Horror Stories – Page 54

October 13, 2010October 16, 2010

Goosebumps Graphix 2: Terror Trips

Adapted by Jill Thompson, Jamie Tolagson & Amy Kim Ganter (Graphix/Scholastic)

ISBN: 978-0-439-85780-2

How to get children reading has been a desperate quest of educators and parents for decades and the role of comics in that drive has long been a controversial one. Excluding all the arguments over whether sequential narrative hinders, harms or perhaps helps, the only other option was to produce material youngsters might actually want to read.

Enter R.L. Stine in 1992, who wrote sixty-two light-hearted, child-friendly supernatural horror thrillers over the next five years that took the world by storm, spawning movies, TV shows, games and a host of imitators, reconfiguring the iconography of the classic tales of mystery and imagination into modern romps to engage youngsters in the greatest thrill of all – total absorption in the magic of stories. In its various incarnations and reboots Goosebumps has sold more than 300 million copies.

In 2006 Scholastic began a series of themed graphic novel adaptations, using top comicbook and manga talent to convert three books per volume into hip and striking cartoon yarns. I’ve picked the second â€œGoosebumps Graphixâ€ edition for no other reason than my complete devotion to the work of one of the artists involved (eventually I’m sure I’ll get around to the othersâ€¦)

Terror Trips leads off with ‘One Day at Horrorland’ (the sixteenth novel in the prose series) adapted and illustrated by the utterly superb Jill Thompson, who despite her incredible body of work, ranging from Sandman to Wonder Woman and her fabulous Scary Godmother books and films is some how still not a household name.

When a day-trip to Zoo Gardens with their parents goes awry, Lizzy, brother Luke and their friend Clay find themselves lost and alone in the best – or perhaps worst – scary theme park ever. If she wasn’t such a big girl now and didn’t know better, Lizzy might almost believe all those monsters and death-traps were realâ€¦

Multi-media artist Jamie Tolagson (The Crow, The Dreaming, Books of Magic) translated the truly creepy ‘A Shocker on Shock Street’ (novel #35) with stunning effect. Under-aged horror movie mavens Erin and Josh think they’ve seen everything, but when Erin’s movie director and FX designer dad invites the pair to the studio to see the new â€œShock Streetâ€ theme park they’re in for the most startling surprise of their young lives – and so is the readerâ€¦

The third and final jaunt into jeopardy is ‘Deep Trouble’ (novel #19) adapted by Amy Kim Ganter, manga and webcomic artist (see Sorcerers & Secretaries for a delightful example of her firm grip on fantasy). Here she relates the time William Deep Jr. accompanied his marine biologist father on an expedition to discover if mermaids actually existed. Unfortunately, the worst beasts in the oceans are usually greedy humans, but the sea still had a few undiscovered horrors of its own lying hidden beneath the surfaceâ€¦

This splendid selection is delivered in a variety of black and white styles, and each tale is augmented by a feature explaining the working process of the artists as they translated the story into comics form. Both the novels and comic books are readily available so why not save yourself the cost of outrageous dental bills this Halloween by stocking up on comic chillers such as this and handing out stuff to chew over rather than simply swallow – and remember, if used correctly books are not fatteningâ€¦?

October 6, 2010October 9, 2010

Deadworld

By Vincent Locke & Stuart Kerr (Caliber Press)
Original edition No ISBNÂ re-released edition ISBN: 978-1-60010-817-4

Zombies are taking over the world. Or so it seems with all the restless dead rambling about on television, in cinemas and even in children’s books (check out the intriguing Charley Higson kid’s novels The Enemy and The Dead), but this is only a relatively recent resurrection. Arguably the unliving onslaught really kicked back into high gear during the mid-1980s explosion of self-published titles that came – and mostly went – in the wake of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic phenomenon.

Ambitious newcomer Arrow Comics launched with a number of impressive fantasy, adventure and horror titles in 1985, including Tales From the Aniverse, System 7, Nightstreets, Oz, The Realm and Deadworld, but the subsequent glut and implosion of the marketplace caught the good with the very, very bad and the newborn company foundered. Head honchos Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr closed down in 1989, with the latter three titles transferring to Gary Reed’s Caliber Comics, which had successfully weathered the storm.

