{"id":30814,"date":"2024-10-29T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30814"},"modified":"2024-10-28T18:11:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T18:11:44","slug":"gary-giannis-monstermen-and-other-scary-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/10\/29\/gary-giannis-monstermen-and-other-scary-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Gianni\u2019s MonsterMen and Other Scary Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Gary Gianni<\/strong> with William Hope Hodgson<\/strong>, Robert E Howard<\/strong>, Clark Ashton Smith<\/strong>, Percival Landon<\/strong>: lettered by Sean Konnot<\/strong> & Todd Klein<\/strong> (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-50670-480-7 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-50670-481-4<\/p>\n

This book includes some Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect. <\/em><\/p>\n

The tradition of extraordinary individuals banding together or even acting individually to confront night terrors and supernatural predators probably extends further back than even Gilgamesh<\/strong> or Beowulf<\/strong>. However, it really came to the fore once bards and skalds were rendered obsolete by cheap printing, mass literacy and pulp publishing. Action, crime, weird science and the supernatural all became strange bedfellows in service to monthly (sometimes fortnightly) blood-&-thunder adventures, with the best of the bunch still sneaking out the odd exploit nearly a century later…<\/p>\n

The sublime stuff of legend in both story and illustrations has beguiled many a latecomer (Chaykin, Steranko, Wrightson and Kaluta first come to mind) but the absolute doyen of those that followed is Gary Gianni. Born in the Windy City in 1954, he graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1976 and subsequently worked as a courtroom sketch artist, in network television and as an illustrator for the Chicago Tribune<\/strong> before breaking into comics with modern Classics Illustrated<\/strong> adaptations of Tales of O. Henry<\/strong> and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This led him to Dark Horse Comics\u2019 licensed titles with stints on The Shadow<\/strong> and Indiana Jones<\/strong> (…and the Shrine of the Sea Devil<\/strong>), with other strip work including Tarzan<\/strong>, Tom Strong<\/strong> and Batman<\/strong>. In 2004 he replaced John Cullen Murphy, becoming the third official artist on Prince Valiant<\/strong>, limning the epic Sunday feature until March 25th<\/sup> 2012. His book illustration work includes Savage Tales of Solomon Kane<\/strong>, Bran Mak Morn: The Last King<\/strong>, George R.R. Martin\u2019s A Song of Ice and Fire<\/strong> prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms<\/strong>, Ray Bradbury\u2019s Nefertiti-Tut Express<\/strong> and Michael Chabon\u2019s Gentlemen of the Road<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Always busy and much in demand, Gianni nevertheless managed to create a number of linked serial sorties concerning a mystery-solving ghostbusters, most of which originally appeared in the back of Hellboy<\/strong> titles (specifically Hellboy Christmas Special<\/strong>, Wake the Dead<\/strong>, The Wild Hunt<\/strong> #5-6, Almost Colossus<\/strong>), plus a solo one-shot The MonsterMen: The Skull and the Snowman<\/strong>. The other material filling this scare package all come from The Dark Horse Book of Monsters<\/strong>; the Dead<\/strong>; Hauntings<\/strong> & Witchcraft<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

Set in the golden-hued yet shadowy environs of America\u2019s pulp past, the tales are witty, elegant thematic pastiches of rip-roaring thriller-chiller masterworks – including early Batman<\/strong> yarns – and are preceded by a whimsical \u2018Foreword by Gary Gianni\u2019 <\/em>and effusive \u2018Introduction by Michael Chabon\u2019<\/em>.
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\nThe far too few exploits of The <\/strong>MonsterMen<\/strong> open with \u2018Silent as the Grave\u2019<\/em> as first seen in Hellboy:<\/strong> Wake the Dead<\/strong> #1-5, revealing a secret organisation who insert themselves in weird events such as the disappearance of actress Julia Adler<\/em>, strange murder of her lover and inexplicable appearance of ghost images on the latest rushes of maverick director Larry St. George<\/em>. Doggedly pursued by savvy reporter Sunset Lane<\/em>, the famed movie maven has a dark unpleasant personal pestilence, but uses it for good, like battling occult whacko monster-wrangler Crulk<\/em> beside sartorial nightmare\/immortal mystic warrior monk Benedict(us)<\/em> of the Venerable Guild of Corpus Monstrum<\/em>. The pair are almost insufficient when the fiendish forces behind the plot go on the attack.<\/p>\n

