{"id":35127,"date":"2026-03-21T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35127"},"modified":"2026-03-20T18:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:32:42","slug":"hell-on-earth-a-dc-science-fiction-graphic-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/03\/21\/hell-on-earth-a-dc-science-fiction-graphic-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hell on Earth – A DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Robert Bloch<\/strong>, adapted by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming<\/strong> with Greg Theakston<\/strong>, Bill Wray<\/strong>, Gaspar Saladino<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN<\/strong> 978-0-93028-905-8 (Album TPB)<\/p>\n

During the 1980s DC, on a creative roll like many publishers large and small, attempted to free comics narrative from previous constraints of size and format as well as content. To this end, legendary editor Julie Schwartz called upon his old contacts from his youthful days as a Literary Agent to inveigle major names from the book world to have their early Sci-Fi and fantasy classics adapted into a line of Science Fiction Graphic Novels.<\/p>\n

One of the most radical interpretations came courtesy of celebrated comedy wise-guys Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming, with inks and colours from Greg Theakston & Bill Wray, not to mention phenomenal lettering and calligraphic effects from Gaspar Saladino.<\/p>\n

Revered horror fantasist Robert Bloch developed out of the Lovecraftian tradition of the early pulps to become a household name for books such as Psycho <\/strong>and I Am Legend<\/strong>, which replaced unspeakable elder gods with just-as-nasty yet smaller-scaled devils like Jack the Ripper<\/em> or that strange guy in the next apartment. In 1943 he scripted a blackly ironic tale of three ordinary people, researcher Professor Phillips Keith<\/em>, his assistant Lily Ross<\/em> and the reporter\/pulp horror writer they hire to document their great experiment.<\/p>\n

The tense interplay of this claustrophobic chiller is effectively captured by illustrator Giffen in his multi-panelled homage\/distillation of Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s stark art style as the experiment proceeds and the parapsychologists proceed to bring the Devil to Earth and trap him in a glass cage. Of course, as the lives of the trio spiral down into a miasma of darkness, guilt and regret, we have to ask: \u201cIs he really trapped?\u201d
\n\"\"
\nAlthough a wordy, moody text, the interpreters have crafted a visual analogue that is just as tense and stifling as the original (which, if Satan is on your side, you might find in even rarer compilation Hell on Earth: the Lost Bloch<\/strong> volume two), so if you like daring art and classic spookiness you should track down this album. And while you\u2019re at it why not grab the prose piece as well and see how it works sans graphic narrative?
\n\u00a9 1942 Weird Tales. Text and illustrations \u00a9 1985 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1927 George Storm<\/strong>\u2019s venerable adventure strip Bobby Thatcher<\/strong> began, as did our entire hobby in a way, since in 1970 Minicon<\/strong> (precursor to Comic Con International) opened in San Diego\u2019s U.S. Grant Hotel.<\/p>\n

In 1929 Zagor<\/strong> cocreator Gallieno Ferri<\/strong> was born, just like Al Williamson<\/strong> in 1931, Mark Waid<\/strong> in 1962 and Jeff Lemire<\/strong> in 1976. In 1959 we lost jobbing artist Edwin Balmer<\/strong> of Speed Spaulding <\/strong>fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Bloch, adapted by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming with Greg Theakston, Bill Wray, Gaspar Saladino & various (DC Comics) ISBN 978-0-93028-905-8 (Album TPB) During the 1980s DC, on a creative roll like many publishers large and small, attempted to free comics narrative from previous constraints of size and format as well as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hell on Earth – A DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel”<\/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":[80,305,102,66,125,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptations","category-dc-horror","category-fantasy","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-98z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35127","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=35127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35130,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35127\/revisions\/35130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}