Kerr and Griffith were not just entrepreneurs. They created Deadworld, easily the most popular – and controversial – of their stable, bringing in eager and talented Vince Locke to illustrate over Kerr’s scripts. When the series moved they sold Locke the rights.

This edition was released in 1989 and collected the first seven episodes, with a gallery that included both the â€œgraphicâ€ (for which read gory) and â€œtameâ€ covers created for each issue.

So, what’s it all about?

In all honesty if you’re not a big fan of the genre, you’ve seen it all before: a mysterious event kills and resurrects the greater part of humanity as zombies and a disparate, dwindling band of human survivors struggle to survive and escape the toxically infectious, ravenous hordesâ€¦

However if you count yourself a devotee of the walking dead you’ve seen it all before too: a plucky band of heroes battle increasingly intense odds and their own human natures whilst trying to escape from appalling, overwhelming horrorâ€¦

The story begins with the impressive ‘Eye of the Zombie’ as a school-bus full of weary youngsters – horny teenagers and a frankly terrifying ten-year old called Spud – make plans to escape the Louisiana bayou where they’ve been hiding from a horde of terrifying monsters – mindless, shambling ravenous. At least the things are slow and stupid and can be stopped by destroying their brainsâ€¦

Nobody knows how the world ended or why they have been spared so far, but as the kids ready for a dash to California dead eyes are watching. Unfortunately, these are something new: King Zombie might be Dead but he’s still Quick – also vengeful, calculating and super-smartâ€¦

After a spectacular battle the kids are off, trailed by the Thinking Dead in ‘Born to Be Wild’, having gut-wrenching, splattery narrow escapes as they head west. Hints begin as to how humanity was lost and in ‘Mississippi Queen’ the survivors trade the bus for a riverboat, thinking this will provide greater security.

The supernatural horror responsible or killing the world is revealed, as is the one mortal he cannot afford to kill. King Zombie and his shambling hordes invade the riverboat and ‘Funeral For A Friend’ sees the first winnowing of the castâ€¦

Reduced to four now the haunted survivors encounter demons as well as the ever-present zombies in ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’, meeting the sorcerer’s apprentice who caused the zombie plague to invade our dimension and discovering another enclave of survivors hours before their undead pursuers doâ€¦

‘One of These Days’ sees King Zombie and the hell-spawn decimate the refuge, slowly torturing his captured prey until a mysterious stranger comes to their rescue – an unsuspected and dangerously traumatised survivor of the riverboat massacre. An all-out final battle breaks out before ‘Bad Moon Rising’ ends events on a cliffhanging high as the resurgent US military streak in to rescue the embattled humans.

What happens next hasn’t been collected yet but with a re-issued edition of this superbly exuberant horror classic released in 2009 and an unholy appetite for the walking dead zipping up the zeitgeist charts that must surely be only a matter of timeâ€¦

Charmingly character-driven, gloriously gory, superbly enthusiastic and wickedly comedic this is a series by fans for fans, and what polish might be lacking is more than compensated for by sheer pace and raw talent. Kerr handles the ensemble cast well and Locke’s nasty, scratchy, atmospheric illustration blends Wrightson with Windsor-Smith to great effect. Moreover he wasn’t afraid to experiment and wasn’t shy about filling a page with terror, slapstick or both.

Merry mordant fun and well worth stalkingâ€¦

August 8, 2010August 13, 2010

Marvel Zombies: Dead Days

By Robert Kirkman, Sean Phillips, Mark Millar, Greg Land & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3563-0

Fast becoming one of modern Marvel’s most popular niche-franchises the canny blend of gratuitous measured sarcasm and arrant cosmic buffoonery collected here traces some of the shorter early appearances of the deadly departed flesh-eating superheroes of an alternate universe which wasn’t so different from the one we all know – at least until a dire contagion killed every ordinary mortal and infected every super-human upon it.

This volume collects the first appearances of the Marvel Zombies and includes the one-shot prequel that delineates the final hours of that tragic alternity where it all kicked off.

