel get around to properly reviving this tragic revenant’s roots and earliest recorded revels.
© 1973, 1974, 1975, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Darwin’s Diaries volume 1-3: The Eye of the Celts, Death of a Beast & Dual Nature


By Eduardo Ocaña & Sylvain Runberg, coloured by Tariq Bellaoui, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-095-5 (v1 Album PB/Digital edition), 978-1-84918-110-5 (v2 Album PB/Digital), 978-1-84918-144-0 (v3 Album PB/Digital)

In the eternal quest to be entertained, humans have always searched far and wide. The capacity and desire to scare ourselves thus employs a vast landscape of genres and locales as well of all time and space. It also tempts us into mixing and mashing history, imagination and fanciful speculation…

Here’s a fabulously fitting idea for fantastic Scientific Romance in the grand manner of Professor Challenger, courtesy of French writer Sylvain Runberg (Conquests; Watchdogs Legion; On Mars; Orbital) and Spanish illustrator Eduardo Ocaña (Messiah Complex, Full Tilt Boogie, Les Bâtisseurs): an enthralling triptych begun in 2010 which – despite slipping off everyone’s radar – has stood the test of time.

In England, Victoria is Queen, and her mighty nation will soon be an empire. It is, however, not at peace, and former explorer and controversial naturalist Charles Darwin is asked by Prime Minister Lord Palmerston to undertake a delicate mission in the North. It is not for his current field of expertise, but rather his early – and now – classified endeavours into the field of crypto-zoology. Not long ago, Darwin had quietly looked into the existence of mythical things: Almases, Sasquatch, Werewolves and other “clawed ones”…

The region he is despatched to is the site of railway construction, but recently the navvies, their horses and even a company of soldiers have been butchered by some beast. Darwin must go there and pacify the populace whilst ruling out any possibility that the culprit is of unknown origins…

The first minister also hints that as well as the lure of fresh knowledge, the savant should also consider that local entrepreneurial grandee Sir Howard Dickinson would be grateful enough to fund any future travels Darwin might be considering…

The scientist readily accepts – but not for the reasons expected – and is soon in York, met by forthright suffragist Suzanne Dickinson and Indian manservant Rajiv. Once ensconced in the Blue Moors hotel (her father’s latest acquisition), Darwin opens his investigation, with the suspiciously curious and hands-on Miss Dickinson always in attendance.

He finds her a superb companion. Highly educated and competent, she has been schooled in medicine and business is and acquainted with prestigious thinkers like John Stuart Mill and emancipators such as Emily Davies and Barbara Leigh Smith…

Upon examining the remains of the victims, Darwin stakes his reputation on the premise that a great tiger is loose in the wooded region. Neither his sponsors nor the striking navvies give that theory much credence, and that night, a shepherd and his dog are added to the death register. Locals begin voicing opinions that the culprits must be the weird Welsh cult led by self-professed holy man Cadell Afferson. He says he’s a druid in touch with ancient forces…

Meanwhile, Darwin’s gentlemanly facade seems to slip. When returned to the Blue Moor, he sinks into depravity, getting drunk, fighting with local bullies and availing himself of local harlot Louise Stuart. As he becomes a beast, the one he’s hunting attacks again, butchering soldiers, sabotaging the work site and apparently perishing in a massive explosion.

Suzanne is unable to refrain from commenting on the scientist’s condition when she fetches him next morning, but Darwin doesn’t care after hearing that military martinet Captain Sanders has recovered the creature’s corpse…

Originally published in 2010 as Les carnets de Darwin 1 – L’oeil des celtes, this period drama ripples with suppressed tension as it sets up a classic confrontation between man and monster to delight every thriller fan.

 

The suspense spectacularly escalates in second volume Death of a Beast (La mort d’une bête) as the press gets wind of the news that Mr. Darwin has discovered a creature previously unknown to science. Panic grips York, but rail construction recommences, thanks to the foreman’s unique methods of negotiation. As esteemed researcher and weary soldiers seek more evidence, Druid Cadell stirs the pot, warning that ancient gods will judge their actions…

Darwin believes his job nearly done, but as he dines with the Dickinsons, fresh tragedy sparks more bloodshed. When a little girl is found eviscerated, furious, terrified townsfolk turn on the druids and a brutal riot is only quashed by ruthless military intervention…

Far from that madding crowd, the scientist is amazed at his host’s familiarity with legends of shapeshifting creatures, and even more so by Suzanne’s other passion. She runs educational workshops for townswomen, teaching them to read and count and even honest trades. Her greatest joy is anticipating  the festival she and dowager Virginia Wilson have organised: Yorkshire’s first Feminist Convention…

Eventually Darwin and the soldiers are able to convince the citizens the child’s death is not due to a new beast or the Celts in the forest, but arrogant, affronted Afferson swears to take vengeance. He does possess some secret knowledge, but when he summons what really prowls the moors and forests, his mistaken belief that he is in control costs everyone dearly…

Meanwhile, in York, Darwin again gives in to his own beast and nearly dies due to it, but a horror has been roused to vicious action and whatever he truly is cannot hope to stand against it…

Blending socio-political intrigue with an immensely devious mystery where nothing is as it seems, this episode offers hints of far more at play and at stake than anyone previously suggested. Stay tuned for a big, big finish…

 

Closing chapter Dual Nature – formerly Les carnets de Darwin 3 – Double nature – moves from chilling canter to full galloping charge as fear and frenzy grip town and country, and mutilated bodies pile up. Captain Sanders informs Darwin that the investigation is done, and that Palmerston has decided the terror is the work of enemy agents set on destabilising the nation, and has sent further military personnel to mop up. Prudent and cautious, the PM has also despatched a renowned professional hunter, in case these sinister plotters instigators have indeed unleashed trained animals as part of their plan…

Sadly, effete dandy and aristocratic butcher Sir Rillons – and his entourage of privileged hangers-on – are merely the first to discover that what is actually loose is a pack of monstrous killers faster and stronger than any ever recorded before – and easily as smart as human beings…

In the aftermath of a bloody debacle, the drama reaches a messy crescendo as Darwin is abducted by the beasts and his own secret fully exposed. However, the ultra-macho monsters – distracted by and determined to crush the unnatural women demanding equal rights at their ridiculous convention – have not reckoned on uncanny hidden allies even the biologist himself is unaware that he has and ultimately, fang, claw and unnatural selection determines the outcome…

Murderous madcap mayhem and far from historically robust, this yarn is a crazily delicious feast of gory fun to charm every horror fan: a pure treat to gorge on and digest at your leisure.
© Editions du Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard SA) 2010 by Sylvain Runberg & Eduardo Ocaña. All rights reserved. English translation © 2011, 2012, 2013 Cinebook Ltd.