Almost…<\/p>\n

A shorter, lighter yarn follows in \u2018Autopsy in B-Flat\u2019 <\/em>(Hellboy: Almost Colossus<\/strong>#1-2) as, whilst laboriously exhuming a suspect, Benedict is regaled by an old exploit of his comrade: a tropical island mystery involving monstrous, seductive creatures and pirates who can\u2019t stay dead, that nearly proves his distracting end during the current case…<\/p>\n

\u2018A Gift for the Wicked\u2019<\/em> (Hellboy Christmas Special<\/strong>) finds the odd couple cleaning an old dark house of unwanted tenants at the supposedly happiest time of the year – albeit with a little festive assistance – before \u2018The Skull and the Snowman\u2019<\/em> sees Sunset Lane despatched from a Tibetan Lamasery, carrying a cursed object to the Corpus Monstrum, just as Crulk returns to bedevil Benedict, begging aid to escape marauding Puttyfoons dogging his misshapen steps…<\/p>\n

As reality goes wild and the modern metropolis roils under ancient satanic scourgings, all parties converge on the skull (still trying to get out of Tibet) and the power it promises. The quest draws out a legion of terrors and concludes with shocking revelations about two of the world\u2019s most infamous monsters…<\/p>\n

The comics cavorting concludes with a staggeringly eccentric and beautiful horror romp as \u2018O Sinner Beneath Us\u2019<\/em> (Hellboy: The Wild Hunt<\/strong> #5-6) channels Little Nemo in Slumberland<\/strong> in a classic unearthly child tale, with new recruits Sunset and Crulk taking pole positions for a wild chase for the salvation of innocence and retrieval of the ghastly Mustacchio Demoniac…
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\nThe Other Scary Stories<\/strong> section of this timeless terror tome offers classic pulp horror prose spectacularly illustrated and illuminated by Gianni, opening with a masterful vignette by William Hope Hodgson as \u2018The Gateway of the Monster\u2019 <\/em>details the crushing fears and tragic outcomes generated by a haunted room in an English country house… and what celebrated spirit photographer Carnacki the Ghost Breaker<\/strong> must endure to end the appalling threat it poses…<\/p>\n

It’s followed by the author\u2019s stand-alone nautical tale \u2018A Tropical Horror\u2019<\/em>, detailing the last voyage of the SS Glen Doon out of Melbourne, relentlessly and systematically stripped of its crew by a sea thing both ravenous and pitiless.<\/p>\n

Wry, sardonic humour infuses a seductive tale of a powerful woman who takes what she wants in Clark Ashton Smith\u2019s \u2018<\/em>Mother of Toads\u2019<\/em>, before Robert E. Howard\u2019s horror western \u2018Old Garfield\u2019s Heart\u2019<\/em> proves he wasn\u2019t all about bulging thews and swinging swords. He could mix a mood as well as any horror master and inspire some potent illustration too…<\/p>\n

Wrapping up the bedtime reading is one last period ghost story of haunted houses and murderous rooms imaginatively illuminated, as \u2018Thurnley Abbey\u2019<\/em> by Percival Landon, all sealed down with a lavishly illumined \u2018Biography\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Madcap, frenzied, skilfully constructed and just plain fun, MonsterMen and Other Scary Stories<\/strong> is stuffed with astounding imagery, packed with incidental iniquities such as zombie cowboys, squid corsairs, abominable snowmen, spectral skulls, movie phantoms, dark dragons and flabby flying demons, all delivered in snippets of smartly nostalgic nonsense. This is kids\u2019 stuff for adults and there\u2019s simply not enough of it, so get what there is while you can, fright fans!
\nGary Gianni\u2019s MonsterMen and Other Scary Stories\u2122 \u00a9 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2017 Gary Gianni. Introduction \u00a9 2012, 2017 Michael Chabon. All rights reserved. All other material \u2122, \u00a9 or \u00ae respective holders and owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gary Gianni with William Hope Hodgson, Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Percival Landon: lettered by Sean Konnot & Todd Klein (Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-1-50670-480-7 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-50670-481-4 This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. The tradition of extraordinary individuals banding together or even acting individually to confront night terrors … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Gary Gianni\u2019s MonsterMen and Other Scary Stories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,66,125,108,225,127,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-pirates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-810","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30819,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30814\/revisions\/30819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}