That out of sequence prequel forms the first chapter of this gory storybook: ‘Dead Days’, by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips, sees Earth rapidly overwhelmed by its costumed crusaders after a super-villain imports an extra-dimensional curse to that reality: one that turns the infected (for which read â€œbittenâ€) victims into ravenous, undead eating machines.

Very much a one-trick pony, the tale depends on a deep familiarity with the regular Marvel pantheon, a fondness for schlock horror and the cherished tradition of superheroes fighting each other. This time, however, it’s for keeps, as beloved icons consume one another until only a handful of living heroes remain, desperately seeking a cure or a way to escape their universe without bring the zombie plague with themâ€¦

This is followed by the first chronological appearance of the brain-eaters: a far subtler and blacker exploit which first appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23. This team is a revised, retooled version of the Lee/Kirby stalwarts created as part of the Marvel Ultimates project began in 2000.

After the company’s near-demise in the mid-1990s new management oversaw a thoroughly modernising refit of key properties: fresher characters and concepts to appeal to a new generation of â€œki-dultsâ€ – perceived to be a potentially separate buying public from those readers content to stick with the various efforts that had gradually devolved from the Founding Fathers of the House of Ideas.

This super-powered quartet are part of a corporate think-thank tasked with saving the world and making a profit, and in ‘Crossover’ by Mark Millar, Greg Land & Matt Ryan, wunderkind Reed Richards is contacted by a smarter, older version of himself offering the secrets of trans-dimensional travel. Defying his bosses and comrades Reed translates to the other Earth only to find he’s been duped by zombie versions of the FF, looking for fresh fields to infect and people to digestâ€¦

Breaking free Reed discovers a devastated, desolate New York populated with manic monster superheroes, all eager to eat one of the last living beings on the planet. Suddenly rescued by Magneto, Reed meets other remaining survivors as they prepare for their last hurrah. Offering them a chance to escape Reed is blissfully unaware that he’s already allowed the Zombie FF to invade the still living world he came fromâ€¦

Culminating in a bombastic battle on two planes of reality and a heroic sacrifice, this saga ends with the Zombie FF imprisoned on Ultimate Earth and segues into stories not included in this volume: so in brief then, Zombie World is visited by the Silver Surfer and the world-eating Galactus, who both end up consumed.

In ‘Frightful’ (Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-32, by Millar, Land, Ryan & Mitch Breitweiser) the Ultimate Universe Dr. Doom enacts a subtle plan to crush Reed Richards, but the imprisoned, lab-rat zombie FF have their own agenda: one which includes escaping and eating every living thing on the planetâ€¦

A far more serious tale of revenge and obsession, this yarn is a real frightener in a volume far more silly than scary. The Zombie franchise grew exponentially and another un-included tale revealed how, back on undead Earth, six victorious zombies – Tony Stark, Luke Cage, Giant-Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk finally ate Galactus and absorbed all his cosmic power. With all other food sources consumed they ranged their entire dimension, killing everything and every civilisation they could find.

Meanwhile on the original Marvel Earth, a civil war erupted between costumed heroes after the US government ordered all superhumans to unmask and register themselves. From that period comes ‘Good Eatin”, a light-hearted, grotesquely slapstick three-part hoot from Black Panther #28-30.

One-time X-Man Storm, Human Torch, the Thing and the Panther go dimension-hopping and land on a hidden citadel of the Shape-changing Skrulls just as the Galactal Zombie Diners Club discovers what just might be the last edible planet in their universe. ‘Hell of a Mess’, ‘From Bad to Worse’ and ‘Absolutely No Way to Win’ by Reginald Hudlin & Francis Portela comprise an action-packed, hilariously bad-taste splatter-fest to delight the thrill-seeking, gross-engorged teenager in us allâ€¦

This book also includes a plethora of alternate and variant cover reproductions and concludes with a fascinating commentary by painter Arthur Suydam, who based his stunning pastiche images on some landmark covers from Marvel’s decades-long-history.

