Horror Stories – Page 57

October 16, 2010

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike and Dru

By Christopher Golden, James Marsters, Ryan Sook, Eric Powell & various (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-282-0

Vampire love is something of a hot topic these days so let’s take a look at one of the ancient antecedents responsible for this state of affairs – in the shape of a collection of one-shots and short stories originally published by Dark Horse to augment their comicbook franchise of the global mega-hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy was a hip teen cheerleader turned monster killer, and as the TV series developed it soon became clear that the bad-guys were increasingly the fan-faves. Cool vampire villain and Ã¼ber-predator Spike eventually became a love-interest and even a moodily tarnished white knight, but at the time of this collection was still a blood-hungry, immortal immoral jaded psychopath – every girl’s dream date.

His eternal paramour was Drusilla: a demented precognitive vampire who killed him and made him an immortal bloodsucker. She thrived on new decadent thrills and reveled in baroque and outrÃ© bloodletting. This collection traces their relationship through the 20^th century, laying the seeds for the events of the television episodes and begins with ‘All’s Fair’ scripted by Christopher Golden and illustrated by Eric Powell, Drew Geraci, Keith Barnett, Andy Kuhn, Howard Shum & Norman Lee.

There is an unbroken mystical progression of young women tasked with killing the undead through the centuries, and the book opens during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in 1900, where Spike and Dru were making the most of the carnage after killing that era’s Slayer. The story then shifts to the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933 where once more the undying lovers are on the murderous prowl. However, the scientific wonders of the modern world are eclipsed by a scientist who has tapped into the realm of Elder Gods as a cheap source of energy. To further complicate matters the dark lovers are being stalked by a clan of Chinese warriors trained from birth to kill the pair to revenge the Slayer killed in Beijing.

Gods, demons, Mad Scientists, Kung Fu killers, Tongs and terror all combine in a gory romp that will delight TV devotees and ordinary horrorists alike.

Decades later the pair were again roaming through America in ‘Queen of Hearts’ (by Golden & Ryan Sook), driving to St Louis where they boarded a gambling palace on a paddle-steamer, just wanting to waste some time and test their luck. Unfortunately the enterprise was run by a sinister luck-demon with as little concept of fair play as Dru and Spikeâ€¦ All the forces of elemental supernature couldn’t prevent the river running red – and numerous other colours – with demon bloodâ€¦

Author, director and actor James Marsters played the laconic Spike on the TV show and co-wrote the next mini-epic in this tome. ‘Paint the Town Red’ also by Golden & Sook is set just after the undead couple had split up following a terrific spat, and follows the heart-sore Cockney Devil from Sunnydale to an isolated Turkish village where he set up his own private harem and hunting preserve. Everything was perfect until Dru came looking for him with her latest conquest, a resurrected necromancer.

Koines is her love-slave, a wizard capable of controlling corpses with but a thought. Until she set her death-monger against Spike it hadn’t occurred to anybody that vampires are just another sort of cadaver, but once the mage realised he decided to renegotiate the terms of his rather one-sided relationship with the inventively psychotic vampire virago, and Spike found that he was not quite over Dru yetâ€¦

The chronicle concludes with the brutally melancholy ‘Who Made Who?’ (Golden, Powell, Barnett & Geraci), a brief yarn set in Rio which revealed why the reunited couple finally called it a day. Cue hearts, flowers, multiple infidelities and a lot of sudden, violent deathsâ€¦

These supplementary tales of extremely dark and forbidding romance comprise a thoroughly readable tearjerker with hilariously barbed edges: instantly accessible to not only the dedicated Joss Whedon fan but also any lover of horror stories. If vampires could love I suspect this is how it would really lookâ€¦
â„¢ & Â© 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

October 14, 2010October 16, 2010

Wanted: Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil

By Jonathan Maberry & Janice Gable Bashman (Citadel Press)
ISBN: 978-0-8065-2821-2

Although out of my usual comfort zone and possibly beyond my usual purview, when this fascinating item thunked onto my doormat I confess I was intrigued enough to stretch a point and review it here – especially with Halloween looming large on the horizon.

Written in a wonderfully accessible style this series of essays, liberally illustrated with both colour and monochrome images, examines the concept of evil monsters and how to fight them in fact and fiction; real life and all the myriad media forms that comprise our global entertainment landscape: books, films, television and comics.

Jonathan Maberry is an award-winning factual and fiction writer with a few comicbook credits to his name and Janice Gable Bashman is a successful thriller author, and together they examine the nature of Darkness as a theoretical and philosophical concept in their introduction ‘That Whole â€œGood and Evilâ€ Thing’ before moving on to recount ‘The Roots of Good vs. Evil’ and listing the prerequisites for survival in ‘Heroes and Villains’.

Vampires, how they’re interwoven into all the world’s cultures and, of course, how to combat them comes to the fore in ‘It Didn’t Start With Van Helsing’ whilst ‘Hunting the Fang Gang’ provides a comprehensive list of traditional and fictional Nosferatu-killers ranging from Bataks and Dhampyrs to Bram Stoker’s seminal crew and Buffy’s far-ranging friends and descendentsâ€¦

‘Fangs vs. Fangs’ delineates the monsters who fight for Good – or at least against Greater Evils – and ‘Legendary Heroes’ recounts the brave and the bold of myth, history and fiction who have battled demons, devils and beasts, as well as far more intangible horrors. Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Rocky Balboa, Jack (â€œ24â€) Bauer, Emmeline Pankhurst and Mother Theresa are among the many examples that define this pinnacle of human-ness and the chapter also lists the worst monsters ever recorded.

‘Did You Use Protection?’ covers weapons, charms, talismans and practices that assist and arm the devil-slayers, ‘A Priest and a Rabbi Walk into a Crypt’ examines the role of various religions and belief systems and ‘Who You Gonna Call?’ takes a peek at the role of ghosts in history and entertainment.

‘Pulp Friction’ relates the growth of popular entertainment forms and how they have handled heroes and monsters(human, supernatural and even super-scientific) and the comicbook superhero phenomenon gets the same treatment in ‘Spandex to the Rescue’.

The effects of these concepts on discrete sections of the public goes under the microscope in ‘Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things’; examining conventions, fan groups, games, tattoos and skin art, Role Playing (both RPGs and LARPs) and Cosplay before the really scary section tackles ‘Real Evil’ with a comprehensive listing of Serial Killers which makes all the preceding fictional Psychos and Mass Murderers look tame and insipid by comparisonâ€¦

Topped off with the Online Film Critics Society Top 100 Villains of All Time, a list of Spirit Superstitions and the Top 10 Vampire, Werewolf, Demon and Ghost Movies of all time, this superb compendium is a sublime delight for fans and thrill-seekers to dip into over and again.

Stuffed with interviews and commentary from across the spectrum of popular media including Stan Lee, John Carpenter and a host of artists, creators and designers this is a delight no fantasy fan should dare to miss.

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

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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: