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Fear and Loathing in the cult movie blogosphere
Thoughts, analysis and examination of all the splatter that matters.
Let's talk horror comics!
Submitted by Bryan on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 03:08.
I figure I should break up the snobby doom and gloom of recent posts and talk about something positive for once. Old and new, horror comics. Pimp your favorites. They don't even have to be strictly horror comics, horror themed arcs in other books are totally welcome!
I'll kick it off with a few of my favorites.
Locke & Key
Written by Joe Hill, pen name of the son of Stephen King, the series acts as a pilot for a longer series that kicks off in November of this year. It tells the story of the surviving members of a family who move to Massachusetts to live with their uncle after a pair of teen killers murder their father. Features great writing that hints at a larger story (to be further fleshed out in coming books) and excellent art by Gabriel Rodriguez. Published by IDW who made a name for themselves with 30 Days of Night. Great stuff.
Dr. Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #14-18 (The Vampiric Verses)
I always felt like Dr. Strange got the shaft in the Marvel Universe. He's such a wasted character with so much potential. The Vampiric Verses was a blip in the early 90's direct market book, Sorcerer Supreme and it took on a distinctly Anne Rice approach to its vampires featuring outstanding, moody art and great writing. Not sure if this available in trades but back issues can be purchased for cover price since I'm about the only person who liked this book.
Swamp Thing
Before Alan Moore took it over, Swamp Thing fucking sucked so you can pretty much ignore everything about this book prior to issue #21. When Moore took over, the book became seriously dark and psychedelic. It's one of the greatest examples I can think of the 80's British invasion of comics. DC let Moore run wild with the character and he more or less scrapped everything and retconned the character so that he never was Dr. Alec Holland, he only thought he was. Holland was dead and Swamp Thing was actually this force of nature. When the deviant storyline isn't freaking you out with its Tales From The Crypt vibe, it's actually a touching love story. The entire book peaked with issues 43-50, collected in Volume 4, A Murder Of Crows with a battle between primal forces. It is, quite possibly, the perfect comic.
These are just the first three that came to mind. I could talk at length about these. Hit me with yours. Let's get a discussion going.
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Horror comics
Locke and Key is not just one of the best horror comics I have ever read, but also one of the best comics put together in the past three or four years.
There was hardly any dialogue in the first miniseries, yet there was a tremendous depth to each of the characters. I felt so bad for those kids, and their widow mother. The pawn/killer was one of those characters you pitied but also despised, that is in alot of Joe Hill's father's books. Awesome stuff. When the new series starts up, I will cover it in Comics Creepshow.
TPB
I actually haven't checked out Locke and Key yet, particularly because it's the same artist they used on the Great and Secret Show adaptation and something about his art rubs me wrong but more so because I trade wait on most things these days. I find it easier to decide is I like something if I can read it all in one sitting and they fit better on my bookshelves too.
Right now the only things I read with any regularity are The Walking Dead and BPRD.
If you're not reading The Walking Dead then there's something wrong with you. It's honestly one of the most powerful comic books I have ever encountered. It lagged for a while in the 30's but pulled out all the stops as it approached it's 50th issue. Issue 47, I believe, or the Made to Suffer collection, had the first instance where a comic literally made me physically sick.
BPRD, is the Hellboy spinoff that follows his old unit now that he's gone. In all honesty I actually like it far better than the actual Hellboy comic. While Hellboy has moved more in fairytale territory BPRD has remained firmly entrenched in Lovecraftian intrigue fighting the war with the frog monsters that started in the early Hellboy comics. Plus it's drawn by Guy Davis, who is amazing and should be drawing wet, evil tentacle things for the rest of his life. Speaking of which, if you haven't ever checked out his Marque comic it's a must read.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
I'm actually shocked that I
I'm actually shocked that I forgot to mention The Walking Dead. A friend of mine lent me the hardback version of the first half of the series and I couldn't put it down. When it was first published, I was quite tired of zombies and the bandwagon that had sprung up around them but Bob Kirkman is the fucking man! The Walking Dead gets it.
A friend of mine told me that he thinks it's impossible to read because it is unrelenting in it's intensity. It never lets up and gives you a second to breathe but that's probably the reason that it appeals to me. Where most zombie media these days are adolescent fantasies of guns that never run out of ammo, The Walking Dead is a very realistic survival scenario. Substitute zombies with any apocalyptic theme and the story still works. For some reason, I REALLY like that. I haven't read an issue in a very, very long time. I need to get caught up.