By no means to everyone’s taste, this blend of dark fable with gross-out comedy mixes the sentiments of American Werewolf in London, the iconography of Shaun of the Dead and the cherished hagiography of the Marvel Universe to surprisingly engaging effect. Not for the squeamish or continuity-cherishing hardliners, there might be a loud laugh or frisson of fear awaiting the open-minded casual readerâ€¦

August 2, 2010August 5, 2010

30 Days of Night: Red Snow

By Ben Templesmith (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-6001-0149-6

Although I wasn’t a great a fan of the first 30 Days of Night graphic novel it didn’t stop it becoming a comics and movie sensation, but with this sequel (or to be exact, narrative prequel), writer artist Ben Templesmith finally struck a cord with this jaded old reviewerâ€¦

That first tale detailed the last days of Barrow, Alaska: a contemporary American town near the Arctic Circle where the sun sets for an entire month at a time. What happens when a posse of roving vampires came for an extended overnight stay one sundown is a simplistic but highly effective exercise in visceral slasher-thrills. No real depth or explanation, just easily explained motivations (eat and/or kill vs. run and/or fight) and lots of evocative action. A perfect, uncomplicated video game of a taleâ€¦

Now, in Red Snow a little glimpse into the history of that nomadic band of Nosferatu is offeredâ€¦

Russia 1941: bleak black bitter winter is decimating both the Nazi invaders and the hard-hearted vengeful Russian troops in the hinterlands beyond Murmansk. The German-Finnish Operation: Silver Fox has collapsed (a bold, doomed attempt by the Nazis to capture the port and end Allied aid into Russia), and roving bands of Germans are freezing and starving in the permanent blizzard-bedeviled arctic night. Equally hard-pressed are the Soviet and Cossack patrols hunting the surviving invaders.

Among the pursuers is Charlie Keating, British Naval observer, military liaison and war-weary polyglot. As the Soviets are slowly advancing despite the deadly temperatures, they come across a vast underground storage compound where a family of peasants has been hoarding food, ammunition and fuel â€œfor the War Effortâ€. At the same time the Nazis have made their own discovery – a small band of blood-stained travesties, immune to the cold and dark, ravenously hungry for human flesh and hot red bloodâ€¦

Old animosities are soon forgotten as the surviving Nazis are invited into the subterranean citadel, but the unstoppable bloodsuckers besiege and rapidly deplete the defenders’ numbers and resources. Soon it’s clear that the only possible chance lies in outrunning them in the one remaining truckâ€¦

Templesmith’s first outing as scripter is clear-cut and a little short on sophistication, but wickedly effective as the vampires relentlessly attack, and even though the team-up of human enemies, complete with inevitable betrayals, is nothing new in this genre it is extremely well-executed and graphically enticing.

Although many British readers might compare this unfavourably to the similar scenario of the classic 1980 2000AD strip Fiends of the Eastern Front – and in terms of sheer suspense the Gerry Finley-Day/Carlos Ezquerra serial is certainly superior – (note to self: must review some 2000AD collections soonestâ€¦) there is a splendidly visceral brevity to the blood-soaked events of Red Snow that carries the tale along at a breakneck pace and always delivers its promised punch.

Templesmith is an accomplished illustrator and works well in his painterly manner, blending Kent Williams or Jon J Muth’s watercolour vivacity s with Ted McKeever’s angular, expressionistic figure work. Of course there’s also heaping helpings of splashy reds against the cool icy blues – and remarkable amounts of gruesome violence which is, of course, exactly what the target audience expectsâ€¦

This collection of the three-part miniseries also includes an interview with Templesmith and an extensive gory gallery section of art-pieces.

July 16, 2010July 15, 2010

Dame Darcy’s Meat Cake

By Dame Darcy (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-346-0

Since 1993 Dame Darcy has been building a weird, wistful and Gothically girlish fantasy

universe in her oddly enchanting comicbook Meat Cake, as well as the occasional graphic novel and collection such as Frightful Fairytales, The Illustrated Jane Eyre, Dollerium, Comic Book Tattoo, Gasoline and others. Now an affordable black and white paperback reprinting the best moody marvels from the first eleven issues is available and keenly awaits your effulgent appreciation.

Darcy Megan Stanger is a prolific and restless artist, musician, animator, dollmaker, interior designer, fashion model, art teacher and reality TCV star – one of those ever-so-likable, infuriating do-it-alls modern society is increasingly populated by.

For some her darkly comic, magic-infested, mock-Victorian realm of slender, ethereal, hauntingly lovely gamins and ghastly side-show freaks might be a step too far. This is a stark place with no room for dull, fat people or the plain visagedâ€¦

Certainly this collection is best read in measured instalments, lest the girly-girl blend of Edwardian emo-fashion, Jazz-age make up, tragic love-stories, sinister childhoods, ghostly interventions, maids behaving badly and â€œfractured fairy-taleâ€ moral instruction lose its power to affect, but the sensibilities of modern female characters thriving in a gloomy imaginative otherplace is one that is rich with entertainment potential especially when scripted with the deliciously scandalous wit of la Dama.

Although some few non-related snippets are included, the major portion of the book concerns the tribulations of a rather distinctive cast of self-absorbed, grotesque and genteel ladies of varied means and character. There’s shrinking violet Friend The Girl, the abrasive Richard Dirt, the constantly bickering conjoined twins Hindrance and Perfidia, seductive, bitchy mermaid Effluvia, Strega Pez, who communicates through a livid gash in her throat, the talkative crustacean Scampi the Shellfish, the utterly bonkers wise woman Granny, Igpay and undead, monstrous token male Wax Wolf, all living in a world at once similar and wondrously ancient and removed.

In sultry, sinister or just plain strange tales like ‘Laughing All the Way to the Bank’, ‘Shrimpboats is A-Comin”, ‘Employ Ahoy!’, ‘Bus-Ted’, ‘Hookie Lau Breakfast Special’, ‘The Hitch-Hiker’, ‘Grave Concerns’, ‘Happy Hi-Jinx’, ‘Lessons on the Principles of Magnetism’, ‘Honey’, ‘Dirty Rich’, ‘Demon Drink’, ‘Silver Lining’ and ‘Fruit Bat‘ the extended eccentric cast live their odd and abstracted lives for us whilst in longer fables such as ‘The Juicer and the Cake Walk’, ‘The Next Holy Virgin’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, ‘Stained Glass’, ‘The Ghost Filly’, ‘Sweet William and Lady Margaret’, ‘EZ Bake Coven’ and ‘Latch Key Kids Cookbook‘ Darcy demonstrates her love and tacit understanding of classical storytelling and particularly Gothic Romance fantasies.

Amidst the assorted unaligned graphical gags and oddments are such brief gems as ‘Ruby Rack! Ruby Rack!’, ‘The Wishing Star’, ‘Existence Forgets’, ‘Spontaneous Generation’, ‘Puppet Show’ (an homage to cartoon pioneer Gustave Verbeek), and an acerbic assemblage of actively skewed ‘Old Nursery Rhymes’ as well as some decidedly quirky autobiographical incidents like ‘Double Trouble or Freaky Friday’, ‘Paper Doll Fun!’, ‘Your Diary’, ‘My Patron’ and ‘Show Me My Hand’ but the absolute show-stealer is her baroque, wilfully whimsical satire-fest with Alan Moore who scripted the marvellously captivating ‘Hungry is the Heart’: a spectacular expose of the extraordinary life and times of turn of the century Society Maverick, Wild-Woman and Button Magnate Wellington Woolenboy AKA Jumbalor – â€œDamp String Womanâ€.

Macabre, hilarious and addictively odd, Meat Cake satisfies appetites you can’t believe you have. This is a book for girls that every comicbook guy really needs to seeâ€¦

June 28, 2010June 27, 2010

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves

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

The Man of Steel and the Dark Knight are two characters who have, for the most part, escaped their lowly comic-book origins and entered the greater meta-fictional literary landscape populated by the likes of Mickey Mouse, Fu Manchu, Tarzan andÂ 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 controversial tale that piles on heaped helpings of monster-bashing, and which, despite a host of DC guest-stars, feels more like a test launch than a guaranteed hit.

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves is an intriguing, if flawed, oddment (with one of the clunkiest titles ever imagined) that might appeal to the casual graphic novel 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, Batman comes across a partially devoured corpse and is promptly boots-deep in an invasion of mindless berserker vampires and werewolves who swiftly turn the city into a charnel house. Helpless to combat or contain the undead rampage, the Caped Crusader 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 had turned Janko and Dimeter into the cursed creatures they are and unleashed his plague of horrors on America to further his research. He is infecting more helpless humans and has become an actual portal for Lovecraftian beasts to invade our realityâ€¦

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

Fellow heroes such as Wonder Woman, Nightwing and Green Arrow turn up and join the battle with great effect, but after their admittedly impressive cameos and participatory contributions wander off before the overarching threat is ended. Nuh-uuh! Once the 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 but the cost is high both in blood and convictionsâ€¦ In the final outcome the heroes 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 is clearly a break-out publishing project, aimed at drawing in new readerships like those occasional movie tie-ins that drive professional fans crazy (see Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator), and on that level the daft and inconsistent plot can be permitted if not forgiven.

VanHook more often makes films than comics and the tale is certainly most effective on the kind of action and emotional set-pieces one sees in modern film: 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 art of Tom Mandrake is as ever astoundingly powerful: dark brooding and fully charged for triumph and tragedyâ€¦

So whilst not perhaps for every collector, there’s still a great deal of sinful pleasure to be found here. And let’s face it: who doesn’t like monster stories or finding out â€œwho would win ifâ€â€¦
Â© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 23, 2010June 26, 2010

On the Odd Hours

By Eric Liberge translated by Joe Johnson (NBM ComicsLit/Louvre: MusÃ©e du Louvre Ã‰ditions)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-577-1

This is the first time I’ve encountered this series of translated graphic novels so this review is off the cuff and without any previous prejudice and preconception. That sounded pretty poncey and imposing but all it means is: even with all the high tech info systems in the world, occasionally something rather cool can slip by the most avid fan or collector.

In this case it’s the first two books in a patently fascinating collaboration between one of the greatest museums in the world and the, until so recently, scurrilous world of comics. So I’m diving right in with immediate reactions to the third in a series of superior translated bande dessinÃ©e courtesy of those fine fellows and folks at NBM.

These tales are produced in close collaboration with the forward-looking authorities of the Louvre, but this is no gosh-wow, â€œNight-at-the-Museumâ€, thinly-concealed catalogue of contents from a stuffy edifice of public culture. Rather, here is a startling, beautiful, gloriously compelling adult horror thriller that cleverly incorporates the history, geography, icons and artifacts of the Louvre into the plot and makes the historic building and its contents a vital character in the supernatural drama.

Amongst the history and information pieces at the back of the book is an article on the services for the deaf such as signed tours, and the hearing-impaired guides and lecturers who are part of the staff. This is done to complement the tale of Bastien, an angry young deaf man who turns up at the museum to begin an internship, but somehow becomes a Night Guard, with special responsibilities for The Odd Hours of the clock: those moments when the 200 year old museum slips the shackles of reality and the exhibits escape their bounds, coming to terrifying, chaotic lifeâ€¦

The art is stunning in this extremely adult tome, and the creeping obsessions of Bastien as he struggles to keep his daylight life alive whilst striving to resolve the mystery of the exhibits is both poignant and enthralling.

Why was he selected for the position? Why are the animated beauties and horrors of the museum so much more enticing that his increasingly strident and difficult girlfriend? Most importantly, how can animated artworks be so much more communicative than the flesh and blood inhabitants of his â€œnormalâ€ life?

On the Odd Hours is utterly engrossing and darkly lovely, and despite being the third in the series reads easily as a stand-alone tale. I’m definitely going to track down the preceding volumes and I strongly recommend that you all do likewise.

June 22, 2010

Someplace Strange – An Epic Graphic Novel

By Anne Nocenti & JohnBolton (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-439-X

Once upon a time Marvel led the publishing pack in the development of high quality original graphic novels: mixing creator-owned properties, licensed assets like Conan, special Marvel Universe tales and even new series launches in extravagant over-sized packages (a standard 285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) that felt and looked like more than an average comicbook no matter how good, bad or incomprehensible (a polite way of saying outside the average Marvel Zombie’s comfort zone) the contents might be.

This terrifically appetizing tale, developed under the company’s creator-owned Epic imprint, applies the psychic tensions and apprehensions of the Cold War era to Alice in Wonderland territory and features a punky heroine and two sterling young boys who all take an inadvertent side-step into a graphic and ephemeral twilight zone with some long-lasting repercussions.

James or â€œSpikeâ€ is a rather nervous lad, dwelling far too much on the perilous state of the world, terrified of germs and war and atom bombs whilst his little brother Edward (â€œCaptain Zebraâ€ to you) is far more fun-loving, but still overly-impressionable. The birds tell Edward not to worry, but Spike is always afraid and he’s very convincingâ€¦

One night scary dreams prompt them to end their night-terrors by getting the Bogeyman first. Setting out for the nearest spooky old house, the lads are prepared for the worst and find it in Joy, a foul-tempered punkette runaway crashing in the old dump. Together they explore the deserted domicile and accidentally fall into a surreal otherplace of familiar monsters and cuddly weirdness.

Although it seems a dangerous and unwelcoming land the true threat is Joy, who draws a picture of her own self-loathing which comes to horrifying life and gives frantic chaseâ€¦

Combining Bolton’s hyper-real and exceedingly lush painting with Nocenti’s barbed and challenging sense of whimsy, this slight but hugely entertaining fable is a treat for those adults who sometimes wish they weren’t, and a lovely reminder of why kids like to be safely scared sometimes.
Â© 1988 Anne Nocenti and John Bolton. All Rights Reserved.

May 25, 2010May 29, 2010

The Witching Hour

By Jeph Loeb, Chris Bachalo & Art Thibert (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-251-6

I gather a new edition of this dark little treat is imminent so here’s a quick graphic novel review to whet your appetites and prime your bank accountsâ€¦

The original title the Witching Hour was a quirky, highly readable anthology comic from DC’s 1970s horror/mystery stable, with the early issues particularly memorable due to some extremely tasty contributions from arch-stylist Alex Toth. The pithy, spooky, mordantly ironic yarns were recounted by three iconic hosts representing the Wiccan concept of maiden, mother and crone and nominally based on the Weird sisters from Macbeth: namely Cynthia, Mildred and Mordred. The series ran from 1969 to 1978.

In 1999, with the company’s Vertigo imprint successfully reinventing the horror comic month by month, a number of old properties were given the proverbial fresh spin and Jeph Loeb and Chris Bachalo produced a delightfully dark, character-driven mystery yarn as a three issue prestige-format miniseries, promptly collected in a volume that unjustly vanished with nary a ripple of comment. Hopefully this time out it will garner some better press and attentionâ€¦

In Manhattan, vivacious, exotic Amanda Collins visits a disparate, desperate selection of characters, daring them to trade-in their pasts and seize new futures. Dispensing blank business-cards and new realities to the lost, lonely and dangerous with but a wish, she seems the epitome of wild chance and missed opportunities, but Amanda too is a prisoner of the past, with a sorcerous heritage reaching back to 1660 and a romantic clash between Christian propriety and pagan license.

As other mysterious mystics also enfold fate-touched mortals in some enigmatic grand scheme – are they Amanda’s coven comrades or opponents in some grand game? – a centuries old debt is assessedâ€¦ and perhaps repaidâ€¦

Vague as that sounds, it is all you need for this complex, intriguing, savage, seductive, sexy and addictively arcane experiment in sequential story-telling. The connections linking Amanda to her own past, her witchly companions and all the apparent innocents who accept her highly suspicious offer are deliberately obscure; thus the tale unfolds on a multitude of levels and the reader actually has to engage the brain to divine the hidden secrets of the Witching Hour.

Bachalo’s art is magic of the purely pictorial kind: as light and airy as clouds and deeply, densely, information-packed like a favourite grimoire. The section collecting his design sketches are sleek and pretty, everything an art-lover could want to see.

This is a book that washes over you like a wave, all mood and moment, and will offer a rare challenge for adult readers tired of being spoon-fed their fiction-fix.

May 18, 2010May 19, 2010

Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter: First Death

By Laurell K. Hamilton, Jonathon Green & Wellington Alves (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-07851-3476-3

I’m not a great fan of these oh-so-topical vampire love-stories – and to be fair the first entries in the vast sequence of supernatural thrillers by Laurell K. Hamilton either didn’t start out as a prototypical example of that blossoming sub-genre or the author displayed extraordinary patience before getting to the sanguinary snogging – preferring instead to concentrate on blending horror and police procedural elements rather than delve into the somewhat dubious but unaccountably popular teen passion for getting jiggy with dead people.

Therefore this review will concentrate specifically on the material created for this graphic novel prequel, set in the early days of the necromantic private detective and re-animatorâ€¦

Sharing elements with such later but rather better-known properties as Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries (as seen on TV as True Blood) and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files (see The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle) the stories are set in modern day St. Louis on an Earth where magic is real and the supernatural is both accepted and legitimised.

Here America is at the forefront of civil rights for supernaturals, granting spooks and fiends the same rights and protections every other citizen has under the Constitution. Since the rest of the world is somewhat less enlightened about the things that prey on humanity the USA has experienced a huge influx of migrant monsters, and society – particularly law-enforcement – has had to adapt quickly.

Anita Blake is a necromancer whose day job is to temporarily raise the dead (for settling will litigation and the likeâ€¦) but she also works with the police, using her powers to execute vampires who break the law. That law being: don’t kill humans – or elseâ€¦

The first novel Guilty Pleasures was adapted by Marvel as miniseries with great success but appalling frequency, and an all-original 2 issue micro-series prequel, ‘The First Death’ was rushed out to supplement the saga and placate the waiting fans. Together with the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Guilty Pleasures Handbook that tale is collected here to reveal the early days of many of the novel’s characters and locations.

The Handbook is an illustrated text glossary of all you need to know about Blake’s world compiled and written by Stuart Vandal, Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Chris Biggs & Ave Cullen illustrated by Brett Booth and Ron Lim, but be warned it does reveal the end of Guilty Pleasures so either read that first or accept that you know in advance who dies, stays undead, gets staked etcâ€¦

‘First Death’ is a rather appetising, readable treat – although Brett Booth’s art, whilst highly competent, feels fearfully dated due to its angular, Image-style renderingâ€¦

When butchered, blood-drained children begin turning up, it’s clearly a case of a vampire gone off the rails and Sergeant Dolph Storr calls in Anita Blake, a licensed Vamp executioner to kill the freak when they eventually catch it.

She surprises the jaded cops by actively joining their hunt. Only state-sanctioned operatives like Blake are allowed to expedite the undead, but usually they wait until cops have done all the dirty work of finding and catching the blood-suckersâ€¦

The investigation leads to the Vampire enclave of â€œThe Districtâ€ where supernatural businesses and citizens cluster in a quasi-legal, twilight zone ghetto and inevitably to â€œGuilty Pleasuresâ€; a bar and strip club where the quick and the dead mingle in secure anonymity. For the first time Anita meets the proprietor Jean-Claude, a powerful Nosferatu who will figure prominently in her futureâ€¦

By seeking the kid-killer the hard-pressed hunters accidentally uncover a huge ring of rogue vampires who have been covertly slaughtering citizens, and when the Executioner and her mentor Manny get in over their heads child-killer Valentine (a later arch-enemy for Blake) nearly butchers them both. Luckily they have a heavy-hitter of their ownâ€¦

Edward is only human and used to be a hitman, but as that proved to be no challenge, now he only takes on vampire commissions. He’s the one thing the supernaturals are scared ofâ€¦

Fast-paced and extremely intense, this is a riotous horror-ride-come-cop-story for older readers and one that has enough wit and wonderment to engage even an old curmudgeon like me. If you thought this was a chick-lit chiller that has nothing to offer dedicated comics veterans, think againâ€¦

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